Conséquences de l'étalement de la ville de Foumbot sur les terres rurales (Ouest du Cameroun)

Abstract

Foumbot, the pole of coffee development in the Bamoun country, has become the relay center of the foods produced in the region. This new urban function is observed in the city with the creation of the other social and economic infrastructures. Setting-up these structures requires spaces which the former city of coffee plantation cannot offer and the locality launches its tentacles in its periphery (in the outskirts). This sprawl of the city on lands that were not ready to receive it produces certain consequences. This contribution examines the geographical effects of this urban expansion on the new spaces conquered by the city. The analysis of the images taken by a satellite partner in a series of inquires made on the ground shows the expansion of the city towards the neighboring villages. The main forms of this expansion are the invasion of the cultivated surfaces and the swarming along the main roads that cross the colonial plantations of coffee. New homes of urbanization are born and carry the mark of the new urban functions. Urbanization is followed by the modification of the old rural landscapes and by a decrease of the population living only on the work of the earth. This uncontrolled sprawl of the city raises the problem of the rational integration of the cultivated surfaces in the urban tissue and of the population supply with water and social infrastructures.