Income Inequality and Poverty Status of Households Around National Parks in Nigeria

Support zone communities of Nigeria National Parks had been benefiting from the various goods and services provided by the forest, before the change in forest status coupled with its new resource governance approach that restricts their access to the park resources, thus impacting negatively on their livelihood. This study therefore evaluates income inequality, poverty incidence, and its determinants among rural households in the area. Data for the study was obtained using household data collected through questionnaire administered randomly among 1009 households across the three national parks. The data obtained were analyzed using descriptive statistics, logit regression, Foster-Greer-Thorbecke (FGT) poverty measure, and Gini coefficient. The result obtained indicates that majority of the household heads were male (92.57%), between the age class of 21 and 40 years (44.90%), had non-formal education (38.16%), were farmers (65.21%), owned land (95.44%), with a household size of 1 to 5 (36.67%), and an annual income range of ₦401,000 to ₦600,000 (24.58%). The total sampled households in the three national parks had a 0.358 level of income inequality with a mean per-capita income of ₦304,323.39. Poverty indices for the study area showed 264that poverty line was ₦202,882.30, incidence 57.58%, depth 163.20%, and severity 22.59%. Also, education level of household head, household size and age of household head where significant factors (p