Levers for the transformation of land use on the periphery of the Haut-Sassandra classified forest (Center-WEST of Ivory Coast)

The development of the agricultural sector in Côte d’Ivoire has led to profound changes in forest cover in general and around the protected areas of the State in particular. The aim of this work is to give an account of the process of mutation of the rural space of the classified forest of Haut-Sassandra for a better conservation of the latter. To achieve this objective, satellite images dating from 1997, 2002, 2006, 2013 and 2018 have been classified followed by observations and field surveys. The results show a reduction in forest cover in favour of agriculture. In fact, the forested areas that occupied 18.4% of the landscape in 1997 fell to 4% in 2018 with a conversion of more than 80% of the forested areas to crops. The latter are dominated by three perennial crops with associated food crops. Among these perennial crops, cocoa and coffee are the old ones and are essentially cultivated on a forest cultivation precedent, thus leading to a rarefaction of forest areas. While cashew trees, the third perennial crop, are more recent and were introduced into the area as a result of the increasing scarcity of forest areas. Thus, cashew trees are essentially cultivated on previous crops grown on fallow land and old plantations. published by the Journal of Biodiversity and Environmental Sciences | JBES