Two decades of land cover change and anthropogenic pressure around Bontioli Nature Reserve in Burkina Faso

Publication Type

Journal Article

Name of Author

• Issaka Abdou Razakou KIRIBOU, Haramaya University, EthiopiaFollow
• Kangbéni Dimobe, Insititut des Sciences de l'Environnement et du Développement Rural (ISEDR), Université Daniel Ouezzin Coulibaly, Burkina Faso
• Lassane Yameogo, Université Joseph KI-ZERBO, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
• Huiyi Yang, University of Greenwich, Chatham Maritime, ME4 4TB, United Kingdom
• Truly Santika, University of Greenwich, Chatham Maritime, ME4 4TB, United Kingdom
• Sintayehu W. Dejene, The International Center for Tropical Agriculture, Ethiopia

Publication Date (Issue Year)

2024

Journal Name

Environmental Challenges

Abstract

Protected areas (PAs) are critical for ecosystem maintenance and providing services that benefit both wildlife and people. Nevertheless, climate change and anthropogenic pressures are posing an increasing challenge. Surrounded by high human population densities, there is still a paucity of information on how the land cover in Burkina Faso's PAs is changing, and what kinds of human activities are the main drivers. In this study, we examined the change in land use and land cover (LULC) in the Bontioli Nature Reserve (NR), one of Burkina Faso's most important protected areas, and assessed anthropogenic pressure within and around. Landsat imagery (ETM+ and OLI-TIRS) is used to categorise and estimate the change in LULC in 2000, 2010, and 2022 with the Random Forest algorithm on the Google Earth Engine platform. Regression analysis was applied to examine the relationship between the LULC categories and population increase. We found significant changes and correlations in LULC trends and population growth over time. From 2000 to 2022, wooded savanna, tree savanna, and shrub savanna decreased by 20.8 %, 6.8 %, and 4.5 %, respectively, while cropland increased by 26.3 %, along with grass savanna by 5 %. Population growth correlated with increased agriculture and decreased vegetative area with R² of 0.903 and 0.793, respectively. Efforts should be made to create harmony between humans and nature through various approaches such as nature-based solutions to enable efforts for the reserve sustainable management (SDG15).

Keywords

Anthropogenic pressure, Bontioli, Conservation Landsat, Protected area, Nature-based solutions, Burkina Faso

Rsif Scholar Name

Issaka Abdou Razakou KIRIBOU

Rsif Scholar Nationality

Burkina Faso

Cohort

Cohort 4

Thematic Area

Climate Change

Africa Host University (AHU)

Haramaya University, Ethiopia

Funding Statement

Partnership for Skills in Applied Sciences, Engineering, and Technology (PASET) Regional Scholarship Innovation Funds (RSIF) with fund number ICIPE_RS192. We are grateful to the Natural Resources Institute (NRI) at the University of Greenwich, United Kingdom, for their support and guidance during our internship

Recommended Citation

KIRIBOU, I. A., Dimobe, K., Yameogo, L., Yang, H., Santika, T., & Dejene, S. W. (2024). Two decades of land cover change and anthropogenic pressure around Bontioli Nature Reserve in Burkina Faso. Environmental Challenges, 17, 101025. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envc.2024.101025