State and evolution of the African rainforests between 1990 and 2010

This paper presents a 2005 map of Africa’s rainforests with new levels of spatial and thematic detail, being derived from 250m resolution MODIS data, and having an overall accuracy of 84%. A systematic sample of Landsat images (with supplemental data from equivalent platforms to fill sample gaps) is used to produce a consistent assessment of deforestation between 1990, 2000 and 2010 for West Africa, Central Africa and Madagascar. Net deforestation is estimated at 0.28% yr-1 for the period 1990-2000 and 0.14% yr-1 for the period 2000-2010. West Africa and Madagascar exhibit a much higher deforestation rate than the Congo Basin. Based on a simple analysis of the variance over the Congo Basin, we show that expanding agriculture and increasing fuelwood demands are key drivers of deforestation while well-controlled timber exploitation programmes have little or no direct influence on forest-cover reduction at present. Rural and urban population concentrations and fluxes are identified as strong underlying causes of deforestation in this study.

MAYAUX Philippe;  PEKEL Jean Francois;  DESCLÉE Baudouin;  DONNAY François;  LUPI Andrea;  ACHARD Frederic;  CLERICI Marco;  BODART Catherine;  NASI Robert;  BRINK Andreas;  BELWARD Alan; 

2013-08-05

ROYAL SOC

JRC80555

0962-8436,   

http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/368/1625/20120300.full,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC80555,   

10.1098/rstb.2012.0300,