Programme

The Institute pursues its objectives through research and training programmes

Research Programme

• Studying existing land and resource use types and initiating new ones established on all land use options rather than just, conventional agriculture and forestry. This involves the use of remote sensing techniques and Geographical Information Systems (GIS). The institute is currently collaborating with the National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA), the International Institute for Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC), Enschede, Netherlands and two other regional institutions in Nigeria to execute a Federal Government sponsored initiative on Monitoring Deforestation and Implications for Biodiversity Loss in Nigeria using Data from NigeriaSat-1 and other Satellites. The Institute is also collaborating with the Office of the Surveyor General of the Federation and NASRDA to execute the Global Mapping Project in Nigeria under the Auspices of International Steering Committee for Global Mapping (ISCGM), Japan.
• Co-ordination of existing and organization of additional ecological and environmental monitoring in different ecosystems. This includes regular chemical and biological (including micro-biological) surveys of lakes and rivers, soil, rain water as well as radio activity, solar radiation, and long term biological recording in carefully selected sites e.g. of productivity, decomposition, ecosystem structure, diversity and stability and pollution.
• Review of new development plans and examination of schemes in operation to ensure that they have no environmentally disastrous side effects. The emphasis is on provision of environmental impact statements of proposed developments, to eliminate or reduce unnecessary loss of tree or vegetation cover or soil fertility, unnecessary alteration or destruction of social systems alteration of hydrological regimes in the direction of more floods and droughts, and siltation, soil erosion, increased weed infestation, etc.
• Formulation of ecologically acceptable forms of development based on field trials. These include the use of unconventional crops, game cropping the study of yield of cultivated species, etc. The overall objectives is to achieve a balanced ecosystem with minimum disturbance to the traditional (sociological) system by careful control of factors altered in order to maximize the production of useful crops of other environmental resources.
• Examination of the ecological effects of resource utilization including mining of various minerals, and the large-scale programme of urbanization.
• Providing, in cooperation with the Data Base Units of Nigerian Universities’ computer centers, an integrated ecological database which can be analysed statistically and from which selective retrieval can be made in the GIS environment. This database is to be made available for research projects in the Institute and to the government and the academic community in Nigeria and elsewhere.

Teaching Programme

The objective of the teaching programmes is to produce experts in various aspects of ecology and environmental studies through courses of instruction at both sub-degree and post-graduate levels including those of diplomas, higher degrees and other distinctions of the University, as may be approved by the Senate.

The teaching programme commenced in the Rain Semester 1995/96 Session and involves Post-graduate programmes leading to the award of the following:

• Postgraduate Diploma in Environmental Control and Management (PGD)
• Master of Science in Environmental Control and Management (M.Sc.)
• Executive Master of Environmental Management – (MEM)
• Doctor of Philosophy – (Ph.D)