Cameroon’s Centre Region is a forest-savanna mosaic that is made up both by patches of dense semi-deciduous forest scattered among shrubby and grassy savannas and by savannas included in the large southern forest block. Cultivation of cocoa, coffee and oil palm as well as of food crops is practised extensively.
Recent studies have shown that all these forms of land occupation through agricultural development contribute to agroforest expansion in savanna territory. The progression of forest on the savanna in recent decades has been confirmed not only by botanical and soil surveys, but also by diachronic analyses based on remote sensing data. This extension of the forest on the savanna either occurs spontaneously via forest regeneration in the savanna, or is accelerated locally by humans via the creation of agroforests and actions to prevent bush fires.
In view of the expansion of agroforests and forest regeneration in savanna areas, environmental and socioeconomic issues are very significant in terms of increasing carbon storage, improving people’s incomes and even providing land ownership and security with regard to women’s precarious land rights. The objective of this project is therefore to study the processes and challenges of savanna reforestation based on agroforests in Cameroon’s Centre Region. The research work conducted by five master’s students and one postdoctoral student will be based on socioeconomic surveys, botanical and carbon surveys, and diachronic analyses of remote sensing images in five control sites of the vast forest-savanna mosaic area in Cameroon’s Centre Region. The findings will help to understand the dynamics of agroforests and their potential for carbon storage in relation to natural formations.
