Identification of driving factors of land degradation and deforestation in the Wildlife Reserve of Bontioli (Burkina Faso, West Africa)

AbstractIn Africa, protected areas can play an important role in mitigating the effects of climate change through carbon sequestration but they are threatened due to increasing land degradation and deforestation (LDD). The Total Wildlife Reserve of Bontioli (TWRB) in Burkina Faso is one of the country’s refuges with high biodiversity. This reserve is seriously threatened by human activities, and little information is available about the on-site causes of degradation extent. This study was carried out to investigate drivers and extent of LDD in the TWRB. Household surveys, focus group discussions and field observations were used to identify socio-economic factors that influence land use and land cover (LULC) changes. The socio-economic data were analyzed using rankings and binary logistic regression techniques. Logistic regression model was used to establish the relationship between socio-economic drivers and land cover change. Remote sensing and GIS techniques were used to analyze land use and LULC changes over 29 years, employing Landsat images of 1984, 2001 and 2013. We performed a supervised classification based on the maximum likelihood algorithm to derive vegetation maps. The results revealed significant (p