Suivi de l’anthropisation du paysage dans la région forestière de Babagulu, République Démocratique du Congo

The Babagulu forest region here concerns the Babagulu Forest Reserve (BFR) and its periphery. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, the forest region of Babagulu is under anthropogenic pressure, notably due to its proximity to the city of Kisangani. These anthropic pressures remain little documented and their impacts on this forest landscape remain poorly understood. The purpose of this study is to regularly monitor the anthropization of the landscape of the RFB. The methodological approach adopted is based on techniques of remote sensing, cartography and landscape ecology. The Landsat TM (1984, 1986, 1990, 1994 and 2010), ETM + (2001 and 2005) and OLI (2015 and 2018) satellite images, all of 30m spatial resolution, were used to map the land cover in three classes (primary forest, fallow land/degraded forest and rural complex). The calculation of ten spatial indices made it possible to characterize the composition and configuration of the landscape between 1984 and 2018. These spatial indices include the number of spots, the average spot size, the perimeter density, the aggregation index, largest fragment index, landscape shape index, mean Euclidean distance to nearest neighbor and fractal dimension, variation and absolute, fractal dimension and contagion index. The results show a significant regression of the primary forest for the benefit of the anthropic classes (rural complexes and fallow land and degraded forests) outside (R²= 0.98; p <0.01) than inside (R²= 0.99; p <0.01) of the reserve. The landscape structure becomes more complex over the years. It should also be noted that there is a gradual fragmentation of primary forests highlighted by the continuous increase in the number (+310) and the density of patch perimeters (+14 m/ha) and the impressive decrease in their average area (-223 ha). Also, the average distance separating two neighboring spots increased from 119.30 meters in 1984 to 123.57 meters in 2018 (a difference of 4.27 meters) signaling an increased isolation of the spots. These results show the need for effective management of land use outside the reserve in order to preserve the biodiversity found there