Assessment of Status and Distribution of Trees Inside Forest and Trees Outside Forest between 1990-2021 in Adamawa Central, Adamawa State, Nigeria

Abstract

Forests significantly aid the stabilization of the global ecology by solving environmental concerns such as climate change and carbon sequestering. Therefore, the objective of this paper was to evaluate the status and distribution of Trees Inside Forest (TIF) and Trees Outside Forests (TOF) between 1990 and 2021in Adamawa Central, Adamawa State Nigeria, using standard methods of the Normalized Different Vegetation Index (NDVI), through the use of satellite imagery from 1990, 2000, 2013, and 2021 respectively. The findings showed that, the TOF decreased from 12.9 km² in 1990 to just 3.6 km² in 2021, the number of TIF decreased from 549.2 km² in 1990 to 174.8 km² in 2021. A shift in policy is necessary to mitigate the negative effects of changing land cover, boosting agricultural production, and restoring urban and forest trees by various means like afforestation and replanting.