Figure 4

Principal Component Analysis of the perceived causes of mangrove degradation. It can be observed that each sample site in the Cameroon estuary (i.e., Epassi, Youpwe and Bois de Singes) is located close to its major degradation threat perceived. Nevertheless, the four sites on the top right corner (Mpalla, Milende, Bwabe and Ngueh) are seen less influenced by those four recognized mangrove threatening factors. Each star indicates the position of its respective sampling site in the PCA plane with reference to the perceived causes of mangrove degradation. The length of each vector line represents the importance of that particular variable's contribution to the PCA axis. The circle represents the graphical illustration of the correlation between the variables and the principal components. (This analysis does not take into account data obtained from field observation).