Desertification in the Sahel Region: A Product of Climate Change or Human Activities? A Case of Desert Encroachment Monitoring in North-Eastern Nigeria Using Remote Sensing Techniques

Abstract

In Nigeria, desertification has become one of the most pronounced ecological disasters, with the impacts mostly affecting eleven frontline States. This has been attributed to a range of both nat-ural and man-made factors. This study applied a remote sensing-based change detection and indicator analysis to explore land use/land cover changes and detect major conversions from ecologically active land covers to sand dunes. Results indicate that areas covered by sand dunes (a major indicator of desertification) have doubled over the 25 years under consideration (1990 to 2015). Although about 0.71 km2 of dunes have been converted to vegetation, indicative of the success of various international, national, local, and individual afforestation efforts, conversely about 10.1 km2 of vegetation were converted to sand dunes, implying around 14 times more de-forestation compared to afforestation. Juxtaposing the progression of sand dune with climate records of the study area and examining the relationship between indicators of climate change and desertification suggested a mismatch between both processes as increasing rainfall and lower temperatures observed in 1994, 2005, 2012, and 2014 did not translated into positive feedbacks for desertification in the study area. On average, our results reveal that sand dune is progressing at a mean annual rate of about 15.2 km2 in the study area. Based on this study’s land cover change, trend and conversion assessment, visual reconciliation of climate records with land cover data, statistical analysis, observations from ground-truthing, as well as previous literature, it can be inferred that desertification in Nigeria is less a function of climate change, but more a product of human activities driven by poverty, population growth and failed government policies. Further projections by this study also reveal a high probability of more farmlands being converted to sand dunes by the year 2030 and 2045 if current practices prevail.

Driving Sustainable Consumption and Production at the Local Level: Education for Sustainable Development Projects from the Global RCE Network

“…First, RCE Kano provided a knowledge base for the participants on how changing consumption patterns not only helped the women and their communities, but also helped environmental sustainability in the Situation Zamfara State in north-western Nigeria is characterised by a tropical savannah eco-region, which is bordered by the Sahara Desert in the north. The Sahara Desert is currently encroaching southward at pace at 0.6 km per year from the northern border with Niger, engulfing approximately 350,000 hectares of savannah per year (Ibrahim et al, 2022). This expansion of desert is exacerbated by overharvesting of trees within the region for fuel.…”

Application of IUCN Red List Criteria for Regional Assessment of Some Northern Savanna Trees of Nigeria, West Africa

“…Biodiversity loss is an increasingly discussed topic in biological sciences (Isbell et al 2018; Garner 2020; Jaureguiberry 2022). The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List represents the widely used tool for informing species conservation, and setting priorities for biodiversity conservation at both global, national, and regional levels (Betts et The savanna vegetation of northern Nigeria is depauperate compared to the original forested vegetation of the southern part of the country because most areas in the NSZ are either arid or semi-arid (Sawa, et al 2015) or facing deserti cation and drought (Fabeku and Faleyimu 2017, Chukwudi and Adebowale 2018; Adejuwon and Olaniyan 2019; Ibrahim et al 2022). As a result of anthropogenic destruction, nearly all ancestral vegetation types in the NSZ have been cleared and modi ed, while rejuvenation is unlikely due to increasing adverse climatic conditions.…”