ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Remote Sens.
Sec. Land Cover and Land Use Change
Volume 6 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/frsen.2025.1590591
This article is part of the Research TopicOne Forest Vision Initiative (OFVi) for Monitoring Tropical Forests: The Remote Sensing PilarView all 5 articles
Mapping and Quantifying Deforestation in the Zambezi Ecoregion of Central-Southern Africa: Extent and Spatial Structure
Provisionally accepted
Héritier Khoji Muteya1*
Dieu-donné N’tambwe Nghonda1François Malaisse2
Jan Bogaert2Yannick Useni Sikuzani1- 1University of Lubumbashi, Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of Congo
- 2Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, University of Liege, Gembloux, Namur, Belgium
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Forests in the Zambezi ecoregion play a critical role in sustaining biodiversity and the livelihoods of over 100 million people across Southern and Central Africa. However, these forests face growing threats from human activities. This study assessed forest-cover changes at the national scale within the Zambezi ecoregion from 2000 to 2023, utilizing 600 Landsat images collected for the years 2000, 2008, 2016, and 2023. Forest cover was classified using the Random Forest algorithm, integrated with Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and landscape metrics to evaluate patterns of forest fragmentation and ecological transformations. The results showed a significant reduction in forest area from 2,328,377.5 km² to 1,817,513 km², corresponding to an annual deforestation rate of 0.95%. This decline was associated with a substantial decrease in the largest patch index, signifying increased fragmentation driven primarily by patch dissection and suppression. At the country level, annual deforestation rates above 1% were identified in Malawi (2.07%), Burundi (1.92%), Zimbabwe (1.57%), and Tanzania (1.06%), while lower rates were observed in Zambia (0.93%), Mozambique (0.92%), Angola (0.83%), and southeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (0.72%). Despite widespread forest loss, some limited forest stability and regeneration offer potential for ecological restoration. The findings emphasize the increasing human-induced pressures on forests within the Zambezi ecoregion and highlight the urgent need for coordinated restoration initiatives by the Southern African Development Community (SADC). Crucial steps include engaging local communities in forest governance, promoting natural forest regeneration, and implementing sustainable agriculture and clean-energy policies to conserve biodiversity and maintain ecosystem services.
Keywords: Miombo woodlands, Ecosystem disturbance, land-use change, forest management, Environmental restoration
Received: 09 Mar 2025; Accepted: 23 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Khoji Muteya, N’tambwe Nghonda, Malaisse, Bogaert and Sikuzani. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Héritier Khoji Muteya, University of Lubumbashi, Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of Congo
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