Population and Environment: Case of human pressure on the periurban forest of Gonsé in Burkina Faso. (In French)

This article uses survey data streams on timber and non-timber forest products out of the forest of Gonsé to highlight the importance of human pressure on the peri-urban forest of Gonsé, located 35 km from Ouagadougou, the country’s capital city. A literature review on drivers of deforestation in the world and specifically in Burkina Faso, can retain the use of the timber resource to energy goals as the main driver of deforestation in Burkina Faso, and of course in this case, as the mainspring of forest resources’ depletion in Gonsé. A descriptive approach not only allows quantifying the volume of wood energy out of the forest, but also shows the importance of fraudulent harvesting of fuelwood from this forest. Thus, it was found that 30% and 22% of firewood and charcoal harvesting in this forest are insidiously sent to the neighboring villages and to the city of Ouagadougou between 18 pm and 6 am. Thus, this paper recounts how the anthropogenic pressure on forest resources will bring the government to change the status of the classified forest of Gonsé into another one called \"classified forest and partial wildlife reserves of Gonsé\" by Decree adopted on 4th July of 2007 by the Council of Ministers.