Anthropogenic pressures, particularly artisanal mining and timber extraction, are precipitating a biodiversity crisis across the tropical savanna belt. This study assessed the spatiotemporal effects of mining and logging activities on vegetation cover in the Nasarawa South Senatorial District of Nigeria, specifically within Obi and Awe Local Government Areas (LGAs). Adopting a mixed-methods research design, the study integrated longitudinal geospatial analysis with a cross-sectional socio-economic survey. Multi-temporal Landsat imagery (1996–2025) was utilized to quantify Land Use and Land Cover (LULC) changes, while climatic data (1990–2020) and a structured questionnaire administered to 200 respondents provided contextual analysis of environmental drivers. The results revealed a catastrophic ecological inversion, particularly in Awe LGA, where vegetation cover plummeted from 69.7% in the baseline period (1996–2006) to a critical 8.6% in the final epoch (2018–2025). This deforestation correlated strongly with an explosion in bare land, which surged from 1.1% to 65.1%, indicative of intensified surface mining. Conversely, Obi LGA exhibited a fragmentation pattern driven by urbanization, with built-up areas expanding continuously to cover 62,898 ha. Climatic analysis indicated a persistent warming trend and erratic rainfall onset, acting as stress multipliers on the degraded landscape. Socio-economic findings corroborated these spatial metrics, with 90% of respondents reporting an escalation in mining activities, driven largely by a low-income agrarian population dependent on resource extraction. The study concludes that unregulated anthropogenic activities are the primary architects of this landscape degradation. Urgent policy interventions, including mandatory post-mining land reclamation and the formalization of artisanal mining zones, are recommended to avert irreversible ecosystem collapse.
Adendem et al. (Thu,) studied this question.
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