Paradigm Change for a Better Vegetation Management in a Context of Land-cover Deterioration: The Case of Gaoua District (Burkina Faso)

Abstract

Forest resources has experienced natural and anthropogenic pressure various adverse effects manifested by their continued degradation over the years in the district of Gaoua. This degradation is continuing in spite of policies and many investments aiming at changing this dynamics on the basis of a diagnosis which determined its causes. Why is this regressive trend outstanding? Which solutions can be considered? The objective of this article is to contribute to a better understanding of land cover degradation dynamics in the district of Gaoua in revisiting degradation factor hierarchy to offer a new orientation for vegetation cover protection policy. Remote sensing, spatial analysis, social surveys and field observations through toposequences were carried out. We retain from this study that the degradation is and remains multifactorial and that the causes formerly identified are always actual: agricultural production system, climatic deterioration, using wood as main energy source, timber use in large scale craft production (building construction, production tool etc.). What has changed is their respective contributions. Now firewood comes in first place among land cover degradation causes due to population growth and energy needs; efficiency of agricultural policies that have led to a gradual intensification of agricultural systems and new production tool importation. Beyond the continuation of agricultural intensification, preservation of vegetation cover requires, in this context, to fundamentally review the issue of access to energy. The development of alternative energies such as biogas, solar energy, wind energy and improving energy consumption efficiency are required. It is therefore urgent to rethink the question of vegetation resource protection by mainstreaming, as in agriculture, population energy needs.