Constraints to conservation at Okomu National Park: a ranger’s perspective

Park rangers form an integral part of national parks because they help to ensure that the objectives of the park are achieved. The objective of the study was to investigate the challenges facing rangers at the frontiers of conservation at Okomu National Park, Nigeria. Questionnaires and structured interviews using the purposive sampling method was used to collect data. Atlas.ti version 8.0 was used to analyse the data. The findings indicated that 46% of the respondents are natives of the area, major constraints faced by the park rangers are inadequate funding (86%), poaching (82%), and poor salaries (82%). These limitations affect the output of the rangers. The findings indicate that both internal factors (which can be solved by the management of the park) and external factors (which need to be addressed at the national level) affecting rangers in the field, which needs to be addressed to improve ranger productivity conservation efforts.