Abstract
The research aimed at assessing the land use changes brought by oil activities in Ibeno LGA, Mbo LGA and Esit Eket LGA, Akwa Ibom State with the objectives of examining the major oil related hazards that bring about major land cover/land use changes in their areas of operation, assessing the severity of environmental degradation from oil sector and the effects of the rates of ecosystem protection in the study area, determining control measures necessary for effective management of land use changes and determining the environmental safeguard tools and measures necessary to promote land use sustainability in the study area. Purposive sampling was adopted in selecting the population of 407 respondents which included 122 personnel in oil and gas industries and 285 residents/oil host community members from the study areas. Primary and secondary data were used for the study. 2-Factor Analysis of Variance and Chi square statistical tools was adopted in testing the hypothesis formulated. On the basis of the calculation, FOtrt1 = 6.64 > FOtrt1 (0.05; 3, 6) = 4.76. The null hypothesis (H01) was rejected and the alternative hypothesis (H11) accepted since the calculated value FOtrt1(calculated value) (6.64) is greater than the table value FOtrt1(critical value) (4.76) at 95% confidence level. It was concluded that the perception of the severity of environmental degradation (FOtrt1) by the communities is significantly related to the rate of ecosystem protection activities in the study areas. The major findings were that there is obvious reduction in the perception of the severity of the effects of environmental degradation by the community members as the rate of ecosystem protection increases. It is recommended that there is the need for the review of the land laws in the Niger Delta so that land use management will be the collective responsibility of the stakeholders.