Many of the wetland areas mapped in 1975 have been converted to cultivated bottomland which has doubled in area, reaching 1,180 sq km by 2013.īecause a large part of the population in Sierra Leone obtains its substance from farming, agriculture expansion was mostly driven by population growth. In Sierra Leone, where water is an abundant resource, bottomland and flood recessional agriculture is also very common. Overall, agricultural area progressed by 35 percent, or 2,400 sq km, between 19, mostly in the Interior Plains and in the northern part of the Koinadugu and Kono Plateaus. The rate of cropland expansion quadrupled after the end of the civil war, going from an average of 32 sq km per year in the 1975–2000 period to 130 sq km per year between 20. Under this system, a patch of forest is burned, cleared and cultivated usually for a short period of time (1–2 years), after which it is left fallow for several years. Shifting agriculture has long been practiced in Sierra Leone. Indeed, resulting from an increasing demand for forest products and food production, half of the lost forest and woodland habitats were converted to savannas, and one-third to agriculture. Accounting for all the forest classes together, Sierra Leone lost a total 36 percent of its forest and woodland habitats since 1975.Ĭropland expansion, slash-and-burn agriculture, logging, mining, and cattle grazing activities were the dominant factors affecting vegetation and land use. Over the 38-year period, its area decreased by 48 percent, or 5,400 sq km, shrinking to a mere 8 percent of the country in 2013. In 1975, woodland was the second largest land cover class in terms of area after the savannas, covering 15.5 percent of the country. It is found in the major ecoregions- on slopes and uplands of the Koinadugu and Kono Plateaus, and on the Interior and Coastal Plains, among the savannas and thickets. Woodland is one of the dominant land cover types in Sierra Leone. Degraded forest decreased by 26 percent, or about 2,000 sq km, and gallery forest by 22 percent, or 700 sq km. In 1975, these tracts of dense forest were located among a patchwork of degraded forest, gallery forest, and woodland - none of which has been spared by deforestation. The main loss of forest occurred in the Tama-Tonkolili and Nimini Hills highlands. However, this rate has slowed since the end of the civil war, averaging 0.4 percent of annual forest loss between 20. Between 19, Sierra Leone lost 30 percent of its forest cover, or about 1,100 sq km, at an average annual rate of 0.8 percent. ![]() Even though the country is located within the Upper Guinean forest ecosystem, it is unlikely that it was ever heavily covered by dense forest (Munro and van der Horst, 2012). The most extensive land cover change in Sierra Leone was the loss of woodland and forested area across the country.ĭense forest is rare and mainly found on hill slopes in the Montane Forest Zone. ![]() Sierra Leone land cover time series (1975, 2000, and 2013)
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