Effects of Land-Use Practices on Woody Plant Cover Dynamics in Sahelian Agrosystems in Burkina Faso since the 1970s–1980s Droughts

Wendpouiré Arnaud Zida, Babou André Bationo and Jean-Philippe Waaub
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Wendpouiré Arnaud Zida: Institut de l’Environnement et de Recherches Agricoles (INERA), DEF, Ouagadougou 04 BP 8645 04, Burkina Faso
Babou André Bationo: Institut de l’Environnement et de Recherches Agricoles (INERA), DEF, Ouagadougou 04 BP 8645 04, Burkina Faso
Jean-Philippe Waaub: Département de Géographie, Université du Québec à Montréal, GEIGER, GERAD, CP 8888 succ. Centre-Ville, Montréal, QC H3C 3P8, Canada

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 21, 1-20

Abstract: The 1970s–1980s droughts in the Sahel caused a significant degradation of land and plant cover. To cope with this situation, populations have developed several biophysical and social adaptation practices. Many of these are agroforestry practices and contribute to the maintenance of agrosystems. Unfortunately, they remain insufficiently documented and their contributions to the resilience of agrosystems insufficiently evaluated. Many authors widely link the regreening in the Sahel after droughts to the resumption of rainfall. This study examines the contribution of agroforestry practices to the improvement of woody plant cover in the North of Burkina Faso after the 1970s–1980s droughts. The examination of practices is carried out by integrating the rainfall, soil, and geomorphology variables. Landsat images are used to detect changes in woody plant cover: increasing, decreasing, and no-change in the Enhanced Vegetation Index. In addition, 230 field observations, coupled with interviews conducted on the different categories of change, have allowed to characterize the biophysical environment and identify land-use practices. The results show a variability of vegetation index explained to 9% (R 2 = 0.09) by rainfall. However, Chi-Squared independence tests show a strong dependence between changes in woody plant cover and geomorphology ( p = 0.0018 *), land use, land cover ( p = 0.0001 *), and land-use practices ( p = 0.0001 *). Our results show that rainfall alone is not enough to explain the dynamics of agrosystems’ woody plant cover. Agricultural and social practices related to the dynamics of farmer perceptions play a key role.

Keywords: Sahelian agrosystem; land degradation; agroforestry; land-use practices; regreening in the Sahel (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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