COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE EFFECT OF CHARCOAL PRODUCTION ON VEGETAL LOSS IN AWE AND MOKWA, NORTH CENTRAL NIGERIA USING NDVI

The aim of this paper is to examine the comparative study of effect of charcoal production on vegetal loss in Awe and Mokwa LGAs, Nasarawa and Niger States, Nigeria using NDVI. The study used remote sensing data Landsat satellite imagery from 1990-2023, the imagery were acquired from United States Geological Survey (USGS). Other secondary data are those data that have been used by previous researchers as well Niger State Government and Nasarawa State Government documents on charcoal production about the study areas. The values of NDVI index for Figure 6 ranges from -0.176 – 0.398, the negative values represent non-vegetated land while positive values represent vegetated land for the year 2023 for Mokwa. While the NDVI index value range from -0.12 – 0.40, the negative values represent non-vegetated land while positive values represent vegetated land for the year 2023 for Awe. NDVI is used as a key indicator to monitor the trend of charcoal production by allowing researchers to identify areas experiencing significant forest degradation due to tree felling for charcoal making, as the reduced vegetation in those areas will show lower NDVI values compared to healthy forests; essentially, a decline in NDVI over time in the study area can be directly linked to increased charcoal production activities. In conclusion, the study applied a change detection method that exploits temporal NDVI dynamics associated with charcoal production. This forest degradation temporal sequence exposes the magnitude and the spatial and temporal dynamics of charcoal production, which is the main forest degradation driver in the study area. Taking measures to propagate the most preferred tree species and ensuring massive tree planting exercise especially in order to protect vulnerable areas of the study areas is important.