ASSESSMENT OF FOREST FRAGMENTATION IN IBEJU-LEKKI AREA OF LAGOS STATE

Abstract

Anthropogenic landuses such as urbanization and industrialization have brought about degradation to forest cover. Poor planning of landuses have brought about fragmentation of the forest landuse which leads to deforestation. This phenomenon is more common to developing countries in the tropics. In Ibeju-Lekki Local Government Area of Lagos State, it is being caused by high level of urbanization whereby settlements are developing in a scattered pattern. This research focuses on how these scattered settlements affects the forest cover in the area. Using geospatial and interview methods, the trends of landuse dynamics and forest fragmentation from 1987 to 2017 was modelled including its causes as well as impacts and the future scenario in the year 2025. The results for the landuse dynamics forest fragmentation analysis showed that built-up landuse has increased by approximately 16% within the last 30 years at the expense of forest cover which has not significantly decreased but is in a deplorable state. It also revealed the increase in deforestation and the degradation of the dense forest into small and isolated patches. The interview showed that there was a higher number of immigrants into the area within the last 15 years and they majorly moved in for jobs and accommodation reasons. It also showed that there has been significant reduction in animal life in the area. The modelled future scenario revealed that there was a steady increase in the patch, edge and perforated categories while the core forest areas larger than 200 hectares reduced by almost 10% within the next 8 years.