Landsat time series reveal forest loss and woody encroachment in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania

A study using Landsat time series data reveals significant land cover changes in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA), Tanzania. The research identifies substantial forest loss and woody encroachment, particularly in upland forests like Lerai Forest and grasslands of the Serengeti Plains. These changes, driven by both natural processes such as herbivory and rainfall patterns, and human activities including management policies, tourism development, and population growth, threaten livestock livelihoods and wildlife-dependent grazing areas. The study employs a novel monitoring strategy combining regression-based unmixing for accurate land cover mapping and trend analysis techniques like BFAST to quantify changes over time. This provides critical data to support sustainable conservation efforts in the NCA.

Borges, J., Higginbottom, T. P., Cain, B., Gadiye, D. E., Kisingo, A., Jones, M., & Symeonakis, E. (2022). Landsat time series reveal forest loss and woody encroachment in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania. Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation, 8(6), 808–826. Portico. https://doi.org/10.1002/rse2.277