DYNAMIQUESPATIO-TEMPORELLE DE LOCCUPATION DU SOL DE LA FORET CLASSEE DE KOUROUNGOUSSAOU AU NIGER

In Niger, classified forests are experiencing land use changes due to climate change and anthropogenic pressure effects. The study was conducted in the commune of Chadakori with the aim of assessing the evolving trends in land use/occupation of the Kouroungoussaou classified forest. To do this, a cartographic approach based on the processing of a time series of multi-sensor Landsat images (TM, ETM+, OLI) from the years 1975, 1988, 2000, 2012 and 2022, and GIS operations was adopted. The supervised classification method applied with significant accuracy made it possible to identify the forest land use/occupation classes. Socio-economic surveys were carried out to collect the perception of the populations on the forest changes and their causes. The sample is composed of 389 households belonging to ten (10) villages bordering the forest. Results show that, from 1975 to 2022, four (4) land use units were identified in the forest, namely Crops under wooded parkland, Pastures, Continuous rainfed crops and Bare soil. Change detection revealed 12 transitions in land use classes between 1975 and 2022, the most significant of which are those of Crops under wooded parkland and Pastures with losses of 85.44 and 61.85% of their respective areas in favor of Continuous rainfed crops and Bare soil with respective area gains of 81.79 and 375.81%.