Abstract: Forest reserves in the Kano region of Nigeria are under threat from anthropogenic activities such as grazing, poor land use and hideout for criminal elements. These have caused a high degradation in the savannah vegetation, thus affecting the biodiversity and environmental settings of the areas. Therefore, there is a need to study the status of some forest reserves using remote sensing tools. The research aims to analyse the rate of degradation of some selected forest reserves within the Kano region. Landsat images were sourced from the Glovis website and converted to a Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) using the GPS data from ground survey. Six study sites were selected using a purposive sampling method and the results were analysed in the GIS environment for the period 2009 to 2019. For the detection of forest changes, the results were analysed using descriptive statistics. The results indicated high positive NDVI values of +0.572 recorded in the year 2009, while the lowest of 0.18 occurred in the year 2019. The percentage changes detected in the forest reserve NDVI values over the decade were categorized as Farin Dutse F.R (55.75%) > Rurum F.R (52.88%) > Albasu F.R (51.52%) > Unguwar Jibrin F.R (47.06%) > Danshoshiya F.R (23.08%) > Falgore F.R (9.8%). The study concluded there was a decrease in the forest reserve greenness from the period of 2009 to 2019. These results also provide valuable information on the status of the forest reserves and could be applied in developing forest conservation policies for enhanced ecosystem services and livelihoods.
Key words: Degradation, Forest changes, Forest reserves, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index