GEO Seminar: Land Degradation and Its Impacts on Ecosystem Services in the Nigerian Guinea Savannah: Implications for Sustainable Land Management

Welcome to GEO Seminar with Dr. Ademola Adenle, Postdoctoral Researcher at the Department of Geography (UiB). We will meet physically, but you can follow the presentation via Zoom, too.

Speaker: Ademola Adenle (UiB)
Topic: Land Degradation and Its Impacts on Ecosystem Services in the Nigerian Guinea Savannah: Implications for Sustainable Land Management
Time: 19 October 12:15-13:00
Place: Room 744 or ZOOM

For decades, the Nigerian Guinea Savannah (NGS) has been subjected to a series of social-ecological disruptions that have affected their management, conservation and capacity of this extensive ecoregion to deliver ecosystem services. While, country level assessments, strategies and programmes to neutralize land degradation in the ecoregion remain inadequate, there exists a limited understanding and huge empirical uncertainties about the nature, severity and total extent of land degradation in Nigeria. The aim of study was to improve understanding on the long-term effect and spatial distribution of land degradation in the NGS and its drivers and thus derive insights into the sustainable management of its land resources. The study objectives were to (1) assess human-induced biomass loss as a proxy for land degradation in the NGS; (2) identify characteristic patterns of social and ecological drivers associated with land degradation in the region and analyses their implications for land governance and sustainable land management (SLM); (3) examine land users’ perceptions of land degradation and its implications for SLM; and (4) examine the potentials for operationalizing land degradation neutrality (LDN) in Nigeria. These four objectives of the study were addressed in four broad studies, which were investigated using a hybrid method of remote sensing along with surveys, focus group discussions and interviews as well as a review of environmental policies in Nigeria to collect data and answer the various research questions. The insights from this study inform actions to achieving (LDN), a global environmental goal.