Forest Management Strategies and Sustainability of Forest Resources in Calabar Education Zone of Cross River State, Nigeria

This study examined forest management strategies and forest resources in Calabar Education Zone of Cross River State, Nigeria. To achieved this study, two research question were posed and two null hypotheses were formulated to guide the study and tested at .05 level of significance. The study adopted correlational research design. The population of the study comprised 312,149 regular household head in Calabar Education Zone of Cross River State. The sample comprised 1,230 household head from the four selected local government area that make up Calabar Education Zone. The instrument for data collection was 12 items questionnaires, title: Forest Management Strategies and Sustainability of Forest Resource Questionnaire (FMSSFRQ) was used to administrated questionnaire, data was organized and analyzed using simple linear regression analysis. The result of the analysis revealed that forest regulation strategy and participatory forest management strategy relatively and jointly contributed to sustainable forest resource management. Based on this result, it was concluded that to maintain sustainable forest ecosystem in the zone, pragmatic measure must be put in place to enhance the level of forest management in forest communities. It was recommended among others that forest management agencies should ensure adequate involvement of community members in formulating and enforcing forest conservation policies in forest communities. Secondly, Environmental agencies should take adequate step to encourage reforestation and afforestation in communities in calabar education zone. These will help to enhance sustainable use of forest resources in Calabar Education zone of Cross River State.