Remote sensing (RS) and GIS are important methods for land use assessment and land cover transition. In this study, land use/land cover changes in the Ago-Owu Forest Reserve, Osun State, Nigeria have been assessed. Landsat 5 TM, Landsat 7 ETM+ and Landsat 8 OLI were acquired for 1986, 2002 and 2017 respectively. The three scenes corresponded to path 190 and row 055 of WRS-2 (Worldwide Reference System). The processing of the imagery was preceded by the clipping of the study area from the satellite image. The boundary of the reserve was carefully digitized and used to clip the imagery to produce an image map of the forest reserve. Using the supervised image classification procedure, training sites were used to produce land use/land cover maps. The same classification scheme was used for the 1986, 2002 and 2017 images to facilitate the detection of change. The differences in the area covered by the different polygons between the three sets of images were measured in km 2. The results show that during 1986 and 2017, there is a dramatic increase of build-up areas with a change of 55.65 km 2 and sparse vegetation (farmland and grassland) with a change of 53.97 km 2 , while a dramatic decrease of dense vegetation (forest areas) with a change of 109.61 km 2. The consequence of these results is that over the years, the population of people living in the forest reserve has increased and many of them are engaged in farming, leading to an increase in farmland. In addition, logging activities continued unabated in the forest reserve, as demonstrated by a sharp increase in the deforested area within the reserve. The maps produced in this study will serve as a planning tool for the Osun State Forestry Department to plan reforestation activities for the forest reserve.

Abstract. Bola TS, Oluyege AO, Aina KS. 2020. Dimensional stability and tensile strength of biopolymer composite reinforced with hardwood fiber at varying proportions. Asian J For 4: 1-5. This study was designed to produce bio-composites made from three different wood species and at three different mixing ratio of plastic to wood on weight to weight basis. The main variables employed in this study are wood species of Triplochiton scleroxylon, Terminalia superba and Gmelina arborea; at plastic: wood of 40:60, 50:50, and 60:40 respectively. The composite samples were made through compounding and extrusion process. The properties evaluated were carried out in accordance with the American Standard Testing Methods of 570 and 790 to determine the dimensional stability and strength properties of the composites. The values obtained for the wood species range from 0.59 g/cm3 to 0.72 g/cm3, 0.59 % to 0.71 %, 0.63% to 0.7 %and 1.84 MPa to 2.07 MPa for density, water absorption, thickness swelling, and tensile strength respectively. Meanwhile, the values obtained from the mixing ratio range from 0.54 g/cm3 to 0.79 g/cm3, 0.53% to 0.79%, 0.42% to 1.00%, and 1.58 MPa to 2.37 MPa for density, water absorption, thickness swelling, and tensile strength respectively. It was observed that mixing ratio and wood species used in this study influenced the dimensional stability and strength properties of the WPCs. This study revealed that as the wood-flour content increased to plastic, the dimensional properties, and tensile strength values increases.

This study was carried out to examine deforestation and rural household income with a view to ensuring conservation. A multistage sampling procedure with a 3-stage design was used for this study. Questionnaire was used to elicit information from 120 respondents in Odeda local council area of Ogun State, Nigeria. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The Foster-Greer-Thorbecke indices of poverty metrics was used to determine the poverty line of households. Smith’s saliency was used to determine the livelihood activities in selected communities. The result showed that respondents were gender sensitive, majority (58.3%) were male and (41.7%) female. On age, 41 – 50 (45.8%) years recorded the highest. The mean age was 50 years. Most of the respondents were married (68.6%) while majority, (52.5%) have low literacy level attaining only secondary education. Household size 1 - 5 recorded the highest, (76.7%) of the total population. Mean household size was 5. The study area was dominated by Yoruba (77.5%). Major occupation income recorded a mean of N17, 000 Naira while minor occupation income recorded a mean of N4308.37 Naira. Poverty line of N122, 700 Naira was determined with poverty incidence (P0) of (21.67%). The poverty gap (P1), (5.09%) indicating that an average respondent requires N6, 245.43 Naira to reach the poverty line. The poverty severity (P2) was (0.02) showing that the respondents were not poor because the value is far from 1. Socio economic factors promoting deforestation were identified among the respondents with marital status as the only significant variable (P<0.05) and a negatively coefficient value of -2.281. Conclusively, deforestation was identified with livelihood activities of the people such as hunting, farming and trading of forest products. Therefore, it is recommended that forestry extension programmes should be intensified in rural communities to minimize deforestation activities and promote eco-consciousness among the local people.

This study investigated the dimensional stability and strength properties of plastic bonded composites produced from wood waste particles and polyethylene using extruder. The composites were produced from wood species such as such as: Triplochiton scleroxylon, Terminalia superba and Gmelina arborea at a mixing proportion of 60:40 (plastic/wood) on a weight by weight basis. Evaluation of properties was carried out in accordance with the American Standard Testing Methods of 570 and 790 to determine the dimensional stability and strength properties of the composites. The results of findings revealed that water absorption and thickness swelling of the wood composites ranged from 10.08% to 15.36% and 4.33% to 5.58% respectively after 24hours and 48hours immersion in water. Tensile strength also ranged between 29.4MPa and 45.6MPa. Composite board made from T. superba wood particles had the lowest significant water absorption (10.08%), thickness swelling (4.33%) and highest significant tensile strength (45.6MPa) compared to composites produced from G. arborea and T. scleroxylon wood particles. It was observed that high density wood species exhibit lower water intake, lower thickness swelling and higher tensile strength, while the contrary is the case for lower density wood species. In conclusion, the three tree species used for the study could be recommended for the production of wood composite like particle board, fibre board, wood cement boards and others.