Public Willingness To Commit Time To Urban Forestry Developm Ent In Lagos M Etropolis, Nigeria

ABSTRACT This study assessed willingness o f Lagos metropolitans to commit time and the prospective number o f hours to be committed to Urban Forestry Development (UFD) in the metropolis. Data were obtained from a questionnaire survey o f 900 metropolitans living in three income profiled neighbourhoods using the payment card contingent valuation method. Data were analysed with descriptive statistics and Tobit model at p= 0.10. Results show that 48% o f the respondents were willing to commit their time to UFD in the metropolis, out o f which 13.9% were willing to commit a modal two hours per week (h/w) to the UFD. Moreover, 53.1%, 50.8%, 71.1%, 47.6%, 65.4% respectively o f those who love to live or work in green environment, were aware o f benefits o f trees in urban environment They either belonged to social organizations, owned their residences, or previously participated in community projects and were willing to commit time to the UFD. Twelve o f the 32 regressors (constant inclusive) had significant influence on the probability to commit time and the number o f hours to commit per week to urban forestry development in Lagos metropolis. To harness the great pool o f volunteers fo r urban forestry development in Lagos metropolis, promoters and protagonists o f urban greening in the metropolis will have to put in place an appropriate formal public education programme to enlighten the metropolitans on the benefits o f trees in urban environment; bring together social organizations, CBOs, NGOs etc. for the use o f educating and eliciting support o f the public for UFD among others.