Assessing the Impacts of Land Use and land cover change on Pastoral Livestock Farming in South-Eastern Burkina Faso

Sophie A Kima,Andre Kiema,A A Okhimamhe

doi:10.5539/enrr.v6n1p110

Abstract

<p class="1Body">Conversion of pastures to cropland is one of the most important issues facing livestock farming in Burkina Faso. This study examined the impact of land use/cover change on pastoral livestock farming in Boulgou province between 1980 and 2013. Landsat satellite images (1989, 2001 and 2013) and socio-economic data were analysed. The interpretation of the classified Landsat images revealed an increase in cropland from 20.5% in 1989 to 36.7% in 2013. This resulted mainly from the conversion of woody savannah and shrub and grass savannah to cropland. Pastoral livestock farmers reported that the major drivers of vegetation loss were drought (95.1 %), population growth (91.8%), cropland increase (91.4%), extraction of fuel wood (69.8%) and increase in livestock population (65.4). These changes affect livestock farming through reduction of pasture, poor access to water and reduction of livestock mobility routes according to the farmers. This calls for regional and national policies to protect grazing areas in Burkina Faso that are similar to policies being implemented for forest and other types of vegetation cover in other countries. For such pastoral policies to be successful, issues concerning the mobility of livestock farmers must be enshrined into such policies and this study is an example of information source for these policies.</p>

Highlights

Livestock production is undergoing a geographic shift from rural to peri-urban areas, from ruminant to monogastric species and towards source of feedstuff, competing directly for land, water and other natural resources in the midst of scarcity
This study examined the impact of land use/cover change on pastoral livestock farming in Boulgou province between 1980 and 2013
It can be deduced from the land use and land cover maps of 1989 and 2001 that the changes that occurred in cropland and bare land were persistent in the northern part of the province

Summary

Introduction

Livestock production is undergoing a geographic shift from rural to peri-urban areas, from ruminant to monogastric species and towards source of feedstuff, competing directly for land, water and other natural resources in the midst of scarcity. It takes up 8% of man’s global use of water, with the attendant pollution problems; Conservation International identified 23 of the 35 global biodiversity hotspots were affected by livestock production (FAO, 2006). The single most important human activity that makes the largest use of land from local to global scale is livestock farming This includes 26% of ice-free land surface used for grazing and 33% of total arable land dedicated to the production of feed crops. If these land degradation problems are not reversed, they would inevitably affect livestock farming through the reduction of pasture and arable land required to sustain the industry

Methods

Results

Conclusion