Fragmentation and Connectivity Analyses of African Forest Protected Areas

The African continent is hosting some of the richest ecosystems on the planet. Because of the particularly large number of species they are hosting, forests protected areas (FPAs) play an essential role in conservation programs as well as in the sustainable use of these natural resources. The contribution of FPAs as a means to reduce climate change impact further highlights the fundamental role played by these ecosystems and so the need to monitor changes to these habitats. Fragmentation is one of the various pressures on FPAs. It refers to spatial pattern processes with ecosystem loss and isolation (reduced connectivity) which leads to biodiversity loss. In this work, the isolation of the main African FPAs and the pattern characterization of habitats in and around the FPAs are at focus in view to assess threats and identify the areas that are most vulnerable (Hartley et al, 2007). In this paper. the spatial patterns of forests were investigated using the Global Land Cover (GLC) 2000 data over Africa. The GLC2000 maps are based on daily observations made from 1st November 1999 to 31st December 2000 by the VEGETATION sensor on the SPOT 4 satellite.JRC.DDG.H.3-Global environement monitorin