Mesopotamia Environmental Journal

The research on community participation (CP) and sustainable forest management (FM) was carried out in Lanlate forest reserve, Oyo State. Out of twelve (12) major communities identified, four (4) communities were selected. Ten percent sampling intensity was used to select 108 respondents for the study. Primary data were collected with the aid of a well-structured questionnaire. A total of 108 questionnaires were administered while 98 were retrieved. Data were analyzed using descriptive and logistic regression analysis. The result showed that 61.2% of the respondents were male, 74.5% were married, 71.4% have a household size of between 1-5 members and 34.7% have primary education. Major FM practices were; forest protection against illegal activities (80.6%), management of wildlife (80.6%) and non-timber forest products harvesting and monitoring (75.5%). The study also showed that Economic benefits of FM was a major factor that influenced CP in FM followed by Social benefits of FM, Level of external support/capacity building, Level of incentives and benefits sharing with odds-ratio value of 211.62, 94.62, 65.80 and 45.33 respectively.The major socio-economic impacts of CP in FM are increased income from sales of forest products (86.7%), local capacity building in FM (85.7%), increased economic opportunities from FM activities (82.7%). However, majority (91.8%) of the respondents agreed that inadequate capacity and skills, lack of financial resources (79.6%) and lack of economic incentives (76.5%) were major constraints facing local communities in FM. The provision of alternative livelihood options to reduce dependence on forest resources and incentives should be provided to the community members to motivate them in forest production in areas where participatory FM is implemented.

Exposure to chemicals plays a major role in the occurrence of diseases through its side effects on various human body systems, such as the respiratory and circulatory systems;therefore, the current study aimedto determine theaccumulative effects of handling chemicals on some hematological parameters for chemical students/fourth stage/College of Science/University of Babylon.Out of 40 blood samples (3 ml) were collected by sterile syringes from male students/fourth stage of chemistry and biology departments,20 samples for each and placed in EDTA tubes in order to estimate the WBCs, platelet, and RBCs counts, as well as the level of hemoglobin. The study samples were collected from December (2023) to January (2024) and the mean age was 22 years. The results of the current study show a significant decrease (p<0.05) in the platelet count of chemistry students, compared with biology students, which reached229.5±24.87 and 246.8±47.4 (cell ×109 / L) respectively, while The results indicated non-significant variances (p>0.05) in RBCs, WBCs count,and hemoglobin level between biology and chemistry students.