Climatic variability and associated changes in a Nigerian nature forest reserve

Climate variability and its impact have become of serious interest to environmentalists worldwide, but reports from many sub-Saharan African countries are still relatively more uncertain than many parts, mostly due to challenges with datasets and methodology. In this study, the daily rainfall and temperature records for 34 years (1984-2018; for which data were available at the time of study) were examined alongside changes in the land cover at a natural forest reserve in the Ife area of southwestern Nigeria. The specific objective was to examine climate variability with changes in the land cover of the nature reserve. Data used included archival records of rainfall and temperature and open-access Landsat satellite imageries of the area. Results showed that area experienced rainfall fluctuations, significant monthly decrease and temperature rise in many months increase. The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index and supervised classification of land cover also revealed a decline in vegetation health and loss of forested land to non-forest uses such as farmlands and built-up lands over time. The study could not establish a direct link between forest loss and climate change in the study area but detected a complex implication of urban pressure through human activities and urbanization, and thus concluded that the impact of climate change on the forest environment has been exacerbated by pressure for urban growth and probably a poorly monitored quest for land resource.