IMPACT OF HUMAN-WILDLIFE CONFLICT IN THE SURROUNDING VILLAGES OF OLD OYO NATIONAL PARK

The study assesses the impacts of Human-Wildlife conflicts in the surrounding villages in Old Oyo National Park (OONP), Nigeria. Two ranges out of the five ranges were used. Four villages were selected based on the distribution of primates and wildlife populations with each range producing two villages around Old Oyo National Park, were randomly selected for wildlife assessment. A total of 80 well-structured questionnaires were administered to the villagers with each getting 20 questionnaires respectively. Data collected were subjected to inferential and descriptive statistics. Result shows that among other socio demographic characteristics tested against the impact of Human –wildlife conflict in the park, educational level and religion show significant difference (p<0.05). the buffer zone around the park has been extensively encroached; this made most of the surrounding villages to the park fall within the average distance of 2.6km. about 79% of the villages make use of fire wood for their household cooking. Major animals that intrude farmlands in the study areas include monkey (24%), Grasscutter (11%), Cattle (19%), Gorilla (12%), Antelope (6%), Cane rat (5%) and Rabbit (3%). Some of the crops attacked by the wildlife animals include; tubers (24%), tubers and vegetable (7%), tubers and fruits (36%), tubers, vegetable and fruits (3%), vegetable (7%), fruits (3%). All the respondents (100%) rated the level of attack and damages to their crops as high.

Innovative solution of hybrid hydraulic fire wood splitting machine

Hybrid powertrains have already proven themselves as viable solutions for reducing fuel consumption while maintaining the same operating performance of conventional ones, which is achieved by using an additional energy source in combination with energy recuperation. Many forestry machinery and tools which are intended for field use are hydraulics-based and powered by tractors or skidders. These tools may also be hybridized by incorporating a properly-sized hydraulic accumulator. This paper proposes an innovative solution of hydraulic fire wood splitting machine which uses a hydraulic accumulator in order to increase its efficiency. A simple model of conventional and hybridized machine is developed and presented in this paper. The model is then simulated over a defined operating cycle with realistic loads. Simulation results show that hybrid structure may improve the splitting performance with lower power requirements. Finally, the conventional and hybridized machine performances are compared and discussed.

Wood Splitting Machine for Tea and Bakery Industries

In Sri Lanka, firewood is regarded as a common conventional fuel, mainly in food preparation purposes. Essentially due to economically availability, firewood has still been using as the main source to lit fire in rural areas. Other than for household food preparation, firewood is still the main source of generating heat in food related rural industries, such as tea factories, bakeries, hotels etc. In tea factories and in some of the bakeries, firewood is used in mass scales. Even tons of fire wood is used in each of them, per day. To make easy burning, the wood logs need to be cut in to small pieces. In almost all such places, wood splitting is done manually. It finds very difficult to split wood logs by using an axe. This needs time and more manpower. On the other hand, an additional cost is involved for workers’ payment. If the wood splitting can be mechanized, it may be huge beneficial for such industries as tea factories and bakeries etc. Therefore, this project is aimed to introduce a wood splitting machine, which has the specific objectives of efficient supply of usable level firewood at a shorter time with lower cost and without much manpower to split firewood logs. Lower maintenance requirement together with lower failure frequencies may be added advantages, when compared to the hydraulic devices [4].

Optimization of Geometrical Parameters of Fire Wood Fluidized Bed Burner

The aim of this work is to determine the dynamics of the firewood burning-out in the fluidized bed burners and to select the optimal constructive characteristics of the burner of the fluidized bed, which allows decreasing the unburnt fuel particles to be carried out of the burner volume. The aims and problems were solved using the experimental and numerical methods. Thus, to determine the dynamics of the burning-out, the experimental device was used with a fluidized bed, which is a 200x300 mm chamber 1000 mm high. The fuel mass of each combustion cycle was similar. It was 3.8 kg. The average time of burning-out during the combustion full cycle was in the range of 300-500 s, the maximum temperature of the layer was 800C. The studies performed showed that the major problem in the wood waste combustion is the insufficient time of the combustion process in the burner. This problem was proposed to be solved using the cone-shaped burner. The mathematical method was developed to determine the optimal main construction parameters (D is the top diameter, d is the bottom diameter and H is the cone height) of the burner accounting for the solid particle motion rate in the ascending flow. The devolatilization parameter of material was used as the optimization parameter. The most significant results are those cone-shaped geometrical parameters optimized in the research process. The significance of the results obtained is that the results of the above studies can be used in practice for designing the boilers with the fluidized bed burners.

Climate Change Awareness and related Tree Planting Practices in a Rural Community in North-Western Nigeria

Background: Tree cutting is one of the causes of climate change and a common practice in Africa, a continent under significant threat from climate change. Therefore, climate change awareness and mitigation are vital to reducing its impacts in the region. Reforestation through planting of trees is an important carbon emission reduction strategy. This study assessed climate change awareness and related tree planting practices among household heads in a Nigerian rural community.Methods: A community-based descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted in April 2019 among all household heads in Nasarawan Buhari community. An interviewer-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from the 104 household heads (or their representatives). Data was analyzed using SPSS (version 21.0) and statistical significance was set at p value of < 0.05.Results: The mean age of respondents was 40.6±12.6 years, and most of them (87.5%) were males. Half (50.0%) were aware of climate change, and their main source of information was radio (63.5%). Most (98.1%) used fire wood for cooking. Only a minority (27.9%) planted at least a tree in the year preceding the study. There was a statistically significant association between climate change awareness and occupation (p=0.038) but not with tree planting (p=0.827).Conclusion: The results indicated that only half of respondents were aware of climate change. There was high use of wood as cooking fuel with low tree planting. Tree planting was not associated with climate change awareness. There is therefore a need for continuous climate change education and mitigation campaign in the community.

Assessment of Factors that Contribute to Deforestation in Shabe Sombo Woreda, Jimma Zone, South West Ethiopia

Deforestation is the process of removing forest areas and using the land for other uses. Deforestation also has been described as the cutting down of trees without planting others in their place. The causes of deforestation are varied but may broadly be categorized into anthropogenic and natural factors. For the anthropogenic factors, increased wood fuel collection, clearing of forests for agriculture, illegal and poorly regulated timber extraction, social and environmental conflicts, increasing urbanization and industrialization. This study is aimed to assess the deforestation status and contributing factors in making Shabe Sembo woreda, Jimma Zone South West Ethiopia. The main objective of this study is to assess the factors that contribute to deforestation in Shabe sombo woreda, jimma Zone, South West Ethiopia. The study has been conducted in Shabe Sombo woreda located in Jimma Zone, Oromia regional state. A cross sectional study design has been employed. The source of population was all households found in Shabe sombo Woreda. The sample size of this study was 100 householders from 1200 total households. Data were collected by using open and close ended questionnaires for gathering important information used for this study. About 52(54.167%) of the respondents reported that the most factor contributing to deforestation in Shabe Sombo was expansion of agricultural land. Whereas About 28 (29.167%) of the respondents reported as cutting trees for fire wood is one factor contributing to deforestation in shabe Sombo woreda, Jimma zone, Southwest Ethiopia.

Assessing the effect of starch on density and caloric value in sawdust briquette for domestic energy utilization in North-Western Nigeria

The effect of starch on density, caloric value and specific fuel consumption were assessed in this research. Composite sawdust briquettes were produced from the mixture of sawdust and starch within four treatments in a percentage ratio of 80:20 for treatment A, 70:30 for treatment B, 60:40 for treatment C and 50:50 for treatment D. Densification of the mixtures was achieved using a manually operating briquetting machine and starch gel was used as a binding agent. The performance of briquette produced was examined under controlled cooking test. Energy content was determined using oxygen bomb calorimeter. The results obtained from density according to treatments A, B, C and D respectively were 0.0002067kg/cm3,0.0002433kg/cm3, 0.00025kg/cm3. Treatment D has the highest density of 0.00029kg /cm3. The caloric value was determined from the heat of combustion with treatment B having the highest energy content of 7.37cal/g, C=6.159cal/g, A=6.055calg, and D=4.573cal/g. Specific fuel consumption was determined during controlled cooking test and the values for the respective treatments were A=0.89g, B=0.47g, C=0.64g, D=0.86g, and fire wood=0.89g. Time taken to cook 200g of rice was obtained using wrist watch and the values were: A=50min, B=44min, C=48min, D=47min, and firewood had the highest value of 53min. Results showed that, increase in the quantity of starch led to increase in density of composites.

Quantitative Ethnobotanical Investigation Of Flowering Plants of Laspur Valley (Chitral), Pakistan

The use of medicinal plants for treatment, cure and prevention of diseases has been described by many people since time immemorial. Because of this, the scientific interests have emerged, making it necessary to realize ethnobotanical surveys of plants species, which is important for subsequent phytochemical and pharmacological bio prospections. This paper deals with the indigenous uses of 44 flowering plants of Laspur Valley, District Chitral. These species distributed in 26 families and 42 genera. Asteraceae was the largest family with 6 species (14.89%), followed by Rosaceae with 4(8.51%) species. In the rest of families, less than 3 species (6.38%) per family were recorded. Leaves of 6 plants were used for medicinal purposes. Similarly, roots of 24 species and fruit / flowers of 6 species were used, while 24 species were used as whole plant and seed of six were used for different purposes. About 30 species were as fodder, 26 medicinal purposes, 7 for hatching, 7 as fire wood, 5 as timber, 5 as vegetable, 3 fencing, 3 furniture 5 agricultural purposes while 4 used for making handy craft instrument. Further, the study is required to quantify the availability of plants which are important traditionally for various purposes. The pressure on natural resources increases day by day which further led the local floral diversity to destruction. The conservation strategies must be implemented in the study area to save the God gifted natural wealth.

Contribution of biogas use on forest conservation

Biogas is an eco-friendly alternative energy source which can greatly contribute to reducing greenhouse gases as they have the possibility of reducing the need to use fossil fuels. A study was conducted at Kumroj village of Khairhani municipality, of Chitwan district of Nepal to assess the sources of energy, dependency of local people on biogas, amount of fire wood substituted by biogas and people’s perception towards biogas use and forest conservation. Stratified random sampling method was used for sampling design. Direst field observation, households questionnaire survey (n=44), key informant interview, and focus group discussions were used for data collection. This study showed that the main source of energy was firewood for cooking, preparation of animal feed, preparation of alcohol and water heating but now these days the dependency on firewood decreased after use of biogas. About 63.6% of the household were using biogas as an alternative source of energy. The need of biogas was always higher during winter while production of gas was lower in compare to summer season. According to gas users, it reduced the fuel wood consumption, improved the kitchen environment, saved time in fuel wood collection and cooking, and also reduced the health problems. The average reduction in fuel-wood consumption was 42.8% after the installation of biogas. All the respondents were agreed that condition of forest was improving. The reason behind this was the use of biogas which reduces the pressure on the fuel-wood collection and ultimately helps in forest conservation.