Analysis of Pattern and Extent of Deforestation in Akure Forest Reserve, Ondo State, Nigeria

Abstract

Forest Reserves in Southwestern Nigeria have been threatened by urbanization and anthropogenic activities and the rate of deforestation is not known. This study examined the vegetation characteristics of Akure Forest Reserve using optical remote sensing data. It also assessed the changing pattern in the forest reserve between 1986 and 2017. Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receiver was used to capture the location of the prominent settlements that surrounded the Forest Reserve in order to evaluate their effects on the forest. Landsat TM 1986, Landsat ETM+ 2002 and Landsat OLI_TIRS 2017 with 30m resolution were classified to assess the spatio-temporal changing pattern of the forest reserve. The results showed different composition of vegetation, which include undisturbed forest, secondary regrowth and farmlands. The study further revealed that in 1986, 2002 and 2017, undisturbed forest constituted 63.3%, 32.4% and 32.1% of the entire land area respectively, while secondary regrowth occupied 8.3% in 1986, 9.5% in 2002 and 15.6% in 2017. The farmlands had erratic growth between 1986 and 2017. It was 16.9% in 1986, 22.1% in 2002 and 17.5% in 2017. The bare ground exhibited inconsistency in the coverage. In 1986 the areal extent was 11.5%, when it increased to 36% in 2002 and decreased to 31.9% in 2017. In conclusion, the study revealed the extent of forest depletion at Akure Forest Reserve and it is therefore important that the residents, the government and the researchers show major concern about some of the critical factors to human beings that are responsible for forest depletion.

Socio-Economic Characteristics and Level of Awareness and Perception on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation Programme (REDD+) by Rural Communities in Akure Forest Reserve, Nigeria

“…However, there has been a high precedence of farming within the forest reserve lands evident by the majority (70.8%) of the respondents having it as their major source of livelihoods. This level of agricultural activities confirms the aerial cover study of the reserve (Gbiri and Adeoye, 2019), which reported a 5.2%-increase in farmland, hence, constituting a major deforestation driver in the reserve. In addition, this finding corroborates that of (Appiah et al, 2009) in Ghana, who reported that farming for livelihood remains the largest deforestation factor in the country.…”

“…This high level of dependence on forest resources observed in the study communities is traceable to their high poverty level, as indicated by the poverty line, with an average household size of 7 earning approximately N430,000 naira annually. This further gives credence to the assertion by (Chao, 2012) that people who live adjacent to forest lands depend largely on the forests for their subsistence, and this could have consequently resulted to the deforestation and forest degradation in the Akure forest reserve which was reported by (Gbiri and Adeoye, 2019). The variation in the dependence and use of forest resources, as shown in Table 5, also found a base in the report of (Stephenson, 2011) that many people around the world depend on forests, not just for food but also for fuel, income, livestock grazing on forest lands, and collection of medicinal plants, all in varying degrees.…”

“…However, the country has been experiencing high rate of deforestation and forest degradation having lost about 79% of her primary forests between 1990 and 2005 and an average of 11% per year since 2000 (FAO, 2005). Particularly, Akure forest reserve which is the study site for this research has lost almost all the vegetation cover leaving about 32.1% of her undisturbed forest as at 2017 (Gbiri and Adeoye, 2019). Hence, the introduction of a REDD+ project into the Reserve will reduce deforestation/degradation factors, improve the forest conditions, and enhance the community livelihoods in the forest area.…”

Use of Satellite Products for Analysis of Changes in Territories of Nature Reserve Fund of Ukraine

“…З появою нового джерела інформації, супутникових даних, у світі виникло багато нагальних питань і проблем, які вирішуються за допомогою саме цих даних. Зокрема, це завдання моніторингу сільськогосподарських площ [1], лісового покриву [2], водних об'єктів [3] тощо. У вирішенні цих питань зацікавлена передусім держава та уряд країни, в якій проводиться дослідження.…”

Monitoring of Forest Resource Health in Akure Reserve, Ondo State Nigeria

“…The Nigerian Forestry Information System (NFIS) developed by the Forestry Association of Nigeria for the Federal Department of Forestry with the financial support provided by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), which was supposed to contain relevant spatial information from the forestry sub-sector was completely devoid of data from the 36 States of the Country. However, previous notable researches like [15], [9], [13], [14], [12], [4], [3], and [7] among others based their studies on deforestation, land use and land cover changes, and forest management in Nigerian forest reserves. None of these studies contributed their research outcome to the Nigerian Forestry Information System (NFIS).…”