Understanding Vegetation Dynamics In Forest Ecosystems Of The Aes Region : A Comprehensive Review
Under similar geopolitical conditions and facing the same political contexts, Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger have decided to pool their efforts through the creation of the Sahel States Alliance (AES). This organization, which aims to defend the territorial integrity of its member countries, also advocates for their independence and economic development, dominated by rural activities, particularly agriculture and livestock. These activities are heavily dependent on natural resources, especially forests. However, the forest ecosystems of these three countries are marked by continuous degradation due to climate precariousness and human activities. The present study aims to understand the dynamics of vegetation cover in the forest ecosystems of the AES region and to analyze the factors. To achieve this, secondary data was collected through a corpus of 41 documents, including 71% scientific articles, 7% doctoral theses, 10% master’s theses, and 12% study reports. Themes such as “forest ecosystem dynamics,” “humans and forests,” and keywords such as “vegetation formation,” “anthropogenic actions,” “climate variability,” “Burkina Faso,” “Mali,” and “Niger” guided the selection of these documents. The analysis of these documents reveals a dynamic that is sometimes strongly regressive and sometimes progressive in the vegetation cover of the forest ecosystems of the AES region. This analysis also highlights agriculture, vegetation fires, logging, and overgrazing as human activities responsible for the decline in vegetation cover in the region. The effectiveness of local forest management committees, the practice of assisted natural regeneration, the establishment of nurseries, and the production of reforestation campaign plans all contribute to improving forest cover in the study area. These practices, therefore, deserve to be improved and popularized in the AES region for more sustainable management of forest ecosystems in the area. One limitation of this study is the lack of information on the endogenous strategies for protecting the forest ecosystems in the study area.
