FOREST MANAGEMENT AND LAND USE DYNAMICS IN THE WAKOU COMMUNAL FOREST AND DIAPANGOU SYLVOPASTORAL ZONE (BURKINA FASO)

In Burkina Faso, the degradation of forest resources has led to the implementation of strategies to preserve and restore plant formations. To this end, the Wakou communal forest (FC) and the Diapangousylvopastoral zone (ZSP), in the east of the country, have benefited from forest management. This study analyzes the impact of these management on vegetation by mapping the different land-use units. To this end, 08 Landsat images from 1989, 1999, 2009 and 2018 were processed. Field observations and data collection were used to perform a supervised classification using maximum likelihood. The results show that in the FC, the area of wooded savannah has increased significantly, rising from 1.95% in 1989 to 54.53% in 2018. Shrub savannah has decreased from 89.22% in 1989 to 42.14% in 2018. Fields have also declined, respectively from 13.55% in 1989 to 2.22% in 2018. In the ZSP, the results show that wooded savannah increased from 4.40% to 17.92% between 1989 and 2018. Shrub savannah regressed from 72.70% in 1989 to 55.50% in 2018. Fields increased from 16.34% to 22.55% over the same period. The change in land use units shows that in the FC, shrub savannah has regressed in favor of wooded savannah. It has gained 78.21ha and is the largest surface area at 83.76 ha. In the ZSP, shrub savannah decreased by 105.19 ha in favor of wooded savannah and by 69.10 ha in favor of fields. Monitoring of management activities is recommended to ensure sustainable management of the forest resource.