scholarly journals Policies Drive Sub-National Forest Transitions in Vietnam

Forests ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 1038
Author(s):  
Leif Tore Trædal ◽  
Arild Angelsen

Vietnam has seemingly been able to shortcut the forest transition (FT) by quickly moving to the reforestation phase. Provincial-level forest cover and socio-economic trends are, however, not necessarily compatible with a standard FT framework. This article compares forest cover change and associated policy reforms in two provinces. Bac Kan is one of the poorest provinces in Vietnam, and has, after years of deforestation and forest degradation, expanded its forest cover during the past two decades. In contrast, Lam Dong province has higher GDP and population density, but has had high deforestation linked to expansion of perennial crops. This is contrary to what could be expected from a conventional FT hypothesis. Land use dynamics in Vietnam is heavily driven by its historical heritage related to the independence from French rule and heavy state-control and collectivization, and its more recent shift to “market-led socialism” (doi moi), involving export promotion, decentralization and land tenure reforms. The Vietnam experience shows that policies can trump the typical FT patterns linked to general development trends and structural changes, and that the typical FT-trajectory is not unavoidable. Yet, these policies have not primarily been guided by forest concerns, but should be viewed as a side effect of the doi moi policies pursuing economic growth and of the devolution of rights and decision-making.

2017 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 209-215
Author(s):  
Mohommad Shahid ◽  
◽  
L.K. Rai ◽  

Paris Agreement recognized the role of forests as carbon sink for mitigation of climate change, under Article 5 as REDD+, i.e., reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation and role of conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks. Forest cover change analysis was done between two time periods 2005 and 2015 to assess the forest degradation. Carbon sequestration potential of the forests of Sikkim for mitigating climate change is also estimated. Benefits of implementing of REDD+ in Sikkim involving local communities as stakeholder to conserve and sustainably manage the forest is assessed. Gaps and challenges faced by the stakeholder in implementing REDD+ at project level are also highlighted.


Environments ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (11) ◽  
pp. 113 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vasco Chiteculo ◽  
Bohdan Lojka ◽  
Peter Surový ◽  
Vladimir Verner ◽  
Dimitrios Panagiotidis ◽  
...  

Forest degradation and forest loss threaten the survival of many species and reduce the ability of forests to provide vital services. Clearing for agriculture in Angola is an important driver of forest degradation and deforestation. Charcoal production for urban consumption as a driver of forest degradation has had alarming impacts on natural forests, as well as on the social and economic livelihood of the rural population. The charcoal impact on forest cover change is in the same order of magnitude as deforestation caused by agricultural expansion. However, there is a need to monitor the linkage between charcoal production and forest degradation. The aim of this paper is to investigate the sequence of the charcoal value chain as a systematic key to identify policies to reduce forest degradation in the province of Bié. It is a detailed study of the charcoal value chain that does not stop on the production and the consumption side. The primary data of this study came from 330 respondents obtained through different methods (semi-structured questionnaire survey and market observation conducted in June to September 2013–2014). A logistic regression (logit) model in IBM SPSS Statistics 24 (IBM Corp, Armonk, NY, USA) was used to analyze the factors influencing the decision of the households to use charcoal for domestic purposes. The finding indicates that 21 to 27 thousand hectares were degraded due to charcoal production. By describing the chain of charcoal, it was possible to access the driving factors for charcoal production and to obtain the first-time overview flow of charcoal from producers to consumers in Bié province. The demand for charcoal in this province is more likely to remain strong if government policies do not aim to employ alternative sources of domestic energy.


Forests ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 1016
Author(s):  
Mohammad Emran Hasan ◽  
Biswajit Nath ◽  
A.H.M. Raihan Sarker ◽  
Zhihua Wang ◽  
Li Zhang ◽  
...  

Overdependence on and exploitation of forest resources have significantly transformed the natural reserve forest of Sundarban, which shares the largest mangrove territory in the world, into a great degradation status. By observing these, a most pressing concern is how much degradation occurred in the past, and what will be the scenarios in the future if they continue? To confirm the degradation status in the past decades and reveal the future trend, we took Sundarban Reserve Forest (SRF) as an example, and used satellite Earth observation historical Landsat imagery between 1989 and 2019 as existing data and primary data. Moreover, a geographic information system model was considered to estimate land cover (LC) change and spatial health quality of the SRF from 1989 to 2029 based on the large and small tree categories. The maximum likelihood classifier (MLC) technique was employed to classify the historical images with five different LC types, which were further considered for future projection (2029) including trends based on 2019 simulation results from 1989 and 2019 LC maps using the Markov-cellular automata model. The overall accuracy achieved was 82.30%~90.49% with a kappa value of 0.75~0.87. The historical result showed forest degradation in the past (1989–2019) of 4773.02 ha yr−1, considered as great forest degradation (GFD) and showed a declining status when moving with the projection (2019–2029) of 1508.53 ha yr−1 and overall there was a decline of 3956.90 ha yr−1 in the 1989–2029 time period. Moreover, the study also observed that dense forest was gradually degraded (good to bad) but, conversely, light forest was enhanced, which will continue in the future even to 2029 if no effective management is carried out. Therefore, by observing the GFD, through spatial forest health quality and forest degradation mapping and assessment, the study suggests a few policies that require the immediate attention of forest policy-makers to implement them immediately and ensure sustainable development in the SRF.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (15) ◽  
pp. 6123
Author(s):  
Changjun Gu ◽  
Pei Zhao ◽  
Qiong Chen ◽  
Shicheng Li ◽  
Lanhui Li ◽  
...  

Himalaya, a global biodiversity hotspot, has undergone considerable forest cover fluctuation in recent decades, and numerous protected areas (PAs) have been established to prohibit forest degradation there. However, the spatiotemporal characteristics of this forest cover change across the whole region are still unknown, as are the effectiveness of its PAs. Therefore, here, we first mapped the forest cover of Himalaya in 1998, 2008, and 2018 with high accuracy (>90%) using a random forest (RF) algorithm based on Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform. The propensity score matching (PSM) method was applied with eight control variables to balance the heterogeneity of land characteristics inside and outside PAs. The effectiveness of PAs in Himalaya was quantified based on matched samples. The results showed that the forest cover in Himalaya increased by 4983.65 km2 from 1998 to 2008, but decreased by 4732.71 km2 from 2008 to 2018. Further analysis revealed that deforestation and reforestation mainly occurred at the edge of forest tracts, with over 55% of forest fluctuation occurring below a 2000 m elevation. Forest cover changes in PAs of Himalaya were analyzed; these results indicated that about 56% of PAs had a decreasing trend from 1998 to 2018, including the Torsa (Ia PA), an area representative of the most natural conditions, which is strictly protected. Even so, as a whole, PAs in Himalaya played a positive role in halting deforestation.


2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 137
Author(s):  
Yudi Setiawan ◽  
Hidayat Pawitan ◽  
Lilik Budi Prasetyo ◽  
May Parlindungan ◽  
Prita Ayu Permatasari

Peat swamp area is an essential ecosystem due to high vulnerability of functions and services. As the change of forest cover in peat swamp area has increased considerably, many studies on peat swamp have focused on forest conversion or forest degradation. Meanwhile, in the context of changes in the forestlands are the sum of several processes such as deforestation, reforestation/afforestation, regeneration of previously deforested areas, and the changing spatial location of the forest boundary. Remote sensing technology seems to be a powerful tool to provide information required following that concerns. A comparison imagery taken at the different dates over the same locations for assessing those changes tends to be limited by the vegetation phenology and land-management practices. Consequently, the simultaneous analysis seems to be a way to deal with the issues above, as a means for better understanding of the dynamics changes in peat swamp area. In this study, we examined the feasibility of using MODIS images during the last 14 years for detecting and monitoring the changes in peat swamp area. We identified several significant patterns that have been assigned as the specific peat swamp ecosystem. The results indicate that a different type of ecosystem and its response to the environmental changes can be portrayed well by the significant patterns. In understanding the complex situations of each pattern, several vegetation dynamics patterns were characterized by physical land characteristics, such as peat depth, land use, concessions and others. Characterizing the pathways of dynamics change in peat swamp area will allow further identification for the range of proximate and underlying factors of the forest cover change that can help to develop useful policy interventions in peatland management.


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 1903 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jorge Caballero Espejo ◽  
Max Messinger ◽  
Francisco Román-Dañobeytia ◽  
Cesar Ascorra ◽  
Luis Fernandez ◽  
...  

While deforestation rates decline globally they are rising in the Western Amazon. Artisanal-scale gold mining (ASGM) is a large cause of this deforestation and brings with it extensive environmental, social, governance, and public health impacts, including large carbon emissions and mercury pollution. Underlying ASGM is a broad network of factors that influence its growth, distribution, and practices such as poverty, flows of legal and illegal capital, conflicting governance, and global economic trends. Despite its central role in land use and land cover change in the Western Amazon and the severity of its social and environmental impacts, it is relatively poorly studied. While ASGM in Southeastern Peru has been quantified previously, doing so is difficult due to the heterogeneous nature of the resulting landscape. Using a novel approach to classify mining that relies on a fusion of CLASlite and the Global Forest Change dataset, two Landsat-based deforestation detection tools, we sought to quantify ASGM-caused deforestation in the period 1984–2017 in the southern Peruvian Amazon and examine trends in the geography, methods, and impacts of ASGM across that time. We identify nearly 100,000 ha of deforestation due to ASGM in the 34-year study period, an increase of 21% compared to previous estimates. Further, we find that 10% of that deforestation occurred in 2017, the highest annual amount of deforestation in the study period, with 53% occurring since 2011. Finally, we demonstrate that not all mining is created equal by examining key patterns and changes in ASGM activity and techniques through time and space. We discuss their connections with, and impacts on, socio-economic factors, such as land tenure, infrastructure, international markets, governance efforts, and social and environmental impacts.


2011 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 381-404 ◽  
Author(s):  
MATIEU HENRY ◽  
DANAE MANIATIS ◽  
VINCENT GITZ ◽  
DAVID HUBERMAN ◽  
RICCARDO VALENTINI

ABSTRACTDeforestation and forest degradation represent an important part of global CO2 emissions. The identification of the multiple drivers of land-use change, past and present forest cover change and associated carbon budget, and the presence of locally adapted systems to allow for proper monitoring are particularly lacking in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Any incentive system to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) will have to overcome those limits. This paper reviews the main challenges to implementing effective REDD+ mitigation activities in SSA. We estimate that SSA is currently a net carbon sink of approximately 319 TgCO2 yr−1. Forest degradation and deforestation put the forest carbon stock at risk (mean forest carbon stock is 57,679 TgC). Our results highlight the importance of looking beyond the forest sector to ensure that REDD+ efforts are aligned with agricultural and land-use policies.


2013 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
pp. 113-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaime Paneque-Gálvez ◽  
Jean-François Mas ◽  
Maximilien Guèze ◽  
Ana Catarina Luz ◽  
Manuel J. Macía ◽  
...  

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