The Effect of T.A. Afolayan Wildlife Park on Environmental Awareness among Federal University of Technology Akure Community

Abstrakt

The need to promote sustainable and positive environmental knowledge, attitude and behaviour among
residents of the Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA) community necessitated the assessment of
T. A. Afolayan Wildlife Park on environmental awareness. The effects of the park were assessed by the use
of a structured questionnaire to obtain information from 377 respondents in the community. The responses
were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Chi-square andT-test. Majority of the respondents were male,
Christians with mode age group at 20-40years. Most of the respondents (87.3%) were aware of the park’s
existence butonly 52.8% of them hadvisited and most of these agreed that the visitation had influenced their
environmental knowledge. The respondents’ knowledge was tested on environmental related issues while
their attitudes and behaviour were assessed. Significant relationships existed between respondents’ behaviour
and level of education (p<0.01) and religion (p<0.05) while the relationship between the level of education
(p<0.01) and the behavioural intentions was significant. There was a significant difference in the
respondents’ environmental knowledge (p<0.01), attitude (p<0.01), behaviour (p<0.01) and behavioural
intentions based on the visitation to the park. Attitudinal and behavioural changes have been positively
influenced by environmental issues as a result of the knowledge acquired in the park. More awareness
campaign is therefore recommended to the park management.