IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v14y2022i12p7322-d839293.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Biodiversity Conservation of National Parks and Nature-Protected Areas in West Africa: The Case of Kainji National Park, Nigeria

Author

Listed:
  • Xiaolan Tang

    (College of Landscape Architecture, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing 210037, China
    NFU Academy of Chinese Ecological Progress and Forestry Development Studies, Nanjing 210037, China)

  • John Adekunle Adesina

    (College of Landscape Architecture, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing 210037, China)

Abstract

Due to rising global warming and climate change, biodiversity protection has become a critical ecological concern. Rich biodiversity zones are under threat and are deteriorating, necessitating national, regional, and provincial efforts to safeguard these natural areas. The effective conservation of national parks and nature-protected areas help to improve biodiversity conservation, forest, and urban air quality. The continuous encroachment and abuse of these protected areas have degraded the ecosystem over time. While exploring the geophysical ecology and biodiversity conservation of these areas in West Africa, Kainji National Park was selected for this study because of its notable location, naturalness, rich habitat diversity, topographic uniqueness, and landmass. The conservation of national parks and nature-protected areas is a cornerstone of biodiversity conservation globally. This study is aimed at the target United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 13, 2030— Climate Action targeted at taking urgent action towards combating climate change and its impacts. The study captures both flora and fauna that are dominant in the study area. The 15 identified tree species were selected from over 30 species with 563,500,000 (an average of 3,700,000 in each sample frame) trees for every tree species/type with a total of 63% tree green canopy cover. The study areas divided into three zones were randomly sampled within a stratum of 25 × 25 km frames divided into 150 sample frames for proper analyses using the i-Tree Eco v6.0.25. It is a United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service peer-reviewed application (software) designed which includes tools for urban and rural forestry study and benefits evaluations. The following microclimatic data were captured and analyzed photosynthetically active radiation, rain/precipitation, temperature, transpiration, evaporation, water intercepted by trees, runoff avoided by trees, potential evaporation by trees, and isoprene and monoterpene by trees. This study also further discusses the tree benefits of a green, low carbon, and sustainable environment within the context of biodiversity conservation, considering carbon storage, carbon sequestration, hydrology effects, pollution removal, oxygen production, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). There is a quick need for remotely-sensed information about the national parks, protected areas and nature reserves at regular intervals, and government policies must be strict against illegal poaching, logging activities, and other hazardous human impacts.

Suggested Citation

  • Xiaolan Tang & John Adekunle Adesina, 2022. "Biodiversity Conservation of National Parks and Nature-Protected Areas in West Africa: The Case of Kainji National Park, Nigeria," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-23, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:12:p:7322-:d:839293
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/12/7322/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/12/7322/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Amah Akodéwou & Johan Oszwald & Slim Saïdi & Laurent Gazull & Sêmihinva Akpavi & Koffi Akpagana & Valéry Gond, 2020. "Land Use and Land Cover Dynamics Analysis of the Togodo Protected Area and Its Surroundings in Southeastern Togo, West Africa," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(13), pages 1-23, July.
    2. Prip, Christian, 2018. "The Convention on Biological Diversity as a legal framework for safeguarding ecosystem services," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 29(PB), pages 199-204.
    3. Russell A. Mittermeier, 2000. "Conservation International and Biodiversity Conservation," Nature, Nature, vol. 405(6783), pages 254-254, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Xiaofang Sun & Chao Yu & Junbang Wang & Meng Wang, 2020. "The Intensity Analysis of Production Living Ecological Land in Shandong Province, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(20), pages 1-17, October.
    2. Patricia Esteve-Guirao & Mercedes Jaén García & Isabel Banos-González, 2019. "The Interdependences between Sustainability and Their Lifestyle That Pre-Service Teachers Establish When Addressing Socio-Ecological Problems," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(20), pages 1-18, October.
    3. Mezgebu Senbeto Duguma & Debela Hunde Feyssa & Lisa Biber-Freudenberger, 2019. "Agricultural Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services of Major Farming Systems: A Case Study in Yayo Coffee Forest Biosphere Reserve, Southwestern Ethiopia," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 9(3), pages 1-26, March.
    4. Ola G. El‐Taliawi & Nihit Goyal & Michael Howlett, 2021. "Holding out the promise of Lasswell's dream: Big data analytics in public policy research and teaching," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 38(6), pages 640-660, November.
    5. Xiaofang Sun & Guicai Li & Junbang Wang & Meng Wang, 2021. "Quantifying the Land Use and Land Cover Changes in the Yellow River Basin while Accounting for Data Errors Based on GlobeLand30 Maps," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(1), pages 1-18, January.
    6. Benyan Jiang & Shan Li & Jianjun Li & Yuli Zhang & Zihao Zheng, 2022. "Spatio-Temporal Dynamics and Sensitive Distance Identification of Light Pollution in Protected Areas Based on Muti-Source Data: A Case Study of Guangdong Province, China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(19), pages 1-14, October.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:12:p:7322-:d:839293. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.