Climate change and anthropic pressure are the main factors causing landscape changes not only in urban areas but also in rural communities. In south-western Niger, this anthropic pressure is relatively high, due to an upsurge in insecurity that has plagued the area for the past decade [1] . The area occupies the south-east to south-west corner of the country and borders Burkina Faso and Mali. This insecurity puts a strain on already weak basic social services and has “serious repercussions on fragile livelihoods and people’s ability to provide for themselves” [2] . Persistent insecurity and armed conflict continue to lead to massive population movements in the region, with increasing abandonment of fields for security reasons [3] . Large-scale displacement has a major impact on scarce natural resources, with negative consequences for both ecosystems and ecosystem goods and services [4] . As a result, ecosystems in the vicinity of refugee sites are in a state of advanced degradation. To meet their basic needs, the refugees engage in income-generating activities, including cutting and selling firewood. The latter is a factor in the degradation of the natural environment. Refugees cut down trees to use the wood for food preparation in the household, or to sell it for a few bucks. This rapid process has had a major impact on land use. There is a considerable environmental impact and damage to ecosystems. Controlling the rapid spatial changes brought about by the arrival of displaced people is therefore essential to shed light on the ecological consequences [1] .

The analysis of spatial and temporal landscape changes in rural areas is an important clue to reflect the regional development pattern [5] , which has always been a hot spot of analysis in the fields of geography, natural resources, and rural planning [6] , which can provide important and useful information for sustainable development to make rational decisions [7] . A comprehensive assessment of changes in rural spatial and temporal dynamics will benefit the environmental management and spatial planning of the landscape [8] .

In this context, sustainable development will depend, among other things, on the successful management of urban spatial growth, particularly in low-income countries where the most rapid urbanization is expected by 2050, such as those in sub-Saharan Africa [9] . This process also leads to a deterioration in the quality of the urban environment, notably through the removal of original vegetation cover [10] . Yet vegetation elements and formations in rural environments are becoming increasingly important for the provision of ecosystem services [11] . There is an urgent need to understand the spatio-temporal dynamics of landscape anthropization around the settlement sites of displaced persons in the commune of Gothèye, to formulate proposals for mitigating environmental impacts. This quantification of the spatio-temporal dynamics in the commune of Gothèye will be based on landscape ecology analysis tools coupled with digital mapping.

According to the results, during the past three decades, Gothèye county has undergone large changes in land use types. Between 2010 and 2024, analysis of land use change showed that 31% of land remained in its initial state (unchanged), 69% underwent modifications, and 11% was converted to cropland. Dominance values within fallow land increased from 21.41% to 8.76%. This suggests that the largest patch of this class has been fragmented, indicating abandonment due to threats from non-state armed groups. Over the period 2010-2024, the fractal dimension values for the pasture and gallery forest classes decreased from 1.37 to 1.16 and from 1.8 to 1.27 respectively. This decrease indicates a trend towards regularity in the shape of patches in these natural classes, reflecting the impact of human activity in the study area. The decline in fallow and grazing land cover in the landscape between 2010 and 2024 reflects their exploitation by displaced people, resulting in their degradation due to their provisioning services.

The growth in cultivated areas is accompanied by a strong fragmentation of the landscape, an increase in the number of field patches and a regression of forest formations. The results obtained in the Kompienga watershed in eastern Burkina Faso confirm this trend towards landscape anthropization. Reduced vegetation cover leads to the disappearance of natural wildlife habitats and accelerates climate change, with alternating droughts and floods, as well as soil erosion and declining soil fertility, thus compromising food security. These results corroborate those found in other regions of Africa [14] [15] . The factors behind this dynamic are man-made. Rapid population growth has led to an increase in primary needs, notably housing and food. These needs will drive populations to conquer new living spaces and arable land to meet these important needs. Agricultural practices and the large-scale extraction of natural resources are also a major factor in the degradation of plant cover. Human activities profoundly alter the natural geographical environment, with land use being a primary form of this influence, directly leading to alterations of the land surface. The results of this diachronic analysis show that soil degradation in the commune of Gothèye is a complex process, involving the action of nature, particularly drought, and that of displaced people. [15] [16] estimate that, over the last 60 years, the sub-region has lost more than 70% of its original forest cover. What remains today is highly fragmented, restricting habitat to isolated blocks, and dozens of unique species of flora and fauna are in danger of extinction. There is therefore a real urgency to reverse this trend. Indeed, ecosystem dynamics are closely linked to climatic disturbances and anthropogenic causes. This observation calls for a new vision, that of making investments to recover these degraded ecosystems [17] [18] . Studies on the driving mechanism of land use change at the global scale indicated that 60% of land use change can be caused by human economic and social development activities, and 40% of land use change was associated with climate change [19] [20] . As a result, with the purpose of formulating scientific, reasonable, and sustainable land use policies, it becomes vital to investigate land use transition at the micro-scale.

To conclude, this study deciphered the dynamics of land use changes in response to natural environmental and human activities. The results of this study highlight the negative impact of the displaced on ecosystems. Ecosystems have been systematically destroyed to meet the needs of displaced populations for goods and services. This suggests that the displaced have contributed significantly to the disturbance and dynamics of the landscape. Generally speaking, the study area has undergone a major transformation, mainly due to anthropogenic disturbance and demographic pressure. Although the disturbance of human activities and the change in natural factors jointly influence the land use type and its spatial distribution, their contributions are different. Faced to this situation, particular attention needs to be paid to internal displacement phenomena in order to minimize induced impacts. This must be done in the interests of environmental conservation. If inaction persists, we may well see the collapse of our systems, whether natural (ecosystems) or human.

This work was supported by International Development Research Centre (IDRC) 109799.