Socio-Economic Drivers of Herpetofauna Resource Utilization Around Hadejia Wetlands National Park, Jigawa State Nigeria
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.70882/josrar.2026.v3i4.276Keywords:
Ecosystem, Indigenous knowledge, Herpetofauna, Socioeconomic, Utilization Determinants, EthnozoologyAbstract
Herpetofauna are among the most endangered vertebrate taxa globally, however ethnobiological data and the socioeconomic drivers influencing its utilization around sub-Saharan regions remain undocumented especially Hadejia Wetlands National Park. This study explored the socio economic inducing factors towards the traditional usage of the Herpetofauna in the study area. Cross sectional survey method was employed for the information was through the aid of structured questionnaires and key-informant interviews in communities neighboring to the park, three hundred (300) copies of questionnaires were administered across the seven (7) sampled communities and the effects of socioeconomic variables on herpetofauna utilization were evaluated using Nominal, and binary logistics regressiona. Ethnozoological findings demonstrated that herpetofauna are extensively utilized for medicinal, nutritional, cultural, and spiritual purposes. The nominal regression results indicated that farmland size was the only variable that significantly influenced herpetofauna utilization at the 5% level of significance (p < 0.05). Specifically, farmland size recorded a positive regression coefficient (B = 0.299) with a statistically significant Wald value (Wald = 9.596, p = 0.002). Utilization patterns were significantly associated with respondents’ education level, occupation, age, and cultural beliefs. The result also depicts that religion (Wald = 10.353, p = 0.001); legal restriction (Wald = 9.243, p = 0.002) and weak marketing potentials (Wald = 7.253, p = 0.007) were statistically significant as constraints in utilization of the Herpetofauna in the study area. This study contributes original baseline data critical for biodiversity conservation, demonstrates the value of herpetofauna as indicators of wetland ecosystem health, and highlights the necessity of incorporating indigenous knowledge and socioeconomic factors into conservation and management frameworks for sustainable wetland biodiversity in northern Nigeria.
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