Assessment of Deforestation Level in Some Selected Forests in Nigeria

The study aimed to assess the level of deforestation by anthropogenic activities in Duddurun Forest Reserve, Gaya local Government of Kano state Nigeria. By using Landsat Thematic Mapper images of three decade 1986, 1990 and 2017, geographical information system (GIS) was adopted and Normalize difference vegetation index (NDVI) was used to derive images of the study area aimed at classifying, producing maps and quantifying the vegetation changes. Information about the anthropogenic activities of the inhabitant was collected using structural questionnaire and focus group discussing. The result indicate that, the study area is massively affected with illegal cutting down of trees which account to be 22.66% and 43.08% of vegetation which affected a total size of 41.77km 2 and 93.70km 2 from the total size of the forest reserve with total size of 184km 2 . Information from the respondents reviled that; the major drivers that lead to reduction in the forest were increase in demography, poverty, inadequate government policy and implementation, massive firewood and animal grazing.