Impact of cocoa cultivation in the forest-savannah transition zone of western Cte dIvoire

Abstract

The mountainous relief of Western Region of Côte d'Ivoire, as well as large savannas bordering the dense semi-deciduous forests, did not make this part of the country an area suitable for cocoa cultivation. However, in search of forest land for cocoa cultivation, a large influx of people has been observed in this area over the last decade. The objective of this study is to assess the impact of human pressure due to population migrations for cocoa cultivation on vegetation degradation in the western mountainous region. To achieve this, the methodology consisted of digital processing of a set of three Landsat satellite images from 1985, 2002 and 2018, and interviews with cocoa plantation owners in the study area. The results showed that between 2002 and 2018, the annual rates of forest and savannah loss were 8.6 and 0.7% respectively. This loss is to the benefit of new cocoa farms, which are increasing annually by 12.6%. Also, the period 2002 to 2018 corresponds to the period of strong migration of producers in the zone with a settlement rate of 85.5%.

Google Earth Engine for Landsat Image Processing and Assessing Lulc Classification in Southwestern Côte D’ivoire

“…Previous land-use and land-cover mapping investigations in the southwest area of the Côte d'Ivoire related significant human pressures due to the conversion of large expanses of the forest into agricultural land (Barima et al, 2016(Barima et al, , 2020Kouassi et al, 2021). This region is dominated by export crop production, accounting for over half of total cocoa output in the nation (Ruf & Zadi 1998;Koua et al, 2020). Each year, hundreds of hectares of forests are taken from national parks and protected areas, a process known as deforestation (Ruf et al, 2015;Koua et al, 2020).…”

“…This region is dominated by export crop production, accounting for over half of total cocoa output in the nation (Ruf & Zadi 1998;Koua et al, 2020). Each year, hundreds of hectares of forests are taken from national parks and protected areas, a process known as deforestation (Ruf et al, 2015;Koua et al, 2020). This is an important finding since it suggests that forest destruction is rising at a nearly exponential pace.…”