ANALYZING LAND COVER CHANGES AROUND PROTECTED AREAS IN AFRICA.

Keywords: Africa, Protected Areas, Land cover changes
Abstract Type: Paper Abstract

Abstract

In Africa, numerous protected areas have been established to protect wildlife and natural resources. However, significant anthropogenic threats and wildlife population declines persist, while conservation efforts in most protected areas remain minimal. This study examines the changes in land cover around protected areas in Africa for a 25-year period (1995-2020) using a time series analysis. We classified these changes into four broad land cover classes – forests, natural non-forest vegetation, agriculture, and barren land- using high-resolution satellite Landsat imagery. We created three mandated buffer zones (radii of 1 km, 5 km, and > 5 km) around each protected area to analyze the changes in vegetation cover within each buffer. We also investigated the drivers of land cover changes and compared the extent of the impacts of these changes on the environment and the socioeconomic progress of different countries across different climatic regions. We ranked the fifty-four African countries on a compliance scale that was based on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Possible pressures on human well-being were highlighted after the study. Our work will improve understanding of how socioeconomic progress (or lack thereof) could affect land conservation efforts and could aid data-driven and process-modeling approaches such as new models, model integration, and enhanced statistical analysis.