Geography of City Forest relationships Local scale analysis

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Geography of City - Forest relationshipsLocal
scale analysis

• Eléonore WOLFF (IGEAT/ULB)
• Théodore TREFON (APFT/ ULB)
• Hugo MWANZA MA MWANZA (CEDA)

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RATIONALE

• Urban impacts on forest ecosystems is a complex
  but frequently over-looked problem. Conservation
  efforts have traditionally been forest-based. As
  Central Africa becomes increasingly urbanised,
  urban populations seriously threaten biodiversity
  - especially in peri-urban areas. Yet, they also
  constitute significant conservation potential

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OBJECTIVES

• GENERAL
• Make links between urban needs and rural
  development and conservation projects
• Elaborate appropriate methods and analytical
  frameworks (multi-level, diachronic,
  interdisciplinary...)
• Identify strategies which serve the needs of
  urban populations but which at the same time
  reduce negative environmental impacts
• Collaborate with African partners
• SPECIFIC
• Map the spatial evolution of land use in and
  around two intermediary Gabonese towns
• Explain this evolution through social,
  demographic and economic analysis (based on on
  site investigation)
• Compare and contrast spacial and social dynamics
  in terms of relations with forest mosaic

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REGIONAL CONTEXT OF FOREST-CITY INTERFACE

• Demographic pressure
• Regional economic crisis (unemployment,
  structural adjustment, devaluation, indebtedness,
  price drops...)
• As State systems do not respond to the needs of
  urban populations, their dependency of the forest
  resource augments
• Politics hamper conservation efforts. Natural
  resources are exploited as personal patrimony
• The social and physical proximity between forest
  and city has increasingly professionalised
  relations
• Protected area management and other rural
  conservation/development efforts will not work if
  urban needs are not addressed
• Tradition and modernity overlap on the urban
  landscape
• The rural-urban cleavage is disappearing rapidly
  "modernity" is increasingly entering the village,
  village-type behaviours continue in towns

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URBAN - RURAL DEMOGRAPHY (CONGO BASIN)
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WHY GABON ?

• War in Republic of Congo
• War in Congo Democratic Republic
• Dynamics of Cameroonian deforestation already
  under study
• Gabon's unique environment
• 80-85 of country forest
• 4 inhab./km2
• 50 of population urbanised
• Conservation efforts comparatively recent in
  Gabon
• Wealthiest country in region
• Gabonese cities most "modern" in region

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OYEM ? FRANCEVILLE ?

• BDPA study Libreville
• Oyem
• 22.000 inhab. (Fang)
• 4th largest city
• Agricultural dynamic
• Road
• Dense forest ecosystem
• SPOT image made available by INC
• Franceville
• 30.000 inhab. (Téké, Obamba...)
• 3rd largest city
• "Artificial" city
• Mining and administration dominate agriculture
• Forest-savanna mosaic
• Transgabonais

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Results synthesis of knowledge over Oyem and
Franceville

• Oyem
• colonial post created in 1900
• located in a forest environment on the road
  linking Libreville to Cameroon
• successively administrated by the French
  Equatorial Africa and Cameroon, several
  administrative changes
• local agricultural tradition subsistance
  agriculture and cash cropping of cocoa and coffee
  sold in Cameroon (by road) or in Spanish Guinea
  (by foot)
• independence celebrated in Oyem in 1968 and 1978
  infrastructures built up for this occasion
  marked the city development
• rapid population growth after 1984

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• Franceville
• founded in 1880
• located in a forest - savannah environment
• birthplace of President Bongo (in power since
  1967)
• transgabonais railway linking Libreville to
  Franceville (19)
• several celebrations in the 1970s
  infrastructures built up marked the city
  development
• rapid population growth after 1970

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Land cover evolution

• Data Oyem
• 1960-1 BW aerial photography at 1 50 000
  (INC)
• 1991 SPOT XS imagery (INC)
• Topographic maps (1 50 000) and town map (1
  10 000)
• Data Franceville
• 1953 BW aerial photography at 1 50 000 (INC)
• 1994 SPOT XS imagery
• Topographic maps (1 50 000) and town map (1
  20 000)
• Interpretation
• Legend forest, savannah, field and fallow,
  built up areas, airport, villages, roads and
  rivers
• surfaces gt 10 ha and width gt 50 m, if not lines
  or points
• visual interpretation of aerial photographs
  (problems quality of AP, geometrical accuracy,
  AP missing)
• unsupervised classification of SPOT XS data
  visual interpretation generalisation (problem
  data availability, clouds)

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Oyem

• decreasing number of villages (resettlement
  policy)
• extension of the built up areas along main roads
• 40 ha/year or 7 /year (similar to the population
  growth during the same period)
• Increasing areas of fields and fallow around the
  city
• growth of 2/ year (less than the population
  growth)

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Oyem

• Island
• extension of fields and fallow areas around the
  city from 3 to 8 km (max at 4 km), or less than
  two hours by foot from the city center (distance
  confirmed by women)
• Corridor
• extension along roads within 2 km from the road
• Spatial diffusion
• deforestation within 1 km from the edge of the
  forest

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Franceville

• Decreasing number of villages (resettlement
  policy)
• Extension of built up areas
• 8 /year (more than for Oyem, faster than the
  population growth)
• extension along roads and starting from
  surrounding villages
• Extension of fields and fallow on forest soils
  around the city
• 1.6 /year (slower than for Oyem)

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Franceville

• Island pattern
• some distant forest areas degraded
• deforestation between 4 and 8 km, max at 6.5 km
• Corridor pattern
• extension along roads within 4 km from the road
• several roads into savannah
• Spatial diffusion
• deforestation within 1 km from the edge of the
  forest

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Comparison between Oyem and Franceville

• Similar spatial pattern of periurban
  deforestation
• close to the city
• along main roads
• spatial pattern interrupted by savannah for
  Franceville
• higher rate for Oyem than for Franceville
• Rapid city extension by spatial diffusion
• except if site constraints (marshes, slopes, )
• rapid urban extension for Franceville linked to
  recent development of administration, services,
  extensive land estates inside the city
• Differences explained by socio-economic
  characteristics of the cities
• Oyem agricultural tradition, close to borders,
  feed Libreville
• Franceville hunting and gathering tradition,
  city of the president, supplying coming from
  Libreville by the Transgabonnais

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Fieldwork in Franceville and Oyem

• Approach
• Desk study
• Interviews
• Gabonese administrative support

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Results

• 1. Urban growth in both regions of study
• Contrasts Haut-Ogooué 73 urban
• Woleu-N'tem rural 60
• Comparisons urban populations concentrated in
  major regional city
• 2. Demographic growth factors
• 40 Franceville
• 25 Oyem
• continuing outward rural migration
• inter urban migration (Libreville)
• African "eldorado"

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• 3. Spatial growth factors
• Rapid spatial expansion (cities gnaw away at
  peri-urban space)
• Gap between administrative boundries and land use
• Factors political, electoral, land tenure, urban
  development schemes
• 4. Agriculture in the context of economic crisis
• Decline of cash cropping
• Subsistance agriculture augments (manioc,
  plantain)
• sale of surpluses
• systems of production evolve
• chainsaws
• foreign laborors
• systems of land tenure evolve
• location de terres
• legalisation of tradional claims
• systems of commercialisation evolve
• improved transport
• "bayames-sellums"

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• 5. Environmental impacts
• increased use of peri-urban land
• shorted fallow periods
• increased size of fields (0,45 ha en moyenne à
  1.25 ha)
• 6. Social impacts
• decline of village structures

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PERSPECTIVES

• Don't demonise cities
• Better integrate urban dynamics/needs when
  elaborating rural development projects and
  protected area management
• Stimulate awareness for the promotion of
  environmental accountability by city dwellers
• Find locally appropriate incentives for
  urban-based decision makers to think seriously
  about conservation (financial, technical,
  institutional...)
• Promote interdisciplinarity while balancing out
  social science research (culture, belief systems,
  material culture, means of production...) with
  natural science research
• Base agricultural intensification/transformation/t
  ransport/commercialisation projects on
  pre-existing social networks
• Narrow the institutional gap between land tenure
  systems and legislation - institutionally support
  peri-urban land use planning
• Monitor urban fuelfood needs
• Return findings to local stakeholders
• Promote multi-scale analysis