Spatial Distribution of Nigerian Universities Offering Forestry Education using Geographic Information System

The importance of forested areas to provide food, medicine and shelter and to maintaining a healthy environment cannot be overemphasized. Hence, handy information on the universities that offers forestry education is necessary. The study used a geographic information system to spatially distribute Universities in Nigeria that offer Forestry Education. The list of all the universities registered as awarding Forestry Degrees in Nigeria were obtained online from the National University Commission (NUC) register and Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) brochures. The corresponding coordinates of the universities were obtained using hand-held Global Positioning Systems and from satellite imagery. Quantum Geographic Information System was used to develop the universities spatial distribution. Only 31 out of the 34 universities identified as awarding forestry degrees were on the NUC list. Moreover, 61.8% of all of these universities were owned by the Federal Government, 32.4% by State Governments and only 5.9% were privately owned. Out of the universities recognized by NUC, the South-West geopolitical zone had the highest number (8), followed by South-South (7), North-West (5), North-Central (4), North-East (4) and South-East (3) with least. Non-uniformity was observed in Educational bodies offering studies in forestry, hence the government should invest more in forest research and education.