Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Forest Dynamics in the North of the Classified Forest of Haut-Sassandra During the Period of Armed Conflicts in Ivory Coast

2015; Science Publishing Group; Volume: 3; Issue: 5 Linguagem: Inglês

10.11648/j.ajls.20150305.17

2328-5702

Akoua Tamia Madeleine Kouakou,

Plant Diversity and Evolution

Ivory Coast (or Côte d'Ivoire) has experienced a succession of political and military crises from 2002 to 2011. This has resulted in a general degradation of the environment. In rural areas, the natural formations such classified forest of Haut-Sassandra (CFHS) in the West Central, underwent severe human pressure. This study, which took place in the northern part of the CFHS, aimed to determine the spatial and temporal evolution of the forest and its floristic composition during this time of conflicts. Two satellite images dated from 2001 and 2013 were the subject of a supervised classification from the maximum likelihood algorithm. Floristic surveys were used to determine the current state floristic diversity of CFHS compared to the situation prior to the conflicts. The results show that forest areas, representing 94 % of the area in 2001, increased to 34 % in 2013, representing an annual rate of 5 % of deforestation. About 13 % of species recorded before the conflict had disappeared in 2013. However, with 239 inventoried northern of CFHS remains a refuge area of the Ivorian plant diversity.