Abstract
Damage to conservation areas in North Sumatra can be mitigated by understanding the pattern of land cover change, which can be performed by detecting hotspots and their temporal and spatial patterns. This study aimed to explore land cover spatially and temporally before and after forest fires in the conservation areas in North Sumatra. Data on the hotspots, satellite imagery, land cover maps, and field verification were used to see the transition of land cover changes before and after forest and land fires. Temporal and spatial analysis was employed to see the trend of land cover changes of the land before and after the fires. Field verification was conducted through observations and interviews related to land cover conditions in the field caused by forest and land fires. This study found three conservation areas with the highest number of hotspots in 2014 in the period 2001-2019, including Gunung Leuser National Park (GLNP), Dolok Surungan Wildlife Reserve, and Barumun Wildlife Reserve during the 2001-2019 period. In 2010 and 2014 there were strong indications of a large area of land burning in three conservation areas. The burned land was near the outer boundary of the conservation areas and continued to expand into the areas over time. The area of the non-forest cover was relatively stable between periods prior to the discovery of several hotspots. Changes in forest cover to non-forest have become more widespread after the highest number of hotspots were detected in 2010. Conservation area management and various parties need to prevent the expansion of forest clearing considering the strategic role especially in GNLP as a world heritage.
Identification of land cover changes before and after forest and land fires in conservation areas of North Sumatra, Indonesia