A Study On Land Use And Land Cover Changes In The Rumpi Hills Forests Of Cameroon

Land use and land cover changes generate many ecological problems at global and local scales including biodiversity loss,greenhouse gas emissions and vegetation cover change.These changes are generally due to direct(proximate)causes which involve human actions that originate from intended land use and which directly affect land cover or involve a physical action on land cover.These direct causes include agricultural expansion,infrastructure development,wood extraction,and biophysical conditions.These causes may also be indirect(underlying)causes which may be fundamental forces(social,political,economic,and demographic)that buttress the direct causes and operate more from a distance,most often by altering one or more direct causes.Through a combination of satellite and field survey data,this study assessed the relationship between household characteristics;land use and land cover change of adjacent villages around the Rumpi hills forests area.The Rumpi hills forests is one of the last remnants of the Congo Basin tropical montane forests,located in the South West Region of Cameroon.The study also used primary weather data and household livelihood surveys,to identify a broad range of climate variability that combine to create different adaptation and household livelihood outcomes.This information was used to explore the ways in which livelihoods have changed and adapted as well as considered the factors that have contributed to these outcomes.From 2014-2017),various household characteristics and socioeconomic data were collected from over 1500 households across 39 villages and four selected sites through household surveys and focus group discussions.Additionally,Landsat7 ETM+(2000)and Landsat8 OLI(2014)images and topographic maps were utilized to quantify land use and land cover change around the Rumpi hills forest area.The Rumpi hills forest contain the characteristic horse-shoe shaped Rumpi Hills Forest Reserve created by Forestry Ordinance No 38 of 1937 and approved by Forestry Ordinance No 16756/79 of 2nd July,1941.The Rumpi hills forest area is a biodiversity hotspot and a sanctuary for threatened fauna and flora.Despite being under threat from agriculture,wood harvesting,conflicts,roads,and human settlements,the area does not have any official land use and land cover change pattern maps.It also does not have quantitative statements of the existing land uses including no management plans for the reserve.Aerial photographs,Geographical Information Systems(GIS)and remotely sensed data providing accurate and timely geospatial information to illustrate local land use and land cover dynamics,are unavailable for the entire area.Factors such as data scarcity,corruption,financial constraints,absence of competent geoinformatics engineers and bureaucracy account for the absence of historical as well as current land use,land cover data and management plans.The present study observed that between 2000 and 2014,dense forest dropped from 92.1%to 90.2%while settlements increased from 744.6 to 2148.8 hectares.Also,farmlands increased by 18.25%representing a change from 9400.4 to 11117.16 hectares.Direct drivers of land use and land cover change included agricultural expansion,economic opportunities and population growth.Indirect drivers included inadequate forest management initiatives and recurrent poverty.Meanwhile,land use changes were more pronounced towards the western and southern borders due to agricultural and economic opportunities.Similarly,the study observed decreasing amounts of rainfall,receding forests,increasing temperatures and water scarcity,and increasing costs of living.Climate adaptation strategies included adjusting sowing dates,adopting petty trading and changing cropping patterns.Additionally,household characteristics such as uneducated heads,male heads and and years of residence significantly influenced the use of forest resources around the villages.While forest dependence was mostly conditioned by the household's ability to farm,forest abundance,and unemployment,annual household income was mainly derived from agriculture and forest resources.Land and tree-based interventions that improve soil fertility should be promoted among smallholder farmers to ensure the sustainability of forested areas in Cameroon.