Evaluation of the Effects of Forest Depletion on the Socio- economic Activities of the People in part of Niger South, Niger State, Nigeria.

Abstract

Forests are vast areas of land predominant defined by densely-tall woody and non woody vegetation as well as other communities of flora and fauna in symbiotic relationships. Forest depletion in the study area is brought about by natural occurrences and human activities as it is true with many other environmental problems. Therefore, it is with this context of forest depletion that the paper assess the effect of forest depletion on the socio-economic activities of people. The methods of data analysis were forest depletion analysis and frequency percentage. The result were presented in table figures and plate. As revealed in the causes of forest depletion expansion of farmland ranked the highest with 201 respondents charcoal making ranked second with 141 respondents overgrazing ranked third with 118 respondents fuel wood and other forest product ranked forth with 113 respondents and overharvesting of industrial wood ranked with the least 57 respondents. This revealed that forest depletion continues as long as farmland expansion continue which in turn leads to low transpiration from the forest cover in the study area. The finding shows that built up area and farmland has increased while water bodies, forest cover and bare land have decreased forest cover has reduce from 30.3% in 1999 to 21.3% in 2014 bare land has also reduce from 29.1% in 1999 to 16.8% in 2014, farm land has increased from 21.5% in 1999 to 38.3% in 2014 built-up area has increased from 11.4% in 1999 to 19.4% in 2014 and water bodies has decreased from 6.7% in 1999 to 4.2% in 2014. The effect of forest depletion on the people includes loss of top soils, leaching, loss economic and herbal trees, forest habitat destruction and land degradation its therefore, recommended that Niger State government and relevant agencies should embark on reforestation programme in already depleted areas and promote planting of trees and forest management in order to develop a proper management of existing resources.