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ABSTRACT
Deforestation, urbanisation, climate change, and anthropogenic activities are only a few of the many variables that have significantly altered Nigeria's forest reserves over time. Accurate information on the forest cover and periodic alterations are prerequisites for sustainable forest management. This research aims at monitoring the land use/land cover changes over a period of 36 years (1987, 2002 and 2023). Landsat TM, ETM+ and OLI/TC images acquired from USGS website on EROS. Maximum likelihood Classification System was used in this study (built up area, dense forest, sparse vegetation and water bodies). The result shows that there has been a significant loss of forest cover, with the area of dense forest decreasing by over -14.0605%. The area of built-up land has increased by over 13.0500%, and the area of sparse vegetation has also increased. Built-up area increased from 18.6138 km2 in 1987 to 49.1778 km2 in 2023, an increase of 13.0500%, dense forest decreased from 185.13 km2 in 1987 to 152.1891 km2 in 2023, a decrease of -14.0605%, sparse vegetation increased from 23.5449 km2 in 1987 to 30.5897 km2 in 2023, an increase of 3.0079%, water bodies decreased from 6.9147 km2 in 1987 to 2.2491 km2 in 2023, a decrease of -1.9920%. This study shows the frightening pace at which human activity is altering forests and the requirement to act quickly to address this issue and guarantee that forests can be managed sustainably.
