The ageing of cocoa orchards in south-western Côte d'Ivoire in the early 2000s resulted in the relocation of the pioneer front to the forested west. This influx of population would have modified the landscape structure or the composition of land use classes in the areas where the people settled. The purpose of this study is to assess the impact of cocoa production on the dynamics of rural and protected areas in the Biankouma department in western Côte d'Ivoire. To achieve this, four satellite images dating from 2002, 2006, 2013, and 2018 from Landsat sensors were processed. The results showed that over the period 2002 to 2018, the number of cocoa farms installed in the protected area was twice as high as in the rural area. In fact, during this period, the surface of cocoa farms increased by 1232.5% in the protected area compared to 567.9% in the rural area. The increase in cocoa cultivation was entirely to the detriment of natural vegetation (-34.7%) in the rural area, whereas it was detrimental to all the classes (-56.8%) in the protected area. The land-use change map indicates that the conversion of natural vegetation to cocoa is mostly concentrated in the protected areas. Thus, cocoa cultivation has had a greater negative effect on the landscape in the protected area compared to the rural area in the west of Côte d'Ivoire.

During the decade of political and military crises of the 2000s in Ivory Coast, the classified forest of Haut-Sassandra (CFHS) located in the Central West has undergone many changes in its vegetation cover resulting in a significant change in its floristic composition and structure. The objective of this study is to determine after conflicts, the causative agents of these changes. To achieve this, a systematic sampling of damage types was done within the CFHS following 18 transects of 500 m each one. The agents responsible of these degradations were also identified. A total of 12 types of degradation have been identified of which four are most representative specifically slash and burn of stem base, association of food crops, falling trees and cocoa farms. The classification of geographic locations in decreasing degradation order revealed that the North and the East are the most altered by Human activities. With over 81.96% of presence on transects, cocoa farming is the main activity which causes the degradation of CFHS. With a percentage of 95%, Human is the mainly responsible of degradation observed in the CFHS. The crises arising conflicts have therefore promoted a significant human impact of CFHS. The lack of environmental monitoring during this period is one of the factors behind this strong anthropisation of CFHS.