An Analysis of Forest Change in Southern Cameroon Using Sentinel-1 and Landsat Derived Data Products

The dynamics of deforestation within the Congo Basin are severely understudied, and as a result of small-scale agriculture, the development of plantations, logging, and expanding infrastructure, tree loss has become an urgent issue. Within tropical moist forests across the world, Cameroon was identified as one of the regions within the Congo Basin that is most susceptible to this change. To analyze the effects and extent of forest loss in southern Cameroon, we compared three Landsat and Sentinel-1 derived data products - Global Forest Change data, the European Commission's Joint Research Centre Deforestation and Degradation products, and the RADD Forest Disturbance datasets. Total forest loss within the study area was calculated to determine deforestation trends from 2001-2021. The annual and aggregate values of each dataset were then quantified and compared to evaluate agreement and disagreement in detected tree loss amongst all data products for years of overlapping availability, from 2019-2021. Our findings demonstrate that there is a significant level of high-confidence change amongst all datasets. From 2019-2021, a total of 12,736 sq km of loss or disturbance in this region was detected by at least one data product. Furthermore, evidence suggests annual loss and deforestation patch sizes generally increased over time in southern Cameroon since 2001, with the largest recorded patch size in 2016. Areas of rapid loss were observed along a river bordering an important forest reserve, while additional loss was attributed to large-scale rubber plantation expansion and multiple instances of small-scale agricultural expansion. Our results also indicate that the data products differ in their ability to capture various types of forest change, with the greatest extent captured by the Joint Research Centre's Degradation dataset. This dataset detected over 3,000 sq km of degradation in 2020, the year with the most tree loss amongst all data products combined. Our findings provide new insights into the types of forest change occurring in southern Cameroon, and indicate that this type of global environmental change has the potential to affect biodiversity and communities living within this region in a critically important tropical moist forest.