Land Degradation And Environmental Change In Ondo State Coastline, South-West Nigeria

ABSTRACT

Understanding the science and management of the environment and the nexus between environmental change, human livelihoods and vulnerability to hazards is fundamental for sustainable natural resources use. Natural resource degradation has implications for rural livelihoods and poverty, natural resource management, and vulnerability to disasters. The coast of Ondo State, Southwest Nigeria qualifies for description as a hotspot of ecosystems changes and natural resource degradation. This study sets out to address the connections and relations between environmental change process, natural resource degradation and vulnerability of rural communities around the coastline of Ondo State.

The specific objectives are to:

Assess landuse and landcover (LULC) patterns of the study area for the static years 1965, 1986 & 2001 using archived maps and multi-date satellite imageries.

Analyze landuse and landcover change (LULCC) for the area from the multi- date landuse/landcover data.

Investigate the nature, extent, pattem, and trajectory (direction) of prevailing land (ecosystems) degradation processes and their impacts on livelihoods of communities in the study area.

Investigate the key drivers of land degradation and predict future land use and cover change and land degradation using the Conversion of Land use and Its

Effects at Small regional extent (CLUE-S) model.