Schulte to Bühne, H;
Wegmann, M;
Durant, SM;
Ransom, C;
de Ornellas, P;
Grange, S;
Beatty, H;
(2017)
Protection status and national socio-economic context shape land conversion in and around a key transboundary protected area complex in West Africa.
Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation
10.1002/rse2.47.
(In press).
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Abstract
Transboundary cooperation is being promoted as an effective way to conserve biodiversity that straddles national borders. However, monitoring the ecological outcomes of these large-scale endeavours is challenging, and as a result, the factors and processes likely to shape their effectiveness remain poorly identified and understood. To address this knowledge gap, we tested three hypotheses pertaining to natural vegetation loss across the W-Arly-Pendjari protected area complex, a key biodiversity hotspot in West Africa. Using a new methodology to compare land cover change across large remote areas where independent validation data is unevenly distributed across time, we demonstrate widespread agricultural expansion outside protected areas over the past 13 years. Protected areas with high protection status appear considerably more effective at preventing land conversion than other protected areas. We moreover report marked differences in cropland expansion rates between countries, which we suggest may be linked to differences in rural population growth. Altogether, our results suggest that there can be considerable spatial heterogeneity in anthropogenic pressure across transboundary protected area complexes and call for more comprehensive assessments that capitalize on the current availability of remote sensing information.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Protection status and national socio-economic context shape land conversion in and around a key transboundary protected area complex in West Africa |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1002/rse2.47 |
| Publisher version: | http://doi.org/10.1002/rse2.47 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Zoological Society of LondonThis is an open access article under the term s of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, which permits use,distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes |
| Keywords: | Land conversion; land cover classification; protection status; transboundary protected areas; vegetation loss; WAP |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > Div of Biosciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > Div of Biosciences > Genetics, Evolution and Environment |
| URI: | https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1561579 |
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