This study explored youth involvement in forest management of Omo Forest Reserve, Ogun State, Nigeria. The study used multistage sampling to select 120 respondents between 18 and 35 years from five enclave communities in Area J4 of the forest reserve using a structured interview schedule. The analysis of data included frequency counts, percentages and means with ranking being used for analysis as well as hypotheses testing using Chi-square, Pearson Product Moment Correlation and Student's t-test at a five per cent level of significance. They are mostly males (65.0%), single or educated to secondary school levels (75.0%); their mean age is 28.4 ± 4.9 years; they were more likely than not to be non-indigenes resident in the enclaves. The forest resources most commonly identified were timber species (95.0%), bushmeat (81.7%), banana and plantain (75.8%), snails (73.3%) and medicinal plants (70.0%). The highest level of participation was in the reporting of illegal activities (mean = 1.62), while the lowest was membership of forest management committees (mean = 0.41), with 57.5 per cent of respondents reporting a low level of participation. The most common top strategy for these managers was the decision-making style (mean=3.22), and it posed them their greatest challenge: exclusion from decisions making (mean = 3.38). The results showed that participation in planning is significantly associated with educational attainment, primary occupation of respondents as well as indigene status membership of a community association were found to be significantly related to years of residence, monthly income, age and awareness on forest resources management strategies difference between challenges faced versus strategies used by managers. The study concluded that youth participation in the Omo Forest Reserve was more focused on labour-supplying tasks than on decision-making, and recommended that youth representation be constituted on forest management committees, that targeted training be provided, and that credit access be tied to forest-based enterprise.