The national determinants of deforestation in sub-Saharan Africa

For decades, the dynamics of tropical deforestation in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) have defied easy explanation. The rates of deforestation have been lower than elsewhere in the tropics, and the driving forces evident in other places, government new land settlement schemes and industrialized agriculture, have largely been absent in SSA. The context and causes for African deforestation become clearer through an analysis of new, national-level data on forest cover change for SSA countries for the 2000–2005 period. The recent dynamic in SSA varies from dry to wet biomes. Deforestation occurred at faster rates in nations with predominantly dry forests. The wetter Congo basin countries had lower rates of deforestation, in part because tax receipts from oil and mineral industries in this region spurred rural to urban migration, declines in agriculture and increased imports of cereals from abroad. In this respect, the Congo basin countries may be experiencing an oil and mineral fuelled forest transition. Small farmers play a more important role in African deforestation than they do in southeast Asia and Latin America, in part because small-scale agriculture remains one of the few livelihoods open to rural peoples.     

Will Tropical Biodiversity Survive our Approach to Global Change?

Because global change is almost synonymous with climate change, research has emphasized perhaps too much the effects of climate change over other global concerns that might be equally detrimental to biodiversity and humanity. These include unsustainable land use and massive conversion and degradation of natural habitats. Perhaps by the time we understand the effects of global climate change on tropical forests, there may not be any left to admire.     

Forest carbon budgets in Southeast Asia following harvesting and land cover change

Terrestrial ecosystems play an important role in the global carbon (C)cycle. Tropical forests in Southeast Asia are constantly changing as a result of harvesting and conversion to other land cover. As a result of these changes, research on C budgets of forest ecosystems has intensified in the region over thelast few years. This paper reviews and synthesizes the available information. Natural forests in SE Asia typically contain a high C density (up to 500 Mg/ha). Logging activities are responsible for at least 50% decline in forest C density.Complete deforestation (conversion from forest to grassland or annual crops) results in C density of less than 40 Mg/ha. Conversion to tree plantations and other woody perennial crops also reduces C density to less than 50% of the originalC forest stocks. While much information has been generated recently, there are still large gaps of information on C budgets of tropical forests and its conversion to other land uses in SE Asia. There is therefore a need to intensify research in this area.     

基于长时间序列landsat数据的科尔沁沙地土地利用演变分析

以科尔沁沙地沙丘—草甸过渡带区域主要土地覆被类型为研究对象,以1987—2017年多时相Landsat TM/OLI遥感影像解译分类为基础,参考生态学植被演替研究方法,系统分析研究区30年来的土地利用/覆被动态演变规律,研究结果表明:（1）决策树法在复杂下垫面不同覆被类型的同步识别效果较好,所有影像分类精度均达到88%以上,分类效果较好,其中2017年分类精度最高为95.24%,达到了分类研究的要求;（2）研究区存在着\"半灌丛-草甸地-灌丛\"的植被结构特征,且整体表现为\"南进北退\"的变化趋势。结合土地利用动态度分析结果表明人类活动干涉下,研究区整体上遵循了半干旱区植被条件改善的一般规律,侧面反映该研究区域生态环境的持续不稳定性和脆弱性;（3）研究区覆被类型发生变化的总面积达到2623.59 hm²,总变化强度为63.76%。其中正向演替的比例为52.61%,以半灌丛面积的持续减小与沙地草甸面积的持续扩张为主要变化特征。但同时,半灌丛转为沙地的面积为184.95 hm²,表明以放牧为主的研究区同时发生着局部的逆行演变;（4）质心迁移结果反映了1987—2017年间,除人为影响较大的林地、草地以及耕地向北迁移外,其他植被类型的质心都有很明显的南迁,主要植被类型重心迁移距离依次由大到小为耕地>半灌丛>灌丛>沙地草甸>湿地草甸>林地。研究通过记录科尔沁沙地连续扩展的时空模式,展示了遥感—生态和时间序列影像在30 m分辨率下跟踪土地利用/覆被变化的潜力,为提高干旱半干旱区土地利用情况的动态监测效率,开展土地利用/覆被动态演变研究提供参考。     

Forest carbon budgets in Southeast Asia following harvesting and land cover change

Terrestrial ecosystems play an important role in the global carbon (C) cycle. Tropicalforests in Southeast Asia are constantly changing as a result of harvesting and conversion to otherland cover. As a result of these changes, research on C budgets of forest ecosystems has intensi-fied in the region over the last few years. This paper reviews and synthesizes the available infor-mation. Natural forests in SE Asia typically contain a high C density (up to 500 Mg/ha). Logging activities are responsible for at least 50% decline in forest C density. Complete deforestation (conversion from forest to grassland or annual crops) results in C density of less than 40 Mg/ha. Conversion to tree plantations and other woody perennial crops also reduces C density to lessthan 50% of the original C forest stocks. While much information has been generated recently, there are still large gaps of information on C budgets of tropical forests and its conversion to otherland uses in SE Asia. There is therefore a need to intensify research in this area.     

Patterns and trends in tropical forest cover

Abstract

In the 2005 edition of the Global Forest Resources Assessment of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, a moderate negative trend was reported regarding the change of tropical forests: the net annual change was estimated at ?11.8 million ha for the period 2000–2005, while the rate was ?11.65 for the previous decade. Tropical Asia showed the highest rate and most negative trend, passing from ?0.8% to ?0.96% per year. The remote sensing survey done for previous Forest Resource Assessment editions covering the period 1980–2000 revealed distinct change processes in the three tropical regions. Survey results indicated that socio‐economic and cultural aspects that characterise and differentiate the geographic regions determine the nature of the change processes and underlying cause–effect mechanisms, while the ecological setting determines the intensity of change and reveals its environmental implications. A comparison of deforestation processes of the two decades indicated an on‐going process of “radicalisation” of the dynamics determined by an increasing frequency of high‐gradient changes (e.g. total clearing rather than fragmentation and degradation) and by a shift of deforestation fronts towards wetter zones, with a consequent higher per‐hectare carbon emission associated with deforested areas.     

A global overview of the conservation status of tropical dry forests

Aim To analyse the conservation status of tropical dry forests at the global scale, by combining a newly developed global distribution map with spatial data describing different threats, and to identify the relative exposure of different forest areas to such threats. Location Global assessment. Methods We present a new global distribution map of tropical dry forest derived from the recently developed MODIS Vegetation Continuous Fields (VCF) product, which depicts percentage tree cover at a resolution of 500 m, combined with previously defined maps of biomes. This distribution map was overlaid with spatial data to estimate the exposure of tropical dry forests to a number of different threats: climate change, habitat fragmentation, fire, human population density and conversion to cropland. The extent of tropical dry forest currently protected was estimated by overlaying the forest map with a global data set of the distribution of protected areas. Results It is estimated that 1,048,700 km² of tropical dry forest remains, distributed throughout the three tropical regions. More than half of the forest area (54.2%) is located within South America, the remaining area being almost equally divided between North and Central America, Africa and Eurasia, with a relatively small proportion (3.8%) occurring within Australasia and Southeast Asia. Overall, c. 97% of the remaining area of tropical dry forest is at risk from one or more of the threats considered, with highest percentages recorded for Eurasia. The relative exposure to different threats differed between regions: while climate change is relatively significant in the Americas, habitat fragmentation and fire affect a higher proportion of African forests, whereas agricultural conversion and human population density are most influential in Eurasia. Evidence suggests that c. 300,000 km² of tropical dry forest now coincide with some form of protected area, with 71.8% of this total being located within South America. Main conclusions Virtually all of the tropical dry forests that remain are currently exposed to a variety of different threats, largely resulting from human activity. Taking their high biodiversity value into consideration, this indicates that tropical dry forests should be accorded high conservation priority. The results presented here could be used to identify which forest areas should be accorded highest priority for conservation action. In particular, the expansion of the global protected area network, particularly in Mesoamerica, should be given urgent consideration.