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In Togo, the building of harbor facilities, the construction of the hydroelectric dam plant of Nangbeto, urban growth and activities relating to the installation of fish farms, and the expansion of croplands are the major causes of a drastic degradation of mangroves. For a better management of this ecosystem, assessment of the current structure of mangroves, their spatiotemporal dynamics and socioeconomic issues related to mangroves were performed. Data from forest inventory, structured interviews and Landsat images of 1986 and 2014 were used. Inventories have identified 23 plant species distributed among 23 genera and 17 families dominated by Rhyzophora racemosa and Avicennia germinans. The hierarchical classification of forest inventory samples has identified three groupings of mangrove plants. Investigations show that stakeholders use wood from the mangrove for energy and fuelwood purposes. From 1986 to 2014 the land use/land cover patterns in the study area has undergone tremendous changes. Floodplains and tannes find their areas increased by 39.91 % and 46.06 % respectively, while wooded vegetation cover in whole lost 47.19 % of its area. Anthropogenic pressures would be the main cause of the degradation affecting mangroves ecosystem services and productivity. However, due to the ecological importance of mangroves, there is a need for an appropriate management plan including the contextual realities of mangroves landscapes.

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Vegetation was sampled in 86 plots of riparian forest and dry forests of northern Togo. The recorded data were subjected to floristic and quantitative ecological analyses in order to describe the main woody plant communities and their size structure. The plant groupings were determined by detrended correspondence analysis (DCA) and defined through the indicator value method. Alpha diversity index, and tree species structure features were computed for forest woody plant groupings. Results classified four woody communities. Two of them belonged to riparian forest while the other two, dry forest. A total of 77 plant species consisted of woody species. Pterocarpus santalinoïdes and Anogeissus leiocarpus were the most important species based on their indicator values. The diversity indices of P. santalinoïdes, Eugenia kerstingii and A. leiocarpus and Vitellaria paradoxa plant communities were significant and indicated a wide distribution of species in the area, while their structural features relected those of forests characteristic of the Sudanian climatic zones. In general, the natural regeneration rate among the plant groupings was satisfactory and quiet similar to those found in previous works in this region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]