ANTHROPOGENIC ACTIVITIES, PRESSURE AND THREAT ON GIREI FOREST RESERVE, ADAMAWA STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

In Nigeria, since the last three decades, there has been a tremendous pressure on forest to provide economic resources
leading to unabated deforestation. The potential negative effects of such changes on forest quality, quantity and production
are wide. The objective of this study is to evaluate the degree of pressure and its threat from anthropogenic activities on
protected area of Girei Forest Reserve, Adamawa State, Nigeria, through the application of Remote Sensing and GIS
techniques. The images of Landsat TM 1987, ETM+ 2000, Nigeriasat-1 2010 and Spot5 2015 were analyzed to derive information on environmental changes between 1987 and 2015. The results of the analyses revealed that fuel wood extraction and cultivation are the main causes of deforestation in the area, followed by urbanization. It also revealed that forest area has reduced from 177.03 km in 1987 to 125.53 km in 2000 and then further reduced to 112.74 km in 2010 and then dropped to 75.98 km in 2015. This implies that land-use such as built-up areas and cultivated areas were increasing through time i.e. from 3.33 km in 1987 to 5.1 km in 2000, 7.47 km in 2010 and 8.95 km in 2015. This indicated that the rate of deforestation in the area is high at about 33.68 km per year thereby confirming the perception of 58% of the respondents. Decrease in rainfall, increase in temperature and erosion were observed as the most serious effects of deforestation in the area. The study recommends that government and traditional authorities should provide affordable alternative source of energy to cushion and reduce pressure on fuel wood as principal source of domestic energy supply and the need to enforce environmental laws.