Abstract
The study evaluated the impact of eco-tourism on biodiversity conservation initiatives within the forest ecosystem of Cross River State. Four communities sampled for the study and questionnaire constitutes the instrument for data collection in this research work. The findings shows that ecotourism contribute significantly to socio-economic advantages, including job creation, revenue generation, and infrastructure development, thereby boosting the wellbeing of local people. The study further revealed that ecotourism development faces obstacles such as over tourism, habitat degradation, and insufficient community engagement, which might jeopardize its success. The results from the tested hypothesis using the Pearson correlation show a positive correlation coefficient value of 0. 075 while the p-value obtained was 0.576 at 0.05 level significant. The result from the tested hypothesis two further indicate a correlation coefficient between the variables as 0.104 and p-value obtained was 0.760, which suggests that there is no statistical significance at the 0.05 significance level. The analysis indicated that there is no substantial correlation between ecotourism activities and biodiversity protection practices in the studied area. However, an effective mechanism is required promote biodiversity conservation initiative for sustainable ecotourism in the study area.
Keywords: Biodiversity Conservation, Conservation Initiatives, Ecotourism, Forest Ecosystem, Questionnaire.