Environment and Natural Resources Research; Vol. 6, No. 1; 2016 ISSN 1927-0488 E-ISSN 1927-0496 Published by Canadian Center of Science and Education 110 Assessing the Impacts of Land Use and land cover change on Pastoral Livestock Farming in South-Eastern Burkina Faso Sophie A. KIMA 1 , A. A OKHIMAMHE 1 & André KIEMA 2 1 Master Research Programme on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use, West African Science Service Centre on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use, Federal University of Technology, Minna, Nigeria 2 Institut de l’Environnement et de Recherches Agricoles, Burkina Faso Correspondence: Sophie A. KIMA, Master Research Programme on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use, West African Science Service Centre on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use, Federal University of Technology, Minna, Nigeria. Tel: 226-7035-8464. Email: kimagnesi@yahoo.fr Received: December 23, 2015 Accepted: February 4, 2016 Online Published: February 29, 2016 doi:10.5539/enrr.v6n1p110 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/enrr.v6n1p110 Abstract Conversion of pastures to cropland is one of the most important issues facing livestock farming in Burkina Faso. This study examined the impact of land use/cover change on pastoral livestock farming in Boulgou province between 1980 and 2013. Landsat satellite images (1989, 2001 and 2013) and socio-economic data were analysed. The interpretation of the classified Landsat images revealed an increase in cropland from 20.5% in 1989 to 36.7% in 2013. This resulted mainly from the conversion of woody savannah and shrub and grass savannah to cropland. Pastoral livestock farmers reported that the major drivers of vegetation loss were drought (95.1 %), population growth (91.8%), cropland increase (91.4%), extraction of fuel wood (69.8%) and increase in livestock population (65.4). These changes affect livestock farming through reduction of pasture, poor access to water and reduction of livestock mobility routes according to the farmers. This calls for regional and national policies to protect grazing areas in Burkina Faso that are similar to policies being implemented for forest and other types of vegetation cover in other countries. For such pastoral policies to be successful, issues concerning the mobility of livestock farmers must be enshrined into such policies and this study is an example of information source for these policies. Keywords: Boulgou province, Land use and land cover change, Pastoral livestock farming, Pastoral Policy. 1. Introduction Livestock production is undergoing a geographic shift from rural to peri-urban areas, from ruminant to monogastric species and towards source of feedstuff, thus competing directly for land, water and other natural resources in the midst of scarcity. It takes up 8% of man’s global use of water, with the attendant pollution problems; Conservation International identified 23 of the 35 global biodiversity hotspots were affected by livestock production (FAO, 2006). However, the single most important human activity that makes the largest use of land from local to global scale is livestock farming. This includes 26% of ice-free land surface used for grazing and 33% of total arable land dedicated to the production of feed crops. Consequently, in drylands, where livestock farming is a major livelihood of the poor, overgrazing, soil compaction and erosion are major degradation issues that impact the land (Haan, Steinfeld, & Blackburn, 1997). Similarly, deforestation, a major contributor to climate change, occurs from the expansion of pastures and feed crop production (FAO, 2005; Steinfeld et al., 2006). Goldewijk and Battjes (1997) reported that the conversion of natural habitats to pastures and cropland accelerated after the 1850s; while in MEA (2005), it was observed that more land was converted to crops between 1950 and 1980 than in the preceding 150 years. Livestock farming is a major livelihood that is affected by these changes. If these land degradation problems are not reversed, they would inevitably affect livestock farming through the reduction of pasture and arable land required to sustain the industry. This trend is unlikely to change soon, given the projected increase in global demand for meat from 229 million tonnes in 1999/2001 to 465 million tonnes in 2050, and that of milk to grow from 580 to 1,043 million tonnes (FAO, 2006). It is one of the contributory factors to the rapidly occurring human induced land use and land cover change that is virtually in all ecosystems (Foody, 2010; Lambin et al., 2001) across the globe and at unprecedented rates (Lambin & Meyfroidt, 2011) and they are likely to continue in the future (Ramankutty &