Long Term Evaluation of Green Vegetation Cover Dynamic in the Atacora Mountain Chain(Togo) and its Relation to Carbon Sequestration in West Africa

The research was done in the Atacora Mountain chain in Togo which tended to assess the change of vegetation cover during a 24-year period.It also aims to evaluate the dynamic of the net primary productivity(NPP) of the living plants over the same period.The Landsat imagery covering three different periods(1987, 2000, and 2011) was pre-processed to correct atmospheric and radiometric parameters as well as gapfilling the 2011 SCL-off images.Then, the vegetation indices such as NDVI(normalized difference vegetation index), SR(simple ratiovegetation index), SAVI(soil-adjusted vegetation index), and CASA(carnegie- ames- stanford approach)model for NPP were applied on these images after masking the study area.The results showed a quiet decrease in the vegetation cover.The vegetation loss was more significant from 2000 to 2011 than from1987 to 2000, and anthropogenic activities can be deemed as the main cause of the vegetation loss.The biomass assessment by NPP computation also showed a decrease over the time.Similar to the change of the vegetation cover, the ecosystem net productivity was very low in 2011 compared to 2000 and 1987.It seems that the general health condition of thevegetation, including its potentiality in carbon sinking,was negatively affected in this area, which has already been under threatened.A perpetual monitoring of these ecosystems by means of efficient techniques could enhance the sustainable management tools of in the framework of reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation(REDD).

Satellite monitoring of land-use and land-cover changes in northern Togo protected areas

Remote-sensing data for protected areas in northern Togo, obtained in three different years （2007, 2000, and 1987）, were used to assess and map changes in land cover and land use for this drought prone zone. The normalized difference vegetation index （NDVI） was applied to the images to map changes in vegetation. An unsupervised classification, followed by classes recoding, filtering, identifications, area computing and post-classification process were applied to the composite of the three years of NDVI images. Maximum likelihood classification was applied to the 2007 image （ETM＋2007） using a supervised classification process. Seven vegetation classes were defined from training data sets. The seven classes included the following biomes： riparian forest, dry forest, flooded vegetation, wooded savanna, fallows, parkland, and water. For these classes, the overall accuracy and the overall kappa statistic for the classi- fied map were 72.5% and 0.67, respectively. Data analyses indicated a great change in land resources; especially between 1987 and 2000 proba- bly due to the impact of democratization process social, economic, and political disorder from 1990. Wide-scale loss of vegetation occurred during this period. However, areas of vegetation clearing and regrowth were more visible between 2000 and 2007. The main source of confusion in the contingency matrix was due to heterogeneity within certain classes. It could also be due to spectral homogeneity among the classes. This research provides a baseline for future ecological landscape research and for the next management program in the area.

Assessment and impact of anthropogenic disturbances in protected areas of northern Togo

These days, human activities in the savanna and the remaining dry and riparian forests of the Sudanian ecoregions continue to have their impact. These anthropogenic practices are still the main cause of disturbances in these areas. In order to investigate and assess the importance of these disturbances, caused by people bordering on protected areas and to determine the relation between these activities and the environment in which they are carried out, 220 samples were selected in the three main protected areas of northern Togo. The investigation was mainly qualitative, considering the floristic sampling of this drought area; any anthropogenic activities observed were recorded. A simple investigative questionnaire about the activities of rural people in the reserved areas was distributed to individuals encountered in the study area. Each sample in the investigation ended with a site description of its ecologi- cal characterization, i.e., soil features, topography, fauna footprints, dominant plant species and GPS position; we also took photo- graphs of the site. Data processing was entirely based on descriptive statistics and a factor analysis. The results show that eight kinds of human activities, i.e., the use of pastures, tree cutting, bush fires, charcoal production, harvesting of plant material, fanning, honey harvesting and hunting, were noted to be serious disturbances to the integrity of the ecosystems. Among these disturbances, three are recurrent in all the sampled areas of which the use of pastures accounts for 31.88%, tree cutting for 30.35% and bush fires for 30.13%. Fire and pasture disturbances are closely linked and are responsible for the current features of the savanna area of the region. Tree cutting is more a direct function of the need for the production of wood fuel, generally used by city populations. Hunting, farm- ing and honey production are of lesser importance in the area and therefore, do not pose a significantly negative effect on the growth of fauna and flora. Knowledge of these disturbances in the context of requalification and a renewed demarcation of protected areas in Togo is essential for their sustainable management.

Assessment of the Protected Areas Strategy in Togo under Sustainable Management: The Case Study of Oti-Keran, Togodo, and Abdoulaye Faunal Reserve

This study aims to identify the drivers of environmental degradation due to the dependency of surrounding residents on three protected areas in Togo, Africa (Oti-Keran, Togodo, and Abdoulaye national parks (abbr. OTA national parks)). Surveys of villagers conducted in and around the OTA national parks added to data downloaded from Indexmundi data portal. National-level trend analysis results indicated: 1) the number of terrestrial protected areas showed an upward trend, while savannah and forest cover showed alarming decrease trends. 2) At the local level, supplying socio-economic needs in the three selected protected areas directly resulted in biodiversity degradation through animal grazing, hunting and farming. 3) Over 70% of the respondent’s livelihoods consisted of farming and related dependencies on the protected areas for timber and non-timber forest products and income despite the protected status hold by these classified areas. 4) The OTA national parks have been experiencing an increase of anthropogenic pressure such as uncontrolled tree logging and hunting, which seriously impacts animal and vegetation biodiversity. 5) Policymakers should invest more resources in implementing an integrated management system based not only on a holistic vision of the PA that includes participatory management but also accounts for multi-dimensional principles to enable anthropogenic activities in and around the protected areas to satisfy sustainable development requirements.