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Forest Change (forest + change)
Selected AbstractsToward Adaptive Community Forest Management: Integrating Local Forest Knowledge with Scientific Forestry,ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY, Issue 1 2002Daniel James Klooster Abstract: This case study of indigenous communities in highland Michoacán, Mexico, examines data on forest change, woodcutting practices, social history, and a recent forest inventory and management plan prepared by a professional forester. It assesses the social and environmental fit of both local knowledge and scientific forestry and considers their abilities to contribute to sustainable forest management. Both bodies of knowledge are limited in their ability to inform the social practice of environmental management. The local forest knowledge system is particularly hampered by a limited ability to monitor the forest's response to woodcutting, while scientific forestry lacks the institutional flexibility to ensure the just and effective implementation of restrictions and prescriptions. This article recommends cross-learning between scientific resource managers and woodcutters, participatory environmental monitoring to assess the results of different cutting techniques, and explicit management experiments to facilitate institutional learning at the community level. This kind of adaptive management approach permits the flexible integration of local knowledge, scientific forestry, and appropriate institutional parameters to modulate human needs and goals with the discordant harmonies of inhabited and heavily used forests in a constant state of flux under processes of succession, disturbance, and spatial variation. Several barriers to this kind of institutional innovation exist, but outside intervention has the potential to change the dynamics of institutional evolution. [source] Forest landscape pattern in the KwaZulu,Natal midlands, South Africa: 50 years of change or stasis?AUSTRAL ECOLOGY, Issue 6 2004MICHAEL J. LAWES Abstract Understanding patterns and processes of habitat change is essential for managing and conserving forest fragments in anthropogenically altered landscapes. Digitized aerial photographs from 1944 and 1996 were examined for changes to the indigenous forest landscape in the Karkloof-Balgowan archipelago in KwaZulu,Natal, South Africa. Attributes relating to proximate land-use, patch shape, isolation and position in the landscape were used to determine putative causes of forest change. The total change in forest area was ,5.7% (forest covered 6739 ha in 1996). This is contrasted with previous reports for the period 1880,1940 that estimated change in total forest area of up to ,80%. Attrition was the predominant process of forest transformation between 1944 and 1996. Despite little overall change in forest area, 786 mostly small (<0.5 ha) forest patches were lost from the landscape, leaving 1277 forest patches in 1996. An increase in patch isolation, but no change in patch cohesion accompanied the changes in forest area. Ignoring patches that were eliminated, 514 patches decreased in area. This was partly a function of patch size, but the conversion of natural grassland to commercial plantation forestry in the matrix also influenced forest decline. Their small size and irregular shape caused forest patches in the region to be vulnerable to edge effects. Core area declined in a negative exponential way with increasing edge width and the total area of edge habitat exceeded that of core habitat at an edge width of only 50 m. Nevertheless, total core area decreased by only 2% (65 ha) between 1944 and 1996 because most of the eliminated patches were small and contained no core area. The large Karkloof forest (1649 ha) is a conservation priority for forest interior species, but the ecological role and biodiversity value of small forest patches should not be overlooked. [source] Forest Conversion and Degradation in Papua New Guinea 1972,2002BIOTROPICA, Issue 3 2009Phil L. Shearman ABSTRACT Quantifying forest change in the tropics is important because of the role these forests play in the conservation of biodiversity and the global carbon cycle. One of the world's largest remaining areas of tropical forest is located in Papua New Guinea. Here we show that change in its extent and condition has occurred to a greater extent than previously recorded. We assessed deforestation and forest degradation in Papua New Guinea by comparing a land-cover map from 1972 with a land-cover map created from nationwide high-resolution satellite imagery recorded since 2002. In 2002 there were 28,251,967 ha of tropical rain forest. Between 1972 and 2002, a net 15 percent of Papua New Guinea's tropical forests were cleared and 8.8 percent were degraded through logging. The drivers of forest change have been concentrated within the accessible forest estate where a net 36 percent were degraded or deforested through both forestry and nonforestry processes. Since 1972, 13 percent of upper montane forests have also been lost. We estimate that over the period 1990,2002, overall rates of change generally increased and varied between 0.8 and 1.8 percent/yr, while rates in commercially accessible forest have been far higher,having varied between 1.1 and 3.4 percent/yr. These rates are far higher than those reported by the FAO over the same period. We conclude that rapid and substantial forest change has occurred in Papua New Guinea, with the major drivers being logging in the lowland forests and subsistence agriculture throughout the country with comparatively minor contributions from forest fires, plantation establishment, and mining. RESUMEN Sopos long kisim gutpela save long senis i kamak long tropics em i wanpela bik pela samting long wanem, bikpela bus em wanpela hap we wok konsevason na carbon cycle bai inap kirapim gutpela wok. Insait long olgeta hap long world, PNG em wanpela hap we bikpela bus em i stap yet. Insait long dispela wok mipela soim olsem bikpela senis em i kamap long insait long bikpela bus na long hamas bikpela bus yumi gat. Nogat wanpela kain wok painimaut emi painim dispela senis bipo. Mipela lukluk gut long we olgeta bikpela bus i raus na we bus i kisim bagarap insait long, yia 1972 i kamap inap long yia 2002. Long yia 1972 mipela i usim map ol i kolim land cover map na long yia 2002 mipela lukluk long olgeta PNG high-resolution satellite imagery. Long yia 2002, 28,251,967 hectares bikpela bus i stap insait long Papua New Guinea. Long namel long 1972 igo inap long 2002, Papua New Guinea i lusim 15 percent long algeta bipela bus belong en. Insait long dispela 15 percent, 8.8 percent em i kamap bikos ol lain i katim diwai long salim. As bilong senisim bikela bus emi stap long ples we igat bikpela diwai long katim. Insait long dispela hap yumi lusim 36 percent, sampela we yumi inap long salim, tasol narapela emi bikos yumi rausim bus long wokim gaden or narapela kainkain pasin yumi wokim. Long 1972 i kamap inap long yia 2002, yumi lusim 13 percent long bikpela bus raonim ol bikpela maunten. Mipela painim olsem, long yia 1990 igo inap long yia 2002, long algeta kantri kain senis i wok long kamap bikpla. Senis istap insait long 0.8 igo inap long 1.8 percent long wan wan yia, tasol insait long wan wan liklik hap some pela i kisim bikpela senis, na ol narapela ino tumas. Long ol hap igat gutpela diwai long katim, senis i stat long 1.1 percent igo inap 3.4 percent. Dispela senis em i winim estimates we ol lain FAO i bin tokaut long em bipo. Long dispela wok painimaut, mipela iken tok olsem, as bilong dispela bikpela senis emi kamap long wanem ol i rausim na bagarapim bikpela bus. Dispela asua i kamap taim yumi rausim planti diwai tumas long salim na sampela taim yumi katim bus long wokim garden. Sampela taim bikpela paia tu i save kukim bikpela bus. [source] Fire regimes and forest changes in mid and upper montane forests of the southern Cascades, Lassen Volcanic National Park, California, U.S.A.JOURNAL OF BIOGEOGRAPHY, Issue 1 2000A. H. Taylor Abstract Aim Spatial and temporal variation in fire regime parameters and forest structure were assessed. Location A 2630-ha area of mid- and upper montane forest in Lassen Volcanic National Park (LVNP). Methods Two hypotheses were tested concerned with fire-vegetation relationships in southern Cascades forests: (1) fire regime parameters (return interval, season of burn, fire size, rotation period) vary by forest dominant, elevation and slope aspect; and (2) fire exclusion since 1905 has caused forest structural and compositional changes in both mid- and upper montane forests. The implications of the study for national park management are also discussed. Results Fire regime parameters varied by forest compositional group and elevation in LVNP. Median composite and point fire return intervals were shorter in low elevation Jeffrey pine (Pinus jeffreyi) (JP) (4,6 years, 16 years) and Jeffrey pine,white fir (Abies concolor) (JP-WF) (5,10 years, 22 years) and longer in high elevation red fir (Abies magnifica), western white pine (Pinus monticola) (RF-WWP) forests (9,27 years, 70 years). Median fire return intervals were also shorter on east-facing (6,9 years, 16.3 years) and longer on south- (11 years, 32.5 years) and west-facing slopes (22,28 years, 54-years) in all forests and in each forest composition group. Spatial patterns in fire rotation length were the same as those for fire return intervals. More growing season fires also occurred in JP (33.1%) and JP-WF (17.5%) than in RF-WWP (1.1%) forests. A dramatic decline in fire frequency occurred in all forests after 1905. Conclusions Changes in forest structure and composition occurred in both mid- and upper montane forests due to twentieth-century fire exclusion. Forest density increased in JP and JP-WF forests and white fir increased in JP-WF forests and is now replacing Jeffrey pine. Forest density only increased in some RF-WWP stands, but not others. Resource managers restoring fire to these now denser forests need to burn larger areas if fire is going to play its pre-settlement role in montane forest dynamics. [source] The Forest-Streamflow Relationship in China: A 40-Year Retrospect,JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN WATER RESOURCES ASSOCIATION, Issue 5 2008Xiaohua Wei Abstract:, The relationship between forests and streamflows has long been an important research interest in China. The purpose of this paper is to summarize progress and lessons learned from the forest-streamflow studies over the past four decades in China. To better measure the research gaps between China and other parts of the world, a brief global review on the findings from paired watershed studies over the past 100 years was also provided. In China, forest management shifted in the later 1990s from timber harvesting to forest restoration. Forest-streamflow research was accordingly changed from assessing harvesting impacts to evaluating both harvesting and forestation effects. Over the past four decades, Chinese forest hydrology research has grown substantially. Significant progress has been made on measuring individual processes, but little solid, long-term data were available to assess the relationship between forest changes and streamflows because of an absence of standard paired watersheds. In addition, misuse of statistical analyses was often found in the literature. A unique opportunity exists in China to study the forestation effects on streamflow as several large-scale forestation programs are being implemented. Such an opportunity should include a robust paired watershed design under an integrated watershed ecosystem framework to avoid repeating the lessons already learned. Recommendations on future forest-streamflow research directions in China are provided. [source] | |||||||||||||