ASSESSMENT OF LAND USE LAND COVER CHANGES OF MAMU RIVER FOREST RESERVE, NIGERIA

Land use land cover (LULC) changes have become critical for monitoring environmental dynamics and resource management. The Mamu River Forest Reserve, a vital ecosystem in Southeastern Nigeria, serves crucial roles in climate regulation and biodiversity conservation but faces significant threats from deforestation, urbanization, and boundary conflicts, resulting in environmental degradation. This study utilized Remote sensing technique using Landsat satellite imageries spanning 30 years (1994–2024) at 10-year intervals to assess LULC changes in the reserve. Supervised maximum likelihood classification was applied to generate spectral signatures and identified six land cover classes: built-up areas, forested land, water bodies, grasslands, agricultural land, and bare land. Results revealed a dramatic decline in forested land, from 2916.2 km² (59.2%) in 1994 to 139.3 km² (2.8%) in 2024. In contrast, built-up areas expanded significantly, from 95.7 km² (1.9%) in 1994 to 2450.5 km² (49.7%) in 2024. The grassland was the highest landcover in 2014 (2611.6 km² (53.0%), while water bodies experienced moderate consistency, increasing from 260.8 km² (5.3%) in 1994 to 660.4 km² (13.4%) in 2024 but declining sharply to 48.9 km² (1.0%) in 2014. Hence, the research revealed that forest cover decreased at an average rate of 92.6 km²/year while built-up area increase at an average rate of 78.5 km²/year. These findings underscore the urgent need for governmental and multi-stakeholder interventions such as reforestation programme to reclaim the grass and bare lands within the forest reserve.