GIS and Remote Sensing Analysis of the Impact of Land use Land Cover Change on Forest Degradation: Evidence from the Central Part of Taraba State, Nigeria

Forest is a fundamental, significant, and valuable component of a sustainable environment. Ecosystem services, biodiversity development, and economic growth in any nation depend on the proficient use of forests and their resources. However, deforestation has remained the single most important environmental phenomenon threatening the existence of the forest environment in Nigeria. This study was carried out to assess the exploitation of forestland in the central zone of Taraba state using GIS and remote sensing techniques. The satellite imageries used are Lands at imageries of 2006, 2012, and 2018. Ground Control points (GCPs) were obtained from Google earth to validate the coordinates of the classified imageries. The result obtained from 2006 classification showed that thick forest occupied the total of 1685448.99 ha equivalent to 80.38% and was the highest land cover suffering a decline in the area amounting to 694696 ha which equals to 33.13% in 2018. The pattern of land cover changes at the early stage was restricted to dissection and perforation in 2006. A remarkable expansion of bare land patches accompanied by total attrition of thick forest was identified due North in Bali local government area as compared to Gashaka and Kurmi local governments that have fragmented and little shrinking pattern of changes from 6.87% in 2006 to 37.65% in 2018. This shows that; as bare land increases, thick forests keep on decreasing within thirteen (13) years. It was recommended that increased reforestation efforts, sensitization and periodical campaigns against deforestation, and redesign of the existing forestry laws by the state government to curtail incessant incidents of deforestation in the study area be undertaken.