| Deforestation is one of the significant threats to C(?)te d’Ivoire biodiversity,despite harboring one of the world’s richest endemic fauna and flora nations.Forest landscape plays an essential role in biological diversity and strengthens climate change resilience.Despite being home to rich biodiversity,C(?)te d’Ivoire has lost almost 90% of its forest area in the last century due to habitat conversion to farmland,agriculture,logging,energy,infrastructure development,and mining exploration.It has,however,recently come under severe anthropological pressures as a result of rapid human population growth and conversion of native land to cash crop plantation agriculture which constitutes a serious threat to forest ecosystem and biodiversity conservation.Therefore,to better understand the impacts of deforestation on biodiversity,we carried out a study between 1985-2020(35 years).We collected data and analyzed the dynamics of forest cover and land use land cover change using satellite imagery data(Landsat,MODIS,and Sentinel),vegetation indices were analyzed using Random Forest(RF),Breaks for Additive Season,and Trend(BFAST)algorithms in RStudio and Google Earth Engine(GEE)platform,and socio-economic data were analyzed to understand the impact of deforestation on biodiversity respectively.The findings from the study are summarized below:(1).The findings show that the forest cover trend of Mount Peko National Park(PNMP)declined dramatically,with the cover rate decreasing by 16.65 % during the study period from 1985 to 2020(35 years).According to the findings of this study,43.16 %(13051.17 ha)of the entire park landscape has remained intact and stable;16.65 %(8454.69 ha)of the park has been converted to agricultural plantations,12.22 %(499.05 ha)of non-forest land has been regenerated to the forest,and 27.95 %(3697.83 ha)remains non-forest.The PNMP witnessed a severe decline in forest cover(2002-2012).The forest cover and tree biomass losses had regressed dramatically,leading to high biodiversity loss.The illicit cocoa farming cultivation in the park is primarily responsible for the accounted forest fragmentation.The spatial dynamics and forest cover conversion processes reveal a decline of 8454.69 ha in PNMP forest cover.Human activity associated with the politicomilitary conflict and the establishment of cocoa plantations inside the park resulted in animal population depletion,especially the loss of endangered species such as chimpanzees and forest elephants.(2).The findings from MODIS,Normalized Difference Vegetation Index(NDVI),and Enhanced vegetation index(EVI)time-series data between 1985 and 2020 show the changes detected within the vegetation cover(savannah).These changes were induced by severe climatic conditions,resulting in a temperature rise from 27.7oC to 32.17 oC and a decrease in precipitation(71.75mm).The observed alterations were associated with phenological shifts,such as decreasing green grass.The correlation analysis shows that precipitation and evapotranspiration Grass(p-0.413)is significant at the 0.01 level.In comparison,temperature and evapotranspiration Grass(p-0.311)is significant at the 0.05 level,and the correlation between temperature and NDVI have correlations(p-0.468)at the 0.05 level.(3).Between 2014-2020,land cover and land-use change show that agriculture is the dominant activity and the main driver of deforestation in the area.Landsat 8 and Sentinel data,the primary forest class(Thick_Forest class)and deciduous forest class(Clear_Drill class)lost 125904.13 ha and 172349.91 ha,respectively.About 35% of the forest area has been lost to agricultural farmland.The findings also reveal that the Palm_Oil plantation class lost 87266.52 ha,during the Water_Bodies class lost 682.82 ha.In contrast to the Thick_Forest,Clear_Drill,and Water classes,the Urban style expanded by 515.52 ha,the Bareland class increased by 98244 ha,and the Cultivated land class increased by 116544.33 ha.The findings show that agriculture dominated land cover and land-use change,resulting in plant biomass decline and increased demand for forest resources.(4).The findings showed that C(?)te d’Ivoire’s forest heritage is classified as natural forests,reforested forests,classified forests,protected areas,and rural regions by 2020.The findings reveal a decreased number of some animal and plant species.The animal species,including Cephalophus zebra,Cephalophus silvicultor,Pan troglodytes,Syncerus cafer,Loxodonta Africana,Choeropsis libreiensis,are all threatened by poaching and are no longer found in significant quantities in the woodlands of C(?)te d’Ivoire.Several indigenous tree species are becoming extinct due to the timber trade and deforestation.Only 2.8% of indigenous species account for a tiny proportion of forest stands that declined dramatically across C(?)te d’Ivoire agroecological zones.According to the study,all of these animal and plant species have reduced their populations due to unethical use of forest resources.A conservation and preservation approach has been devised to conserve biodiversity in ever-increasing difficulties.Finally,the overall landscape structural dynamics during the period reveal a fragmentation and reduction of forest cover to the advantage of the cocoa plantations establishment.It’s,therefore,imperative to strengthen the monitoring capacity of the forest authority to eradicate the increasing scourge of deforestation from cocoa cultivation.In summary,the different data and methods used show that there has been a dynamic in land use and forest cover change during the period from 1985 to 2020.The cause of these changes is deforestation caused by human activities,which impacts biodiversity.The visual analysis of the maps and the change detection transition matrix analysis showed significant changes in the forest classes,with percentages of conversion to a non-forest class higher than the rate of forest regeneration in the PNMP.The evolution of the NDVI vegetation index,particularly in the PNMP from 1985 to 2020,showed a decrease in biomass and trees,with high deforestation rates.The deforestation rate is high,especially in the forest classes,with 1.56% in Thick_Forest and 0.56% in Clear_Drill in the Soubré area.The impact of deforestation on the land cover has resulted in the change of occupation and use of the land and the regression of plant and animal species. |
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