Forest/land cover data West Africa

[Duncan]

Hi, thanks for reading.

I am doing a study of Sierra Leone using grid cells. 

I am looking for a land cover map that contains information on forest cover in West Africa. Specifically, I am only interested in this data on Sierra Leone. The map must be in a mapinfo table format (or one that can be turned into a mapinfo table) that can then be turned into a mapinfo browser table as I am looking to calculate the square km of forest in each of my grid cells. 

At best the map should be from 1985 - 1990. However, ultimately, any year will do.

Any information detailing the whereabouts of such data would be extremely helpful for my study.

Duncan

[Greg]

I think you might have to resort to a global land coverge dataset. A quick google throws up something like this http://www.glcn.org/databases/lc_gc-africa_en.jsp. It might not have the resolution you're looking for, though that might depend on cell size of the grid you are using.

Judging from you posts over the past few weeks, this sounds like a really interesting project you're working on. Could you give any more details and will we see the results?

Greg.

[Duncan]

Hi Greg

 

Thanks for the link, hopefully it can be used in the study.

 

Sure, the project relates to the Sierra Leone civil war. It's a study designed to statistically test whether certain variables are significantly related to conflict events . The data has been edited using MapInfo, hence why I've been on here so much. Most of the variables are control variables; the key variable that I am most interested in is whether the presence of mineral resources are correlated with conflict events. Although it is a very intuitive case, it's extremely well established that 'blood diamonds' were heavily involved in the civil war.

 

I've only have a short frame of time to work on it, hardly groundbreaking stuff but interesting nontheless.

 

If you are interested; try reading Collier and Hoeffler (2004) 'Greed and Grievance in civil war' or Buhaug and Lujala (2005) 'Accounting for Scale: Measuring Geography in quantitative studies of civil war', both papers have interesting findings in terms of how certain economic factors can be a key player in the onset and duration of civil war.

 

I can update you the results when the study is complete if you give me your email addy.

 

Duncan.