Degradation of the Classified Forest of Faya in Mali in the Period 1990-2020

Abstract

Mali's forests have been subjected to vast human pressures in recent decades. This Sahelian country where 90% of the population lives on 30% of the territory is very dependent on forest resources through multiple activities. Malian forest resources are subject to several pressures including, among others: agricultural clearing, accumulated consumption of wood and charcoal, harvesting of timber and services, pastoralism, hunting, bush fires which devastate more than 100,000 ha per year and also for reasons of traditional medicine. The classified forest of Faya, which covers an area of 80 000 ha, located 40 km from Bamako has not escaped this destruction despite its classification long before independence in the colonial period and after. This article aims to analyze the detection of changes in the condition of this forest and in the composition of plant formations over the last 30 years as a result of human activity. Using Landsat8 data from the Faya forest maps for 1990 and 2020, we have monitored the condition of Faya's classified forests for 30 years, resulting in severe degradation of almost all of its resources. If in 1990 the wooded savannah covered 40% of the area of this forest, 30 years later, in 2020, shrub savannah on bowe predominates with 72%, and gallery forests in 1990 occupied an area of 8667 ha, that is, 11% of the total area of forest resources Faya, in 2020 - 1377 ha, that is, only 1%. The detected changes in classified forest of Faya causes serious concern and requires preparation and adoption of serious measures for the sustainable forest management.