Systematic Review Maps Lagos Urban Forest Governance Gaps for Climate Resilience

A new systematic review of peer-reviewed research on the city concludes that fragmented governance limits the contribution of urban forests and green infrastructure to climate resilience, public wellbeing and equitable urban development.

The study, led by Quadri Olatunbosun Taiwo and colleagues, set out to map and synthesize peer-reviewed empirical research on urban and community forestry governance in Lagos State published between 2016 and 2025. The team searched Scopus, Web of Science Core Collection, Environment Complete, the Directory of Open Access Journals, Google Scholar and the reference lists of included studies, retrieving 437 records before deduplication. After removing 212 duplicates, 225 unique records were screened on title and abstract, 99 went forward to full-text assessment, and 79 were excluded for reasons ranging from being reviews or editorials to lacking governance relevance or Lagos-specific analysis. Twenty studies ultimately met all eligibility criteria.

The review followed the PRISMA 2020 reporting standard and framed its eligibility decisions around the Population-Concept-Context approach. Notably, the authors are transparent that although a protocol was prepared before screening, it was never prospectively registered, so the review should be read as an unregistered PRISMA-guided synthesis. Because the twenty included studies were highly heterogeneous, spanning household surveys, qualitative case studies, remote sensing analyses, economic valuation work and site-based management assessments, the researchers judged meta-analysis inappropriate and instead carried out a narrative and thematic synthesis. Each study was also appraised on five methodological domains, with eighteen studies rated as higher-confidence evidence and two as moderate confidence.

The included evidence clustered into three governance layers. The first concerns land and spatial planning, the upstream processes that determine whether space for trees and parks even exists. Studies from megaproject corridors showed that land acquisition, development control, permitting and compensation processes can institutionalize vulnerability when economic objectives are prioritized over social and environmental safeguards. Research in Lagos Mainland regularisation communities identified administrative complexity, rent-seeking and high charges as barriers that keep land out of the formal governance system, sustaining unplanned conversion pressures that erode green corridors. Work in Epe found that formal tenure is not necessarily linked to better development outcomes, with informal gatekeeping playing a mediating role.

The second theme documents what Lagos residents already know from daily experience: green infrastructure is highly valued but unevenly provided. Survey evidence across the included studies points to uneven access, variable service quality, maintenance gaps, safety concerns and affordability issues. A household survey in six local government areas found that green-space maintenance is financed through voluntary donations and taxation, and that willingness to contribute varies across socio-demographic groups. A large neighbourhood survey found that residents perceive green infrastructure as poor in quality and quickly disappearing, although proximity, relaxation, utility and size were the attributes most strongly linked to pro-environmental attitudes. In parks in Ikeja, users flagged maintenance and security deficits, while in Ibeju-Lekki satisfaction depended on amenities, safety and accessibility.

The strongest baseline evidence in the entire review came from ward and local government area level street-tree enumeration. That inventory provided robust evidence of distributional inequality in forageability, species richness and abundance, with the greatest concentrations of trees found in wealthier neighbourhoods. Market signals reinforced the picture: on the Lagos Island Axis, nearby green spaces were associated with higher rents, but only when those green areas had features that genuinely improve quality of life. Taken together, the authors argue, these signals provide a basis for equity-sensitive prioritisation, particularly when linked to ward- or LGA-level planning where service deficits and willingness-to-pay evidence can be identified.

The third theme examined asset-level institutional capacity at specific parks and reserves, most notably the Lekki Conservation Centre and the Lekki Urban Forest and Animal Shelter Initiative. A comparative management-effectiveness assessment of the two sites, combined with tourist surveys, identified legal security, infrastructure, communication, staffing, finance, and monitoring and evaluation as practical indicators of how well conservation objectives are institutionalized. Visitor-demand analyses showed that attractions and perceptions at the Lekki Conservation Centre are linked to intentions to return and to endorse the location, suggesting that upkeep and service standards are pivotal to long-term public value. Studies of pandemic-era operations documented staff precautions, crowd supervision and positive perceptions of crowd management, offering something of a stress test for institutional readiness. The authors are careful to stress that these findings are site-specific and should not be generalized to all Lagos green assets.

A crucial caveat runs through the entire synthesis: the relationships between land governance and urban forestry outcomes are pathways, not proven causes. Most included studies were cross-sectional, which limits longitudinal inference, and several land administration studies are only indirectly linked to urban forestry. The authors therefore interpret land acquisition, regularisation and compensation processes as governance pathways that may shape the availability of land for urban and community forestry and the distribution of its potential benefits, rather than as direct causal evidence of tree outcomes. Evidence is strongest for street-tree distribution, land-cover change, perceptions of green infrastructure and selected site-level management practices, and weakest for long-term governance change across successive administrations.

The review also acknowledges significant gaps in its own evidence base. African Journals Online was not searched, a decision the authors say may have reduced the visibility of Lagos- and Nigeria-focused scholarship published in African journals outside the major databases. Grey literature, including government gazettes, policy memos, agency reports, donor assessments and consultancy outputs, was also excluded, which the authors describe as a major constraint because practical governance evidence frequently resides with public agencies and local institutions rather than in peer-reviewed journals. Google Scholar results are only partially reproducible owing to variation in ranking with date, location and browsing history, and source-by-source retrieval counts were not retained.

Despite these limitations, the review arrives at concrete recommendations. It proposes piloting a State of Urban Forestry Report in selected local government areas before scaling up, involving agencies responsible for environment and parks, physical planning, land administration, housing, public works and public health. Minimum reporting indicators would cover street-tree and park distribution, land conversion affecting green space, development approvals with green infrastructure conditions, service quality, maintenance status, safety concerns, visitor pressure, budget allocation and reinvestment. Equity safeguards should direct reporting priorities toward underserved wards rather than high-visibility areas. On the practice side, the authors recommend an inventory-prioritise-deliver-maintain-monitor cycle beginning with simple baselines, and they explicitly warn against one-off planting campaigns without maintenance plans. Future research, they conclude, should prioritize private-tree coverage, recognitional justice measures, evidence from African journals and grey literature, and longitudinal monitoring of how planning controls and budget decisions actually shape green infrastructure delivery in Lagos.

Subject of Research: Urban forest governance and green infrastructure for climate resilience in Lagos, Nigeria

Article Title: A systematic review of Urban forest governance and green infrastructure for climate resilience in Lagos, Nigeria

Article References: Taiwo, Q. O., Nnadi, K. I., Tonade, E. A., Oluyege, D. E., Oyeniyi, W. A., & Baruwa, N. (2026). A systematic review of Urban forest governance and green infrastructure for climate resilience in Lagos, Nigeria. Discover Cities, 3(1), Article 210. https://doi.org/10.1007/s44327-026-00390-1

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1007/s44327-026-00390-1

Keywords: urban forestry, Lagos, green infrastructure, climate resilience, systematic review, land governance, environmental justice, street trees, urban planning, Nigeria, nature-based solutions, park management