**1. Introduction**

The land and its resources have been used to meet material, social, cultural, and spiritual needs of human beings [1]. In that process, human beings modified land uses through daily activities [2]. Conversion of natural forests and grasslands into farming

and crop areas in order to meet the food demand of the ever-increasing world population is among the examples. Land use/land cover (LULC) change, as one of the main driving forces of global environmental change, is a key component in the sustainable development debate [3, 4]. LULC changes are aspects of global environmental change and affect ecosystem processes and services [2, 5, 6]. Those changes influence energy exchanges between land and atmosphere and affect climate, water and soil quality, biogeochemical cycles, biodiversity, and ecosystem services [7]. Increasing demand for agricultural, industrial, or urban areas compromises the ability of natural forests, waterbodies, and grasslands to support community's needs.

The rapid changes of LULC than ever before, particularly in developing countries, are often characterized by rampant urban sprawling, land degradation, or the transformation of forest land to farming, ensuing enormous cost to the environment [8]. In sub-Saharan Africa, several studies were conducted on mapping and valuation of ecosystem services in the context of LULC [9, 10]. Almost all studies indicate that the region is under severe pressure of degradation, with significant consequences for rural livelihoods [3–5, 11, 12]. Alterations of land cover and land use types result from human activities such as agricultural expansion, deforestation, and natural factors (drought, cyclone, etc.), and generate more or less sensitive consequences on the environment.

These observations related to changes in LULC come true in highly populated areas marked by contrasting climatic conditions and high demand for arable land and are particularly pointed out by several studies carried out in the Mono Transboundary Biosphere Reserve (MTBR) located in the Dahomey corridor on the southern border between Benin and Togo [11, 13–16]. The area is rich in biodiversity associated with different multi-functional ecosystems [16], but it has also been facing many anthropogenic pressures since few years. These include the uncontrolled exploitation of forest resources, fragmentation of habitats, and permanent search for arable land [11]. This situation puts great pressure on the dynamics and conversion of LULC. The conversion, including changes of forest and/or woodlands to agricultural lands, has negative impacts on climate, terrestrial carbon stores, loss of biodiversity [5, 6, 17], fragmentation of wildlife habitats, and disruption of ecological and hydrological processes [18].

Facing that situation and in view of the uncertainties surrounding the future of forest resources and the specific ecosystems of the MTBR, territorial prospective analysis approaches should be adopted to provide specific insights and elements for thoughts on the possible room for maneuver over a long period and at different horizons for a balanced and sustainable management of the forest resources and biodiversity of this reserve in line with the socioeconomic and environmental challenges of the region. Exploring the possible future development of land occupations and uses in the MTBR remains an effective means of identifying areas at stake for the conservation of natural resources and biodiversity and assessing the influence of management policies and strategies at different spatiotemporal scales on land use [19–21].

This study aims to provide scientific evidence to better understand and project future changes in LULC in the MTBR at different spatial and temporal scales. Based on remote sensing technologies and satellite data coupled with dynamic and spatially explicit modeling methods, this chapter aimed at: (i) analyzing the dynamics of landuse patterns in the period 1986 to 2015 for a better understanding of the trends in the evolution of the natural landscape and (ii) establishing a future scenario (2015–2070) changes in each land cover class. This research is unique as the modeling of land use dynamics in the MTBR will make it possible to follow the evolutionary trend of the landscape and to find acceptable rules for preserving natural resources, particularly forest resources and biodiversity in the reserve.

*How Far the Mono Transboundary Biosphere Reserve Protects Biodiversity in the Dahomey-Gap… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.112884*
