Impact of the creation of an orchard of cacao-trees (Theobroma cocoa) on the flora of kotokounou, a locality of Bocanda in Center-East of Côte d'Ivoire

This work relates to the identification and the evaluation of the impacts of the creation of orchards of cacao-trees on the flora of Kotokounou, a locality of Bocanda in the Center-East of Côte d'Ivoire. It comprises, the analysis of possible eco-climatic imbalances related on creation, the exploitation and the cessation of the activities on the flora of the perimeter of exploitation. Based on floristic inventories, the main aim was to characterize the impacts related to the flora destruction activities and maintenance of the orchards of cacao-trees of the targeted localitiesin order to put forward attenuation or corrective measures.The results showed that the flora of the study is rich approximately 109 species of which 5 have a particular status. This flora is slightly diversified and its characteristics predict risks of biological imbalances which can occur in short, average or long term.The flora is exposed to a gradual degradation related to the former activities of exploitation. Many impacts with which woody species diversity reduction, forest fragmentationand some species rarefaction in particular, the lianas were identified in this locality.The project linked activities were potential sources of negative impacts on the flora and have contributed to degrade it significantly.