https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5596-0266
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ABSTRACT
Tropical forest reserve system safeguards essential terrestrial ecosystems services such as atmospheric carbon sinks and biodiversity storehouses. The aim of this study was to quantify the spatial coverage of Southeastern forest reserves in Nigeria toward strengthening Nigeria’s capacity on monitoring, reporting, and verification mechanism of the Reducing Emission from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) Framework. Hence, three (3) open-source geospatial datasets were systematically analyzed. The result indicates that, about five (5) percent of the total landmass in Southeastern Nigeria is currently designated as forest reserves. The forty-seven (47) forests reserves identified in the study area account for a total of 1,335.42 km2 out of the entire 28,987 km2 landmass of the Southeast geopolitical zone. In conclusion, the current value of forestland under conservation within Southeastern Nigeria is 82% short of attaining the Food and Agriculture Organization’s prescribed 25% forest cover threshold by a margin of 5,911 km2. Therefore, for Nigeria to adequately achieve the FAO’s recommended target, every state government in the country should consistently maintain the exact 25% forest cover FAO’s threshold. As a next research line, assessment of aboveground biomass (AGB) within Nigeria’s Southeastern tropical forest reserves with open-source geospatial data, is hereby, recommended.
Acknowledgments
The authors gratefully acknowledge the satellite data provided by the Planet Labs, USA; the European Space Agency (ESA) in conjunction with European Space Imaging Munich, Germany (id. 54302), and Airbus Defence and Space GmbH (id. 55370); in support of this ongoing PhD research with the Department of Geoinformatics and Surveying, University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus, Nigeria. Equally, profound thanks go to the anonymous reviewers for their valuable suggestions. Likewise, the authors are thankful to the team of editors for proofreading the entire manuscript leading to the improvement of this publication.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Additional information
Notes on contributors
John Agbo Ogbodo
John Agbo Ogbodo is a PhD (Remote sensing) Researcher with the Department of Geoinformatics and Surveying, University of Nigeria, Enugu-Nigeria. He holds an MSc degree in Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation for Natural Resources Management from the University of Twente, Enschede, Netherlands, with funding from the Ford Foundation International Fellowship, USA, and a Bachelor of Forestry degree from the Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi, Nigeria. Mr. Ogbodo is currently a lecturer of remote sensing/GIS for natural resources surveying with the Department of Forestry and Wildlife, Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka, Nigeria. John is a serving Expert/Consultant representing Nigeria on the Taskforce on Sustainable Bamboo Management of the International Bamboo and Rattan Organisation (INBR). He is a Life Member of the Forestry Association of Nigeria (LFAN) and the incumbent National Vice President of the International Society of Tropical Foresters (ISTF), Nigeria’s Chapter.
Francis Ifeanyi Okeke
Francis Ifeanyi Okeke obtained the degree of BSc in Surveying, Geodesy and Photogrammetry in 1982 and MSc in Geodesy and Astronomy in 1988 both of the University of Nigeria. Under the prestigious German Academic Exchange Program (DAAD) Scholarship, he obtained a PhD degree in Geodesy and Geoinformatics of the University of Stuttgart, Germany, in 1997. He then proceeded to the Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Israel, where, under the sponsorship of the Israeli Government, he completed a two-year Post-Doctoral Fellowship program in Remote Sensing and Geographic Information System (GIS) in 2004. He was promoted to a Professor of Geoinformatics and Surveying of the University of Nigeria in 2008 and served as Head of Department of Geoinformatics and Surveying from 2010 to 2014. He received the University of Nigeria Vice Chancellor’s Academic Excellence Award in October 2008. He is a former Dean of the Faculty of Environmental studies in the University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus (UNEC). He is a Registered Surveyor by the Surveyors Council of Nigeria since 1989 and a Fellow of the Nigerian Institution of Surveyors since 2013. He is a onetime President of the Nigerian Association of Geodesy (NAG).