Use of GIS in Tracking Deforestation Permit Compliance in Ondo State

Deforestation within Ondo State's forest reserves continues despite regulatory frameworks requiring forestry permits and mandating replanting. This study uses GIS to track compliance with deforestation permits within the Oluwa and Shasha Forest Reserves. Approved permit areas are digitised from forestry department records and compared against actual cleared extents derived from Sentinel-2 change detection analysis covering 2019 to 2023. Areas of unpermitted clearing are delineated by spatial differencing between permitted polygons and satellite-detected clearings. The study documents that over 35 percent of detected clearing activity in the forest reserves during the study period occurred outside the boundaries of approved permits. Temporal analysis shows clearing activity intensifying during periods of limited ranger patrol coverage. A web-based compliance monitoring interface prototype is proposed for the Ondo State Forestry Commission, enabling real-time alert generation when satellite-detected clearing exceeds permitted boundaries. Keywords: deforestation, forest permits, compliance monitoring, GIS, Ondo State