Professional Management of Environmental Impacts from Large-Scale Agricultural Land Clearing in Kwara State

This study examines the professional management of environmental impacts arising from large-scale agricultural land clearing in Kwara State, North Central Nigeria. Commercial farming investments, including government-backed anchor borrowers programme expansions and private estate farming, have driven accelerating woodland clearance in the Guinea savanna zone of Kwara, with implications for biodiversity, watershed hydrology, soil carbon, and local climate. The study combines satellite image change detection analysis of woodland loss in five commercial farming zones in Edu, Ilorin East, and Kaiama Local Government Areas with a compliance review of environmental management plans submitted to NESREA for assessed farming schemes. Compliance review assesses whether approved environmental management measures including biodiversity surveys, soil conservation plans, and woodland retention requirements are being implemented. Farm operators (eight interviews) and NESREA regional officials (six interviews) provide practitioner perspectives. Results show that 42 percent of the woodland within identified commercial farming zones has been cleared since 2018. Environmental management plans are available for fewer than half of the identified commercial farming operations, and implementation monitoring by NESREA is documented at only two sites. Where woodland retention requirements are specified in management plans, adherence is poor due to absence of on-site monitoring by regulators or independent verifiers. Soil conservation measures including contour bunding and cover cropping are absent from all assessed sites. Recommendations include mandatory independent third-party environmental performance auditing for commercial farms exceeding 500 hectares and suspension of expansion permits for non-compliant operators. Keywords: agricultural land clearing, woodland loss, environmental management, Kwara State, commercial farming.