ASSESSMENT OF TIMBER CONTRACTORS CONTRIBUTION TO FOREST DEVELOPMENT IN ISEYIN AND OYO EAST LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREAS, OYO STATE, NIGERIA

Two local government areas in Oyo State, (Iseyin and Oyo East) were purposively selected based on the abundance of operational sawmills. Descriptive analysis and logistic regression (α0.05) were used to analyze the data obtained from the respondents. The results showed that most of the respondents (71.3% and 81.7%) interviewed were male in Oyo East and Iseyin respectively. Respondents (68.8% and 79.2%) in Oyo East and Iseyin respectively stated that they are members of the timber contractor's association in their area. In Oyo East, 20%, 11.3%, 8.8% and 5.5% of the respondents respectively reported that they were involved in the planning of forest activities, planting of seeds and seedlings, monitoring and forest laws enforcement and formulation of forest policies. In Iseyin, 20.8%, 11.7%, 10.8% and 9.2% of the respondents respectively iterated that they were involved in the planning of forest activities, monitoring and forest laws enforcement and formulation of forest policies. Logistic regression analysis showed that educational background (0.787) and the number of years in business (0.840) had significant influence on respondents' willingness to contribute to forestry development. The study revealed that provision of financial support, better law enforcement and proper land management will increase timber contractors' contribution to forestry development