Impact of Land Use Land Cover Change on the Forest Area of Okomu National Park, Edo State, Nigeria

Impact of Land Use Land Cover Change on the Forest Area of Okomu National Park, Edo State, Nigeria

The extent of change in the Land use/Land cover (LULC) of Okomu National Park (ONP) and fringe communities was evaluated. High resolution Landsat imagery was used to identify the major vegetation cover/land use systems and changes around the national park and fringe communities while field visits/ground truthing, involving the collection of coordinates of the locations was carried out to ascertain the various land cover/land use types identified on the images, and the extent of change over three-time series (2000, 2010 and 2020). The change detection was analyzed using area calculation, change detection by nature and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI). The result of the classification and analysis of the LULC Change of ONP and fringe communities revealed an alarming rate of encroachment into the protected area. All the classification features analyzed had notable changes from 2000-2020. The forest, which was the dominant LULC feature in 2000, covering about 66.19% of the area reduced drastically to 36.12% in 2020. Agricultural land increased from 6.14% in 2000 to 34.06% in 2020 while vegetation (degraded land) increased from 27.18% in 2000 to 38.89% in 2020. The magnitude of the change in ONP and surroundings showed the forest lost -247.136 km2 (50.01%) to other land cover classes with annual rate change of 10%, implying that 10% of forest land was lost annually in the area for 20 years. The NDVI classification values of 2020 indicate that the increase in medium (399.62 km2) and secondary high (210.17 km2) vegetation classes which drastically reduced the size of the high (38.07 km2) vegetation class. Consequent disappearance of the high forests of Okomu is inevitable if this trend of exploitation is not checked. It is pertinent to explore other forest management strategies involving community participation.

The extent of change in the Land use/Land cover (LULC) of Okomu National Park (ONP) and fringe communities was evaluated. High resolution Landsat imagery was used to identify the major vegetation cover/land use systems and changes around the national park and fringe communities while field visits/ground truthing, involving the collection of coordinates of the locations was carried out to ascertain the various land cover/land use types identified on the images, and the extent of change over three-time series (2000, 2010 and 2020). The change detection was analyzed using area calculation, change detection by nature and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI). The result of the classification and analysis of the LULC Change of ONP and fringe communities revealed an alarming rate of encroachment into the protected area. All the classification features analyzed had notable changes from 2000-2020. The forest, which was the dominant LULC feature in 2000, covering about 66.19% of the area reduced drastically to 36.12% in 2020. Agricultural land increased from 6.14% in 2000 to 34.06% in 2020 while vegetation (degraded land) increased from 27.18% in 2000 to 38.89% in 2020. The magnitude of the change in ONP and surroundings showed the forest lost -247.136 km2 (50.01%) to other land cover classes with annual rate change of 10%, implying that 10% of forest land was lost annually in the area for 20 years. The NDVI classification values of 2020 indicate that the increase in medium (399.62 km2) and secondary high (210.17 km2) vegetation classes which drastically reduced the size of the high (38.07 km2) vegetation class. Consequent disappearance of the high forests of Okomu is inevitable if this trend of exploitation is not checked. It is pertinent to explore other forest management strategies involving community participation.