THE IMPACT OF FUELWOOD HARVESTING ON BIODIVERSITY LOSS: THE IMPLICATIONS FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: A CASE STUDY OF BENIN ENVIRONS

Abstract

The fragile forest ecosystem has suffered serious degradation due to the continuous dependence of man on wood. This study was carried out to examine and evaluate the impacts of fuel wood harvesting activities on biodiversity loss in Benin environs. Images from Landsat 4 Thematic Mapper (TM), Landsat7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper (EMT), and Landsat 8 Operational Land Imagery (OLI) were used. Equally close ended questionnaire was employed. A total of 600 questionnaires were distributed and retrieved as the purposive and snowball sampling method were employed to the 12 communities making up the environs of Benin. The Shannon- wiener diversity index on the average was 1.9 with a nonlinear response to harvesting intensity, indicating high species diversity. In general, fuel wood consumption was an average of 1,452 kg/person/year of tree biomass. However, poorer communities, consume 35,976 kg/person/year. Harvesting is concentrated to a few early successional species with the most common species being Hymenostegia afzelii with recorded 65 (16%), Afzelia Africana 58(14%) Khaya senegalensis had 54(13%) while Alstonia boonei 12 had the least percentage of 2.9%. Fuel wood harvesting which is a profitable business cannot be ignored as a major source of forest degradation and its impact on the environment on the source regions is biodiversity loss and environmental degradation. The study recommended the introduction of fuel-efficient cooking device and afforestation programme as a means of conciliating biodiversity conservation with poverty amelioration is an urgent task.