Bio-diversity

This Proposed Project is a result of the outcome of studies on the overexploitation of wild plants for their domestic and economic use in Obinze community. Its objectives include; To provide Tissue Culture plantlets for two edible wild plants; Gnetum app (Okazi) and Gongronem latifolium (Utazi), To change local community perception towards conservation to raise public awareness on the harmful effects of unsustainable exploitation of natural resources. Results showed that majority of the community depend on these Wild plants as their MAJOR source of Livelihood. Again effect of human activities on the forest due to collection of these plants has been discovered to be alarming. A community advisory/Implementation committee (CAIC) will be set up to oversee the activities of the project, Consultations to collect information on the community s perception towards conservation and adaptation to new technologies in conservation, Meeting to discuss the results of the questionnaire survey, Selection of participatory farmers for the implementation of the project, Propagation of 10,000 plantlets using Tissue culture (TC), A train the trainer workshop organized to teach potential framers on the handling of the new plants, Production of a pictorial training manual in the local language and distribution to members of the community, Public awareness drive to show acceptability of the plantlets as being safe as well as creating a market for the plants, Monitoring and evaluation. It involves the entire community especially farmers and women.

Nigeria