Author(s)

Formeluh Abraham Toh^1*, Tsi Evaristus Angwafo², Lawrence Monah Ndam^3,4, Mvondo Ze Antoine⁵

¹Department of Forestry, Faculty of Agronomy and Agricultural Sciences, University of Dschang, Dschang, Cameroon.
²Department of Fundamental Science, Higher Technical Teacher Training College (HTTTC), University of Bamenda, Bambili, Cameroon.
³Department of Botany and Plant Physiology, University of Buea, Buea, South West Region, Cameroon.
⁴Department of International Environmental and Agricultural Science, Faculty of Agriculture, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, Tokyo, Japan.
⁵Department of Soil Science, Faculty of Agronomy and Agricultural Sciences, University of Dschang, Dschang, Cameroon.

This work assessed the impact of land use and land cover (LULC) change on the socio-economic conditions of the inhabitants in the Mount Bambouto Caldera from 1980-2016. To achieve this, three time series satellite images; Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) (1980), Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper (ETM) (2001), and Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) (2016) scenes were employed to investigate the changes in LULC. The use of satellite images was supplemented with individual interviews, discussions with focus groups and key informants, and direct field observations. Five categories of LULC classes were identified namely: thick woody vegetation (natural forest and oil palms), light vegetation (croplands), savannah (grasslands), buildings (settlements), and bare grounds. The results showed that between 1980 and 2016, croplands, buildings and bare lands increased by 4%, 0.43% and 5.7% respectively while savannah/grassland and natural forest decreased by 4.4% and 5.8% respectively. Household survey revealed soil fertility decline and lack of credit schemes to be major constraints to crop production. Many religious holidays contribute to seasonal food shortages and the community faces a host of socio-economic and institutional challenges. Consequently, majority of house-holds are destitute, live in abject poverty; which is an indication of the need for interventions by government and other development stakeholders to tackle the problems of soil fertility, land use change and food insecurity.

Land Use, Land Cover, Landsat, Bambouto Caldera, Socioeconomic Impact, Soil Fertility, Cameroon

Toh, F. , Angwafo, T. , Ndam, L. and Antoine, M. (2018) The Socio-Economic Impact of Land Use and Land Cover Change on the Inhabitants of Mount Bambouto Caldera of the Western Highlands of Cameroon. Advances in Remote Sensing, 7, 25-45. doi: 10.4236/ars.2018.71003.