Academic literature on the topic 'Land use policies in Nigeria'

The scarcity and inaccessibility of land in urban areas has become a major obstacle in the provision of housing to low-income groups in developing countries. This thesis studies the land policies and practices in Metropolitan Kano, Nigeria, and investigates the issues and problems hindering the adequate supply of residential land to low-income groups.<br>The thesis commences with a general study of urban land policies and low-income housing in developing countries. It examines the nature of housing problems in developing countries, the role of land in the housing problems, issues addressed by land policies, and policy measures and strategies used. The general study is followed by a specific study of the land policies and practices in the study area. The policy and institutional management frameworks are identified and examined. The roles of the major institutions are explained. The last section identifies and examines the main issues and problems with the existing policies.<br>The thesis concludes that actions are necessary to address the identified issues and problems with the policies in order to avoid chaos. Suggestions for policy reform are made.

<p>This project analyzes satellite images from 1976, 1985 and 2000 of Dutse, Jigawa state, in north-western Nigeria. The analyzed satellite images were used to determine land-use and vegetation changes that have occurred in the land-use from 1976 to 2000 will help recommend possible planning measures in order to protect the vegetation from further deterioration.</p><p>Studying land-use change in north-western Nigeria is essential for analyzing various ecological and developmental consequences over time. The north-western region of Nigeria is of great environmental and economic importance having land cover rich in agricultural production and livestock grazing. The increase of population over time has affected the land-use and hence agricultural and livestock production.</p><p>On completion of this project, the possible land use changes that have taken place in Dutse will be analyzed for future recommendation. The use of supervised classification and change detection of satellite images have produced an economic way to quantify different types of landuse and changes that has occurred over time.</p><p>The percentage difference in land-use between 1976 and 2000 was 37%, which is considered to be high land-use change within the period of study. The result in this project is being used to propose planning strategies that could help in planning sustainable land-use and diversity in Dutse.</p>

Concerns related to global environmental changes due to land use changes have been driving international communities towards more sustainable land use systems. Brazil is a country of global strategic importance in this matter considering that it is the nation with the largest extension of preserved tropical native vegetation, recognised for its ecosystem services and high and unique biodiversity. Expansion of forestry and agriculture is taking place rapidly in Brazil, partly over degraded pastureland, but also over native vegetation. Regulating policies to govern and limit this expansion is crucial to ensure the preservation of the ecosystems services provided by native vegetation.  This thesis aims at improving the understanding of the potential impacts of prevailing public and private policies in the conservation of nature in Brazil. For this end, the Land Use Policy Assessment (LUPA) model was employed to evaluate potential pathways of implementation of the land use policies. Paper 1 evaluated the effects of current private and public command and control regulations in the protection of above-ground carbon stocks, identifying the most relevant stakeholders holding carbon stocks. The findings suggest that about 10% of carbon stocks are unprotected, where other policy instruments based on the market will be mostly required. Paper 2 performed an assessment of the mechanism for offsetting the legal deficit of native vegetation among landholders, evaluating the different offsetting implementation practices and their impacts on nature protection and socio-economic development. The results indicate that the offsetting mechanism may have little or no additional effects on protection of native vegetation and its ecosystem services because most of the offsetting is likely to take place where native vegetation is already protected by current legislations. However, it is viable to maximise environmental and socio-economic returns from the offsetting mechanism.<br><p>QC 20170510</p>

Strong private property rights to land are recognised as fundamental to the economic growth of a country's legal system. Legal reform of inadequate and inefficient property rights laws is therefore essential. My thesis aims to address the lack of legal reform of the laws governing property rights to land in Nigeria. It does this by critically examining the Land Use Act set up as the primary body of legislation governing property rights in Nigeria.The thesis seeks to offer meaningful insights by proposing an institutional analysis of the limitations to reform of existing laws governing property rights to land in Nigeria. Several approaches of new institutionalism are explored in analysing identified constraints which exist within formal and informal institutions. Explanations of the absence of legal reform are addressed through themes examining formal and informal institutional structures which limit reform. Analyses of institutional structures highlight the significant role played by institutions in the etablishment and development of property right laws in Nigeria. An in-depth look at Nigerian private property laws and legally recognised interests on land exposes fundamental limitations to private property rights protection of individuals within the Nigerian state. The thesis provides valuable insights and addresses institutional limitations through consideration of strategies which would enable and assist legal reform of Nigeria's property rights laws. The study concludes by exploring three aspects. First, it offers reform proposals and analyses the functionality of the proposed reform suggestions. Second, it highlights principles of policy-making redesign within formal institutions. Finally, it offers strategies to assist reform within informal instituional structures.In short, the thesis focuses on enabling legal reform of Nigerian property rights laws to ensure the amendment, modification or excision of bad, inefficient laws in order to offer better protection of individuals' property rights to land.

Globally, stream invertebrate communities have been shown to respond to habitat degradation as a result of land use hanges. The effects of land use changes on stream communities have been well documented in temperate regions, however, their effects in the tropics are relatively unknown, particularly where land use activities can differ markedly (e.g., tea, maize and Eucalyptus plantations). To understand how land use affects tropical highland Nigerian stream communities, I surveyed 55 second and third order streams across four land use categories, ranging from continuous tropical montane forest to intensive crops/pasture. Streams were sampled in the dry season (October to March) for physico-chemical parameters (i.e., temperature, pH, conductivity, turbidity, current velocity, channel morphometry and riparian characteristics) and ecological characteristics (i.e., fine particulate organic matter [FPOM], coarse particulate organic matter [CPOM], algae and benthic invertebrates). Water temperature in all streams was high (up to 25oC) while levels of dissolved oxygen were frequently low (15–79 %). Physico-chemical conditions varied across land uses with continuous forested streams being cooler, with higher dissolved oxygen, larger bed substrate and more stable channels. Similarly, benthic invertebrate communities showed a strong response with the highest taxonomic diversity in forested streams and the lowest in streams within intensive crops (e.g., cabbage crops). Several of the taxa which occurred in forested streams (e.g., the mayflies Heptageniidae and Oligoneuridae and brachyuran crabs) were rare or absent in streams with more intensive land use. In contrast, damselflies and several true bugs (e.g., Notonectidae and Corixidae) were rare in forested streams but more common in other land uses. In order to test land use impacts on stream processes leaf litter decomposition experiments were carried out in nine streams, three in forest, three in tea plantations and three in maize fields. Leaf breakdown rates were slow compared with other reports for tropical streams, however leaves in forested streams broke down significantly faster (on a degree day basis) than in other land uses. This faster break down seemed to be driven by greater shredder densities in forested streams. Significantly lower densities of invertebrates were found in leaf bags incubated in streams draining tea plantation and maize fields than in forest streams. In the same nine streams food web components were sampled and analysed using gut content and stable isotope (N and C) analyses. Stream food webs in continuous forest were more complex than plantation and maize field streams. Stable isotope analysis indicated that primary consumers assimilated a mixture of autochthonous and allochthonous carbon resources, but the proportion varied among sites. Overall, my results suggest that in Nigerian highland tropical streams more intensive land use activities strongly affect the diversity and composition of benthic stream communities and ecosystem function, in similar ways to those reported in temperate streams.