Forest change within and outside protected areas in the Dominican Republic, 2000-2016

AbstractWe used Landsat-based estimates of tree cover change to document the loss and gain of forest in the Dominican Republic between 2000 and 2016. Overall, 2,795 km2 of forest were lost, with forest gain occurring on only 393 km2, yielding a net loss of 2,402 km2 of forest, a decline of 11.1% or 0.7% per year. Deforestation occurred in all of the major forest types in the country, and ranged from a 13% decline in the area of semi-moist broadleaf forest to a 5.9% loss of cloud forest, mostly attributed to agriculture. Fire was a significant driver of forest loss only in Hispaniolan pine (Pinus occidentalis) forests and, to a lesser extent, in adjacent cloud forest. Deforestation rates were lower within protected areas, especially in dry and semi-moist broadleaf forests at lower elevations. Protected areas had a smaller, and generally negligible, effect on rates of forest loss in pine forest and cloud forest, largely due to the effects of several large wildfires. Overall, rates of deforestation in the Dominican Republic were higher than regional averages from across the Neotropics and appeared to have accelerated during the later years of our study period. Stemming deforestation will likely require enforcement of prohibitions on large-scale agricultural production within protected areas and development of alternatives to short-cycle, shifting agriculture.

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Four Decades of Land-Cover Change on the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska: Detecting Disturbance-Influenced Vegetation Shifts Using Landsat Legacy Data

Land ◽

10.3390/land9100382 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 9 (10) ◽

pp. 382

Author(s):

Carson Baughman ◽

Rachel Loehman ◽

Dawn Magness ◽

Lisa Saperstein ◽

Rosemary Sherriff

Keyword(s):

Land Cover ◽

Land Cover Change ◽

Large Scale ◽

Forest Canopy ◽

Tree Cover ◽

Forest Loss ◽

Environmental Response ◽

Kenai Peninsula ◽

Vegetation Shifts ◽

Forest Land Cover

Across Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula, disturbance events have removed large areas of forest over the last half century. Simultaneously, succession and landscape evolution have facilitated forest regrowth and expansion. Detecting forest loss within known pulse disturbance events is often straightforward given that reduction in tree cover is a readily detectable and measurable land-cover change. Land-cover change is more difficult to quantify when disturbance events are unknown, remote, or environmental response is slow in relation to human observation. While disturbance events and related land-cover change are relatively instant, assessing patterns of post-disturbance succession requires long term monitoring. Here, we describe a method for classifying land cover and quantifying land-cover change over time, using Landsat legacy imagery for three historical eras on the western Kenai Peninsula: 1973–2002, 2002–2017, and 1973–2017. Scenes from numerous Landsat sensors, including summer and winter seasons, were acquired between 1973 and 2017 and used to classify vegetation cover using a random forest classifier. Land-cover type was summarized by era and combined to produce a dataset capturing spatially explicit land-cover change at a moderate 30-m resolution. Our results document large-scale forest loss across the study area that can be attributed to known disturbance events including beetle kill and wildfire. Despite numerous and extensive disturbances resulting in forest loss, we estimate that the study area has experienced net forest gain over the duration of our study period due to reforestation within large fire events that predate this study. Transition between forest and graminoid non-forest land cover including wetlands and herbaceous uplands is the most common land-cover change—representing recruitment of a graminoid dominated understory following forest loss and the return of forest canopy given sufficient time post-disturbance.

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Introduction: The trouble with forest: definitions, values and boundaries

Geographica Helvetica ◽

10.5194/gh-73-253-2018 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 73 (4) ◽

pp. 253-260 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Muriel Côte ◽

Flurina Wartmann ◽

Ross Purves

Keyword(s):

Information Science ◽

Geographic Information Science ◽

Academic Disciplines ◽

Epistemic Communities ◽

Forest Loss ◽

Special Issue ◽

Forest Change ◽

Deforestation Rates ◽

The Relationship ◽

Resources Assessment

Abstract. Forest is in trouble. The most recent (2015) FAO Forest Resources Assessment shows an encouraging trend towards a decrease in deforestation rates, but it also points out that since 1990 total forest loss corresponds to an area the size of South Africa. Efforts to curtail deforestation require reliable assessments, yet current definitions for what a forest exactly is differ significantly across countries, institutions and epistemic communities. Those differences have implications for forest management efforts: they entail different understandings about where exactly a forest starts and ends, and therefore also engender misunderstandings about where a forest should start and end, and about how forests should be managed. This special issue brings together different perspectives from practitioners and academic disciplines – including linguistics, geographic information science and human geography – around the problem of understanding and characterizing forest. By bringing together different disciplinary viewpoints, we hope to contribute to ongoing interdisciplinary efforts to analyse forest change. In this introduction, we propose that interrogating the relationship between forest definitions, boundaries and ways of valuing forests constitutes a productive way to critically conceptualize the trouble that forest is in.

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Agriculture is the primary driver of tree cover loss across the Forestière region of the Republic of Guinea, Africa

Environmental Research Communications ◽

10.1088/2515-7620/ac4278 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Maegan Fitzgerald ◽

Janet Nackoney ◽

Peter V Potapov ◽

Svetlana Turubanova

Keyword(s):

West Africa ◽

Change Detection ◽

Protected Areas ◽

Spatial Data ◽

Tree Cover ◽

Conservation Strategies ◽

Forest Change ◽

Mammal Species ◽

Detection Model ◽

Primary Driver

Abstract Biodiversity hotspots are conservation priority areas that feature exceptionally high levels of species endemism and high levels of habitat loss. The Guinean Forests of West Africa hotspot, home to a quarter of all the mammal species of Africa, has experienced high levels of forest loss within its protected areas. Here, we analyzed tree cover loss and its proximate drivers within Guinée Forestière, a high biodiversity region within the Guinean Forests of West Africa hotspot, both inside and outside protected areas. Using Landsat analysis ready data and a regionally calibrated, annual forest change detection model, we mapped tree cover loss occurring across this region from 2000 to 2018. We quantified the area of tree cover loss and identified proximate drivers using a statistical sample of reference data. The total tree cover loss in Guinée Forestière between years 2000 and 2018 was 10,907 km2 (SE 889 km2), which consists of approximately 25% of the region’s total land area. Of this total loss, 364 km2 (SE 91 km2) occurred within protected areas of high biodiversity value. Tree cover loss was not consistent across high biodiversity areas and did not appear to be related to protected area classification. Smallholder agriculture (subsistence and cash crop farming) was the primary driver of tree cover loss across Guinée Forestière. This research provides multitemporal spatial data on tree cover dynamics that is required for effective implementation of sustainable management and biodiversity conservation strategies within the broader socioecological landscape of Guinée Forestière. We also highlight important limitations to consider and address when using remote sensing to automate change detection across landscapes.

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An Assessment of Global Forest Change Datasets for National Forest Monitoring and Reporting

Remote Sensing ◽

10.3390/rs12111790 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (11) ◽

pp. 1790 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Nikolaos Galiatsatos ◽

Daniel N.M. Donoghue ◽

Pete Watt ◽

Pradeepa Bholanath ◽

Jeffrey Pickering ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Reference Data ◽

Canopy Cover ◽

Tree Canopy ◽

Tree Cover ◽

Forest Loss ◽

National Forest ◽

Forest Change ◽

Tree Canopy Cover ◽

Definition Of ◽

Year 2000

Global Forest Change datasets have the potential to assist countries with national forest measuring, reporting and verification (MRV) requirements. This paper assesses the accuracy of the Global Forest Change data against nationally derived forest change data by comparing the forest loss estimates from the global data with the equivalent data from Guyana for the period 2001–2017. To perform a meaningful comparison between these two datasets, the initial year 2000 forest state needs first to be matched to the definition of forest land cover appropriate to a local national setting. In Guyana, the default definition of 30% tree cover overestimates forest area is by 483,000 ha (18.15%). However, by using a tree canopy cover (i.e., density of tree canopy coverage metric) threshold of 94%, a close match between the Guyana-MRV non-forest area and the Global Forest Change dataset is achieved with a difference of only 24,210 ha (0.91%) between the two maps. A complimentary analysis using a two-stage stratified random sampling design showed the 94% tree canopy cover threshold gave a close correspondence (R2 = 0.98) with the Guyana-MRV data, while the Global Forest Change default setting of 30% tree canopy cover threshold gave a poorer fit (R2 = 0.91). Having aligned the definitions of forest for the Global Forest Change and the Guyana-MRV products for the year 2000, we show that over the period 2001–2017 the Global Forest Change data yielded a 99.34% overall Correspondence with the reference data and a 94.35% Producer’s Accuracy. The Guyana-MRV data yielded a 99.36% overall Correspondence with the reference data and a 95.94% Producer’s Accuracy. A year-by-year analysis of change from 2001–2017 shows that in some years, the Global Forest Change dataset underestimates change, and in other years, such as 2016 and 2017, change is detected that is not forest loss or gain, hence the apparent overestimation. The conclusion is that, when suitably calibrated for percentage tree cover, the Global Forest Change datasets give a good first approximation of forest loss (and, probably, gains). However, in countries with large areas of forest cover and low levels of deforestation, these data should not be relied upon to provide a precise annual loss/gain or rate of change estimate for audit purposes without using independent high-quality reference data.

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Assessing the Importance of Tree Cover Threshold for Forest Cover Mapping Derived from Global Forest Cover in Myanmar

Forests ◽

10.3390/f10121062 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 10 (12) ◽

pp. 1062 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Kay Khaing Lwin ◽

Tetsuji Ota ◽

Katsuto Shimizu ◽

Nobuya Mizoue

Keyword(s):

Large Scale ◽

Forest Cover ◽

Remote Sensing Data ◽

Tree Cover ◽

Tropical Rainforests ◽

Forest Change ◽

Tropical Regions ◽

Ecological Zones ◽

Optimal Tree ◽

Forest Cover Mapping

Comprehensive forest cover mapping is essential for making policy and management decisions. However, creating a forest cover map from raw remote sensing data is a barrier for many users. Here, we investigated the effects of different tree cover thresholds on the accuracy of forest cover maps derived from the Global Forest Change Dataset (GFCD) across different ecological zones in a country-scale evaluation of Myanmar. To understand the effect of different thresholds on map accuracy, nine forest cover maps having thresholds ranging from 10% to 90% were created from the GFCD. The accuracy of the forest cover maps within each ecological zone and at the national scale was assessed. The overall accuracies of ecological zones other than tropical rainforest were highest when the threshold for tree cover was less than 50%. The appropriate threshold for tropical rainforests was 80%. Therefore, different optimal tree cover thresholds were required to achieve the highest overall accuracy depending on ecological zones. However, in the unique case of Myanmar, we were able to determine the threshold across the whole country. We concluded that the threshold for tree cover for creating a forest cover map should be determined according to the areal ratio of ecological zones determined from large-scale monitoring. Our results are applicable to tropical regions having similar ecological zones.

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What Is Threatening Forests in Protected Areas? A Global Assessment of Deforestation in Protected Areas, 2001–2018

Forests ◽

10.3390/f11050539 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 11 (5) ◽

pp. 539 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Christopher M. Wade ◽

Kemen G. Austin ◽

James Cajka ◽

Daniel Lapidus ◽

Kibri H. Everett ◽

...

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Land Cover ◽

Protected Areas ◽

Democratic Republic Of Congo ◽

Anthropogenic Activities ◽

The United States ◽

Tree Cover ◽

Forest Loss ◽

Global Trends ◽

The Impact

The protection of forests is crucial to providing important ecosystem services, such as supplying clean air and water, safeguarding critical habitats for biodiversity, and reducing global greenhouse gas emissions. Despite this importance, global forest loss has steadily increased in recent decades. Protected Areas (PAs) currently account for almost 15% of Earth’s terrestrial surface and protect 5% of global tree cover and were developed as a principal approach to limit the impact of anthropogenic activities on natural, intact ecosystems and habitats. We assess global trends in forest loss inside and outside of PAs, and land cover following this forest loss, using a global map of tree cover loss and global maps of land cover. While forests in PAs experience loss at lower rates than non-protected forests, we find that the temporal trend of forest loss in PAs is markedly similar to that of all forest loss globally. We find that forest loss in PAs is most commonly—and increasingly—followed by shrubland, a broad category that could represent re-growing forest, agricultural fallows, or pasture lands in some regional contexts. Anthropogenic forest loss for agriculture is common in some regions, particularly in the global tropics, while wildfires, pests, and storm blowdown are a significant and consistent cause of forest loss in more northern latitudes, such as the United States, Canada, and Russia. Our study describes a process for screening tree cover loss and agriculture expansion taking place within PAs, and identification of priority targets for further site-specific assessments of threats to PAs. We illustrate an approach for more detailed assessment of forest loss in four case study PAs in Brazil, Indonesia, Democratic Republic of Congo, and the United States.

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The potential of protected areas to halt deforestation in Ecuador

Environmental Conservation ◽

10.1017/s037689291700011x ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 44 (2) ◽

pp. 124-130 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

YNTZE VAN DER HOEK

Keyword(s):

South America ◽

Protected Areas ◽

Land Cover Change ◽

Generalized Linear Models ◽

Protected Area ◽

Linear Models ◽

Forest Loss ◽

Apparent Effect ◽

Deforestation Rates ◽

Effect Of Age

SUMMARYEcuador, a country with nearly unparalleled levels of biodiversity and endemism, has one of the highest deforestation rates of South America. I examined whether governmentally protected areas in Ecuador have been effective at reducing deforestation. After estimating deforestation rates from existing land cover change data for 2000 to 2008, I used a matching approach to compare the rates of forest loss inside and outside protected areas, which corrected for geographic biases in the locations of protected areas. I tested for the effects of protected area age, size and level of protection on the rate of deforestation using generalized linear models. Governmentally protected areas still experienced deforestation – with no apparent effect of age, size and level of protection – of nearly 10,000 ha per year, but deforestation rates were lower inside compared to outside protected areas. Governmental protection led to the avoidance of additional deforestation of 2600–7800 ha of natural forest per year. Actions to mitigate deforestation in Ecuador are of global importance and as such it is promising that protected areas can help diminish deforestation, although the effectiveness of Ecuador's protected areas can still be improved upon.

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Species distribution modeling and conservation assessment of the black-headed night monkey (Aotus nigriceps) – A species of Least Concern that faces widespread anthropogenic threats

10.1101/2020.05.20.107383 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

William D. Helenbrook ◽

Jose W. Valdez

Keyword(s):

Protected Areas ◽

Species Distribution ◽

Amazon Basin ◽

Forest Cover ◽

Indigenous Communities ◽

Sympatric Species ◽

Tree Cover ◽

Conservation Assessment ◽

Buffer Zones ◽

Deforestation Rates

AbstractDeforestation rates in the Brazilian Amazon have been steadily increasing since 2007. Recent government policy, projected growth of agriculture, and expansion of the cattle industry is expected to further pressure primates within the Amazon basin. In this study, we examined the anthropogenic impact on the widely distributed black-headed night monkey, Aotus nigriceps, whose distribution and population status have yet to be assessed. We 1) modeled species distribution in A. nigriceps; 2) estimated impact of habitat loss on population trends; and 3) highlight landscape-based conservation actions which maximize potential for their long-term sustainability. We found the black-headed night monkey to be restricted by several biotic and environmental factors including forest cover, elevation, isothermality, and precipitation. Over the last two decades, over 132,908 km2 of tree cover (18%) has been lost within their documented range. We found this species occupies only 49% of habitat within in their range, a loss of 19% from their estimated 2000 distribution, and just over 34% of occupied areas were in protected areas. Projected deforestation rates of A. nigriceps equates to an additional loss of 23,084 km2 of occupied habitat over the next decade. This study suggests that although classified as a species of Least Concern, A. nigriceps may have a much smaller range and is likely more at risk than previously described. The future impact of continued expansion of mono-cultured crops, cattle ranching, and wildfires is still unknown. However, expanded use of participatory REDD+, sustainable agroforestry in buffer zones, secured land tenor for indigenous communities, wildlife corridors, and the expansion of protected areas can help ensure viability for this nocturnal primate and other sympatric species throughout the Amazon Basin.

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Continuous Detection of Forest Loss in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia Using Sentinel-1 Data

Remote Sensing ◽

10.3390/rs13234877 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (23) ◽

pp. 4877

Author(s):

Stéphane Mermoz ◽

Alexandre Bouvet ◽

Thierry Koleck ◽

Marie Ballère ◽

Thuy Le Toan

Keyword(s):

Protected Areas ◽

Large Scale ◽

Forest Disturbance ◽

Forest Loss ◽

False Alarms ◽

Forest Disturbances ◽

Mapping Unit ◽

Minimum Mapping Unit ◽

Conservation Of Natural Resources ◽

Do So

In this study, we demonstrate the ability of a new operational system to detect forest loss at a large scale accurately and in a timely manner. We produced forest loss maps every week over Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos (>750,000 km2 in total) using Sentinel-1 data. To do so, we used the forest loss detection method based on shadow detection. The main advantage of this method is the ability to avoid false alarms, which is relevant in Southeast Asia where the areas of forest disturbance may be very small and scattered and detection is used for alert purposes. The estimated user accuracy of the forest loss map was 0.95 for forest disturbances and 0.99 for intact forest, and the estimated producer’s accuracy was 0.90 for forest disturbances and 0.99 for intact forest, with a minimum mapping unit of 0.1 ha. This represents an important step forward compared to the values achieved by previous studies. We also found that approximately half of forest disturbances in Cambodia from 2018 to 2020 occurred in protected areas, which emphasizes the lack of efficiency in the protection and conservation of natural resources in protected areas. On an annual basis, the forest loss areas detected using our method are found to be similar to the estimations from Global Forest Watch. These results highlight the fact that this method provides not only quick alerts but also reliable detections that can be used to calculate weekly, monthly, or annual forest loss statistics at a national scale.

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Relationship Between Fire and Forest Cover Loss in Riau Province, Indonesia Between 2001 and 2012

Forests ◽

10.3390/f10100889 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 10 (10) ◽

pp. 889 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Adrianto ◽

Spracklen ◽

Arnold

Keyword(s):

Protected Areas ◽

Oil Palm ◽

Forest Cover ◽

Wood Fiber ◽

Fire Risk ◽

Fire Frequency ◽

Natural Forest ◽

Tree Cover ◽

Forest Loss ◽

Forest Logging

Forest and peatland fires occur regularly across Indonesia, resulting in large greenhouse gas emissions and causing major air quality issues. Over the last few decades, Indonesia has also experienced extensive forest loss and conversion of natural forest to oil palm and timber plantations. Here we used data on fire hotspots and tree-cover loss, as well as information on the extent of peat land, protected areas, and concessions to explore spatial and temporal relationships among forest, forest loss, and fire frequency. We focus on the Riau Province in Central Sumatra, one of the most active regions of fire in Indonesia. We find strong relationships between forest loss and fire at the local scale. Regions with forest loss experienced six times as many fire hotspots compared to regions with no forest loss. Forest loss and maximum fire frequency occurred within the same year, or one year apart, in 70% of the 1 km2 cells experiencing both forest loss and fire. Frequency of fire was lower both before and after forest loss, suggesting that most fire is associated with the forest loss process. On peat soils, fire frequency was a factor 10 to 100 lower in protected areas and natural forest logging concessions compared to oil palm and wood fiber (timber) concessions. Efforts to reduce fire need to address the underlying role of land-use and land-cover change in the occurrence of fire. Increased support for protected areas and natural forest logging concessions and restoration of degraded peatlands may reduce future fire risk. During times of high fire risk, fire suppression resources should be targeted to regions that are experiencing recent forest loss, as these regions are most likely to experience fire.

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