Assessment of deforestation in the Mbujimayi region

Ambroise Ndjibu Ebondo Kenga

  1. Institut Supérieur Pédagogique de Mbujimayi

  Open Access - Under a Creative Commons license

Abstract

Deforestation in Africa and mainly in the Democratic Republic of Congo is a poorly measured phenomenon. It causes the disappearance of many plant and animal species. The latest assessment from the Food and Agriculture Organization finds that 13 million hectares of forests disappeared each year between 2000 and 2005.

This study is based on the remote sensing assessment of deforestation in the watersheds of the middle and lower Lubi, Sankuru and upper Lubefu to the West and North of the town of MbujiMayi in central DRC . It is a study which aims to evaluate the dynamics of land use using remote sensing mapping and geographic information systems techniques.

We used Landsat images LT51760641986189XXX03_sr_BC (1986) and LC08_L1TP_176064_20170627_20170714_cb (2017) to map land use, the post-classification method was used, four classes were retained in order to apply a GIS under QGIS 2.14.13 Essen and facilitate the calculations of spatial indices. The annual rate of deforestation was used to quantify forest landscape fragmentation.

From the results obtained, all the different methods prove that there has been a change in land use in the space of 31 years. The spatially descriptive indices were cross-referenced to define and evaluate the degree of deforestation in this area. Thus, by comparing the results obtained, we noted that the forest landscape is changing in these watersheds. Fragmentation remains intense for the dense forest classes in all three basins and degraded only in that of Lubefu.

This state of affairs allows us to plan the continuation of this study by considering the reforestation of the region in the cultivation of perennial plants such as elaeis palms and coffee trees.


This article has been originally published in French. Please click on "PDF Version" below to view the original PDF or click on the Flag to see the french page of the article → 
  • Français

 Download the PDF