Fish Diversity and Abundance Using Statistical Modelling in Hadejia-Nguru Wetlands (HNWs), Nigeria: An Adaptive Environmental Assessment

Abstract

Fisheries and aquaculture plays a significant role in the Nigerian economy by providing employment, diversifying livelihoods, providing animal nutrition, and earning returns on foreign exchange. Fish is an important economic factor for many nations, as serves as a staple diet in many countries. As evident, in many developed nations, fishing is a crucial source of livelihood, particularly for low-income families in rural areas, where it offer local jobs in many communities and is a key source of food for millions. Over the past few decades, fish populations have deteriorated dramatically, and species at risk have experienced growing environmental challenges. Dams, overfishing, pollution, erosion, soil loss and other human activities are main threats to fisheries ecology. The presents study aimed to analyze the decline in diversity of the fish, adaptive management of artisanal fishermen in the wetlands of Hadejia-Nguru, Guri local government area of Jigawa State and to explore the correlation of environmental factors for the decline in fish diversity. In this study the data were collected through questionnaire interview (QI), focus group conversation (FGD), and field data collection (FDC), and the test objectives were accomplished via the analysis workflow. Geostatistical software was used to analyze the information obtained from QI, FGD and other sources while other auxiliary data and field data were collected using GPS receiver. The research findings can be considered as a tools for decision-making, policy-making, management plan development, fish conservation strategies plan and ultimately help to achieve the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 1, 2, 8, 14 and 15 of the 2030 agenda.