COMMUNITY PERCEPTION OF AFFORESTATION PROGRAMME IN DESERT ENCROACH AREA TOSHIA, NIGERIA.

Desert encroachment, a global problem, is serious in Nigeria especially in the northern part. To assess the community perception towards afforestation programmm and desert encroachment, a survey was conducted in Toshia northern Nigeria; the objective of this study was to determined factors that influence rural community’s perception towards desert encroachment. A self design questionnaire was used for the data collection from the participants of the study comprised 60 residents selected across different groups in Toshia community, Nigeria. The data was analyses using One-away ANOVAs for the comparison and analysis. The findings revealed that the positive perception of the rural community towards desert encroachment was highly correlated with the level of education of the respondents. The study suggests that rural community’s perceptions improves their wellbeing and enhance community participation.