Land use and land cover dynamics in the Melap Forest Reserve, West Cameroon: implications for sustainable management

Abstract

The present study aims to analyse the dynamics of land use and land cover in the Melap Forest Reserve in West Cameroon on the basis of a diachronic analysis of Landsat 4 TM, Landsat 7 ETM+ and Landsat 8 OLI_TIRS images for the years 1988, 2000 and 2018 respectively. Satellite images were processed using ENVI and ArcGIS software. The results showed that The Melap Forest Reserve consists of five main classes of land use/land cover; namely, forest, savannah, bare soil, cropland and built-up area. The analysis showed an ongoing deforestation and degradation of the forest. The forest class has been steadily decreasing from 1345 ha in 1988 to 664 ha in 2018, corresponding to a total loss of 680.9 ha (around 49%) over the 30-year period. The decrease in forest has led to an increase in savannah (+ 315 ha from 1988 to 2018); cropland (+ 351 ha); as well as built-up (+ 9 ha) and bare soil (+ 6 ha). The local communities are the main actors of these changes, principally through agriculture, wood extraction and breeding. Then, the present study suggests participatory management, which includes local communities, for the restoration and the management of the study area.

Keywords

• spatio-temporal dynamic
• forest cover lost
• land use/land cover
• sustainable management
• melap forest reserve