Changing land use practices, reflecting changes in human population and economic pressures, have altered the forests and coastal zones from Guinea to Togo. Expanding and migrating human populations, low soil fertility, intractable poverty, and national policies reliant on export-driven development have led to fragmentation of forests, erosion, pollution of water and air, and depletion of wildlife resources.

Conversion of forests for agricultural purposes - including shifting cultivation for food crops as well as perennial cash crop plantations of cacao, coffee, rubber, oil palm, and citrus - have eliminated large areas of natural forest cover. In addition to removing forest cover and wildlife habitat, cultivation increasingly occurs along the edge of watercourses, increasing erosion, damaging aquatic environments, and polluting water bodies with runoff from agricultural chemicals. As human populations have grown, fallow periods for shifting agriculture have shortened, depleting soil fertility and reducing overall production.

As standing forests are felled, pressures increase on remaining forests for the harvest of wild game and other non-timber forest products, leading to degradation of protected areas and losses of biological diversity. The bushmeat trade, serviced by illegal hunting and extensive poaching in protected areas, has been identified as one of the most serious threats to the survival of large vertebrates in the region, especially primates.

Extractive industries (logging and mining) also contribute to habitat loss, but their effects on environmental degradation, especially with rivers and streams, are often felt far from the site of initial impact.

Urbanization, especially in capital cities and along the coast, has not been accompanied by provision of adequate water and sanitation treatment facilities, and as populations increase, the areas of negative environmental impact around cities expand. The Working Group documented these trends and used data sets such as those below (population change over time) to shape recommendations for conservation action in the priority areas.