Assessing rural residents perception on utilization of environmental impact assessment for rural development projects in Oyo State, Nigeria

This study assessed rural residents perception on utilization of environmental impact assessment for rural development projects in Oyo State, Nigeria. A multistage sampling procedure was employed to select 450 respondents for this study. An interview schedule was used to obtain data, summarize and present by using tables, frequency counts, percent and means while Ordered Logit Regression and Spearman Rho Correlation were used to analyze the relationships between variables. Results showed that the mean age, household size and average monthly income were 33.16 years, 8 people and ₦77,644.67 respectively. Rural residents perceived that the public should participate in EIA. The proportion of the respondents with mean value of 4.40 claimed that lack of transparency was the major factor strongly affecting them in utilizing EIA. Educational level and access to extension services were significant determinants of perception of rural residents on utilization of EIA for rural development projects. However, correlation analysis revealed a favorable link between the factor affecting utilization of EIA and its perception to rural residents. In order to encourage public involvement in the EIA process, explicit rules for public participation, transparency, and review should be developed.