**3. Results**

## **3.1 Demographic characteristic of the respondents**

**Table 2** indicates gender of respondents where 65.09% of the responses were received from males while 34.91% of the responses were from females suggesting that responses are the views from both gender parties. The age groups of respondents fall between ≤ 20 years with 3.77%, 21–30 years with 40.57%, 31–40 years with 33.96% and ≥ 40 are 21.70%.


#### **Table 2.**

*Demographic characteristic of the respondents.*

Majority (52.83%) of these people have been residing in these areas between 1 to 10 years while small fractions of 7.55% of the respondents were occupant for 31–40 years. The bigger (43.42%) percentages of respondents was farmers, and therefore are likely to require land for settlement and agriculture. Other occupations prominent in the area are fishing (19.74%), trading (19.74%), civil service (11.84%) and artisan (5.26%).

### **3.2 Causes of human encroachment into wildlife corridors**

From the **Table 3**, 88% of the respondents' indicated that increased need of land for developments are the major causes of encroachment around the park. It is also revealed that 74% of the respondents agreed that human activities such as farming, deforestation and grazing of domesticated animals, by encroaching to protected areas have led into competition over natural resources. The study also indicates that most respondents 83% do agree that natural factor like drought had led to encroachment in the study area. All these are indicators that there exist encroachment activities around Kainji Lake National Park as a result of competition for limited resources (**Table 3**).

## **3.3 Perceived indicators of human population increased and its impact on human-wildlife conflicts in wildlife corridors**

**Table 4** shows parameters that were used to evaluate indicators of human population increased and its impact on wildlife corridors. The result shows that


#### *Human Settlement Encroachment in Kainji Lake National Park, Nigeria DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.99214*

#### **Table 3.**

*Causes of human encroachment into wildlife corridors.*


#### **Table 4.**

*Perceived indicators of human population increased and its impact in Kainji Lake National Park.*

human population contributes a lot in competition of resources between human beings and wildlife. 92% of the respondents agree that migration of people for livelihood support has led to increased competition between people and wildlife. The increase population has also led to encroachment into protected area is factor


#### **Table 5.**

*Approaches in management of human encroachment in Kainji Lake National Park.*

that a whopping 100% of the respondents agreed. Emergence of trading centres always attracts people close to it for essential services and as per the findings; most people (92%) agree that the growth of the centres next to Kainji Lake National Park has contributed to wildlife management challenges. Catching poachers in a crowded area has not pose a serious challenge in the study area as 50% and 9% of respondents strongly disagreed and disagreed respectively with any difficulty in this regard.

#### **3.4 Approaches in management of human encroachment in Kainji Lake National Park**

The results in **Table 5** show that KLNP need to do more in sensitizing the local communities on importance of wildlife conservation as most (54%) locals disagreed to awareness of conservation education.

Most respondents also disagreed and strongly disagreed (44%) to any voluntary relocation programmes for the affected people by the Park and 49% agreed to intense vigilance against encroachment into the park land though 100% respondents strongly agreed that KLNP has corporate responsibility to the affected communities.

*Human Settlement Encroachment in Kainji Lake National Park, Nigeria DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.99214*
