Effects of climate change on forest resources and biodiversity conservation in Nigeria: A case study of forest reserve areas of Imo State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study investigated the effect of climate change on forest resources and biodiversity conservation in the forest reserve areas of Imo State, Nigeria. It therefore, assessed the various manifestations of climate change, evaluated the impact on forest resources and biodiversity, identified conservation challenges, and proposed adaptation and mitigation measures to the situation. Descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. The study population consisted of forestry personnel, community members and other stakeholders in the forest reserve areas. Multistage sampling procedure was used to select 150 respondents from the study area. Structured questionnaires were administered to the respondents and expert validation was carried out to test the reliability and validity of the research instruments. Cronach’s alpha was computed to determine the reliability of the questionnaire and the result showed that 0.82 of the variance in the data was explained by the item-scale. Frequency counts, percentage, mean and standard deviation were used to analyze the data. The study established that climate change has adverse effect on forest resources in the study area. The main effects included; increase in temperature, prolonged drought, flooding, increase in wildfires and occurrence of pests and diseases. These effects led to forest degradation, poor forest cover, loss of biodiversity, decrease in forest products and lack of market for forest products in the study area. The study also revealed that poor enforcement of the forest policies; illegal logging of trees, agricultural expansion, and insufficient funding are some of the major challenges facing forest resource and biodiversity conservation in the study area. The study concluded that climate change has negative effect on forest resources and biodiversity conservation in the study area. It further recommended afforestation and reforestation programmes, improved forest governance, adaptation measures to climate change, and increased funding for biodiversity conservation in Imo State forest reserve areas.