The contribution of modified taungya system to forest cover and livelihoods of forest-fringe communities: A case study of Worobong South Forest Reserve in Ghana

Abstract. Ebenezer A, Ameka GK, Annang TY. 2018. The contribution of modified taunga system to forest cover and livelihoods of forest-fringe communities: a case study of Worobong South Forest Reserve in Ghana. Asian J Ethnobiol 1: 15-30. The purpose of this study was to consider the function of the MTS in assisting to forest recovery and in ameliorating subsistences of peasants within the Worobong South Forest Reserve (WSFR, Akim portion). Geographic Information System (GIS) and Remote Sensing (RS) were utilized to examine the expanse of forest canopy decrease from 1990-2010. The analysis of the involvement of the MTS strategy on forest canopy recovery was also performed by analogizing the natural forest to the MTS plantation by utilizing the 100 m x 100 m square transect techniques and using the Simpson’s Index of Diversity. A socio-economic survey including semi-structured interviews was performed to find out the thinking of the MTS peasants in the Akwansrem, Feyiase and Miaso societies and forestry officials on forest recovery as well as the contribution of the MTS to livelihoods of peasants in the study area. The results of the study showed that the forest canopy in the WSFR had experienced various numbers of alteration and/or enhancement particularly in the closed forest canopy. The jungle canopy had declined by 0.41% and 0.17% in 1990-2000 and in 2000-2010 respectively. Nevertheless, in terms of forest vegetation categories, a principal alteration was examined within the closed canopy. Between 1990-2000, the closed canopy underwent a decline of 45.55% but it had an increase of 1.25% (41.4 ha) in 2000-2010. It was expected that there will be further enhanced in the closed canopy in 2010-2020 if current rate of recovery continues to grow. Results of the Simpson's Index of Diversity showed that the natural forest transect was more diverse (1-D = 0.93), in terms of variety and distribution, than the MTS transect (1-D = 0.41). And, stem number was nearly 50% higher than that of the MTS plantation. The results of the research showed that around 600 to 800 trees were planted by individual peasants annually on 0.8 ha of downgraded lands. The enhancement of closed forest canopy within WSFR was ascribed to the success of the MTS strategy. The results also signified that the subsistence of MTS peasants (concerning their access to livelihoods and farm products as well as their ability to bear the expense of the education of their children and to construct buildings) had raised. Still, fear of future expectations and continuity of the MTS, unbalanced distribution of MTS farms, wildfires, and illegal logging were several affairs considered as impendences to the strategy. As a result, several suggestions have emerged. Some of these were: ordinary evaluation of the contexture and spatial degree of the forest cover to keep track of alterations with the application of GIS and RS; The requirement to explain the directives and advantages of the MTS strategy to farming societies and; the implementation of laws to fulfill the policies that will guarantee continuous management of the forest.

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Comparative Survey of Litter Arthropods and Soil Mesofauna in the Natural Forest and Plantation (a Case Study: Akure Forest Reserve Aponmu)

International Journal of Agriculture and Forestry ◽

10.5923/j.ijaf.20120201.11 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 2 (1) ◽

pp. 63-71 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Adeduntan Sunday Adeniyi ◽

Olusola Johnson Adeyinka

Keyword(s):

Natural Forest ◽

Soil Mesofauna ◽

Forest Reserve ◽

Comparative Survey

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Les intérêts des différents acteurs dans la gestion des ressources naturelles forestières. Etude de cas dans la région de Beforona, est de Madagascar | The different interests in the use of natural forest resources. Case study in the Beforona region in eastern Madagascar

Schweizerische Zeitschrift fur Forstwesen ◽

10.3188/szf.2004.0089 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 155 (3-4) ◽

pp. 89-96 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Lala Razafy Fara

Keyword(s):

Forest Canopy ◽

Forest Resources ◽

Natural Forest ◽

The Other ◽

Common Interest ◽

Ressources Naturelles ◽

Temporal And Spatial ◽

The One

A number of different actors have interests in the management of natural forest resources in Madagascar. Our study sheds light on the temporal and spatial dynamism of the forest canopy along a sloping basin in the Beforona region by analysing the interests of the different parties. On the one hand, the aim of the farmers is to assure their survival by adopting simple crop rotation techniques in order to deplete forest resources as little as possible. On the other hand, the aims of the different actors are complementary in that they have a common interest: to reduce to a minimum the loss of natural forest and to improve the farmers' quality of life. Actors work within their own sectors according to their own capabilities without giving too much regard to the activities of others. Co-ordination of activities and a coherent exploitation is therefore lacking, and this leads to an extension of felling activity.

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Climate Variability, Land Cover Changes and Livelihoods of Communities on the Fringes of Bobiri Forest Reserve, Ghana

Forests ◽

10.3390/f12030278 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 (3) ◽

pp. 278

Author(s):

Frank Baffour-Ata ◽

Philip Antwi-Agyei ◽

Elias Nkiaka

Keyword(s):

Land Cover ◽

Climate Variability ◽

Rural Livelihoods ◽

Land Cover Changes ◽

Focus Group Discussions ◽

Group Discussions ◽

Forest Reserve ◽

Closed Forest ◽

Key Informant ◽

Fringe Communities

Climate variability coupled with land use and land cover changes have resulted in significant changes in forest reserves in Ghana with major implications for rural livelihoods. Understanding the link between climate variability, land use and land cover changes and rural livelihoods is key for decision-making, especially regarding sustainable management of forest resources, monitoring of ecosystems and related livelihoods. The study determined the extent to which climate variability drives land cover changes in the Bobiri forest reserve, Ghana. Landsat images from 1986, 2003, 2010 and 2014 were used to evaluate land cover changes of the Bobiri forest reserve in Ghana. Participatory research approaches including household questionnaire surveys, focus group discussions and key informant interviews were conducted in four fringe communities of the Bobiri forest reserve. Findings showed that local people perceived changes in rainfall and temperature patterns over the past years. Historical rainfall and temperature data for the study area showed increased variability in rainfall and an increasing temperature trend, which are consistent with the perception of the study respondents. Analysis of land cover satellite images showed that there has been significant transformation of closed forest to open forest and non-forest land cover types over the 28-year period (1986–2014), with an overall kappa statistic of 0.77. Between 2003 and 2014, closed forest decreased by 15.6% but settlement/bare ground and crop land increased marginally by 1.5% and 0.9%, respectively. Focus group discussions and key informant interviews revealed that increased land cover changes in the Bobiri forest reserve could partly be attributed to erratic rainfall patterns. Other factors such as logging and population growth were reported to be factors driving land cover changes. The study concluded that the Bobiri forest reserve has witnessed significant land cover changes and recommended that alternative livelihood sources should be provided to reduce the direct dependency of fringe communities on the forest for livelihood and firewood.

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Application of forest canopy density model for forest cover mapping using LISS-IV satellite data: a case study of Sali watershed, West Bengal

Modeling Earth Systems and Environment ◽

10.1007/s40808-018-0445-x ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 4 (2) ◽

pp. 853-865 ◽

Cited By ~ 15

Author(s):

Subodh Chandra Pal ◽

Rabin Chakrabortty ◽

Sadhan Malik ◽

Biswajit Das

Keyword(s):

Satellite Data ◽

Forest Canopy ◽

Forest Cover ◽

West Bengal ◽

Density Model ◽

Canopy Density ◽

Forest Canopy Density ◽

Forest Cover Mapping

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Maintaining natural and traditional cultural green infrastructures across Europe: learning from historic and current landscape transformations

Landscape Ecology ◽

10.1007/s10980-020-01161-y ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Per Angelstam ◽

Michael Manton ◽

Taras Yamelynets ◽

Mariia Fedoriak ◽

Andra-Cosmina Albulescu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Forest Canopy ◽

Cultural Landscapes ◽

Forest Vegetation ◽

Natural Forest ◽

Forest Loss ◽

Site Productivity ◽

Fragmented Forest ◽

Social Ecological ◽

Land Covers

Abstract Context Maintaining functional green infrastructures (GIs) require evidence-based knowledge about historic and current states and trends of representative land cover types. Objectives We address: (1) the long-term loss and transformation of potential natural forest vegetation; (2) the effects of site productivity on permanent forest loss and emergence of traditional cultural landscapes; (3) the current management intensity; and (4) the social-ecological contexts conducive to GI maintenance . Methods We selected 16 case study regions, each with a local hotspot landscape, ranging from intact forest landscapes, via contiguous and fragmented forest covers, to severe forest loss. Quantitative open access data were used to estimate (i) the historic change and (ii) transformation of land covers, and (iii) compare the forest canopy loss from 2000 to 2018. Qualitative narratives about each hotspot landscape were analysed for similarities (iv). Results While the potential natural forest vegetation cover in the 16 case study regions had a mean of 86%, historically it has been reduced to 34%. Higher site productivity coincided with transformation to non-forest land covers. The mean annual forest canopy loss for 2000–2018 ranged from 0.01 to 1.08%. The 16 case studies represented five distinct social-ecological contexts (1) radical transformation of landscapes, (2) abuse of protected area concepts, (3) ancient cultural landscapes (4) multi-functional forests, and (5) intensive even-aged forest management, of which 1 and 4 was most common. Conclusions GIs encompass both forest naturalness and traditional cultural landscapes. Our review of Pan-European regions and landscapes revealed similarities in seemingly different contexts, which can support knowledge production and learning about how to sustain GIs.

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Mapping natural forest cover using satellite imagery of Nkandla forest reserve, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

Remote Sensing Applications Society and Environment ◽

10.1016/j.rsase.2020.100302 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 18 ◽

pp. 100302 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Enoch Gyamfi-Ampadu ◽

Michael Gebreslasie ◽

Alma Mendoza-Ponce

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

Satellite Imagery ◽

Forest Cover ◽

Natural Forest ◽

Forest Reserve ◽

Kwazulu Natal

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Synthesizing published knowledge of boreal forest cover change for large-scale landscape dynamics modelling

The Forestry Chronicle ◽

10.5558/tfc79132-1 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 79 (1) ◽

pp. 132-146 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Dennis Yemshanov ◽

Ajith H Perera

Keyword(s):

Boreal Forest ◽

Large Scale ◽

Forest Canopy ◽

Forest Cover ◽

Forest Succession ◽

Simulation Models ◽

Limiting Factors ◽

Sources Of Information ◽

Forest Cover Change ◽

Discrete State

We reviewed the published knowledge on forest succession in the North American boreal biome for its applicability in modelling forest cover change over large extents. At broader scales, forest succession can be viewed as forest cover change over time. Quantitative case studies of forest succession in peer-reviewed literature are reliable sources of information about changes in forest canopy composition. We reviewed the following aspects of forest succession in literature: disturbances; pathways of post-disturbance forest cover change; timing of successional steps; probabilities of post-disturbance forest cover change, and effects of geographic location and ecological site conditions on forest cover change. The results from studies in the literature, which were mostly based on sample plot observations, appeared to be sufficient to describe boreal forest cover change as a generalized discrete-state transition process, with the discrete states denoted by tree species dominance. In this paper, we outline an approach for incorporating published knowledge on forest succession into stochastic simulation models of boreal forest cover change in a standardized manner. We found that the lack of details in the literature on long-term forest succession, particularly on the influence of pre-disturbance forest cover composition, may be limiting factors in parameterizing simulation models. We suggest that the simulation models based on published information can provide a good foundation as null models, which can be further calibrated as detailed quantitative information on forest cover change becomes available. Key words: probabilistic model, transition matrix, boreal biome, landscape ecology

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Geospatial Serverless Computing: Architectures, Tools and Future Directions

ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information ◽

10.3390/ijgi9050311 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 9 (5) ◽

pp. 311 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Sujit Bebortta ◽

Saneev Kumar Das ◽

Meenakshi Kandpal ◽

Rabindra Kumar Barik ◽

Harishchandra Dubey

Keyword(s):

Big Data ◽

Forest Cover ◽

Mineral Resources ◽

Hyperspectral Data ◽

Real Time Analysis ◽

First Case ◽

Amazon Web Services ◽

Aws Lambda ◽

Physical Features

Several real-world applications involve the aggregation of physical features corresponding to different geographic and topographic phenomena. This information plays a crucial role in analyzing and predicting several events. The application areas, which often require a real-time analysis, include traffic flow, forest cover, disease monitoring and so on. Thus, most of the existing systems portray some limitations at various levels of processing and implementation. Some of the most commonly observed factors involve lack of reliability, scalability and exceeding computational costs. In this paper, we address different well-known scalable serverless frameworks i.e., Amazon Web Services (AWS) Lambda, Google Cloud Functions and Microsoft Azure Functions for the management of geospatial big data. We discuss some of the existing approaches that are popularly used in analyzing geospatial big data and indicate their limitations. We report the applicability of our proposed framework in context of Cloud Geographic Information System (GIS) platform. An account of some state-of-the-art technologies and tools relevant to our problem domain are discussed. We also visualize performance of the proposed framework in terms of reliability, scalability, speed and security parameters. Furthermore, we present the map overlay analysis, point-cluster analysis, the generated heatmap and clustering analysis. Some relevant statistical plots are also visualized. In this paper, we consider two application case-studies. The first case study was explored using the Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) dataset, which refers to worldwide density of mineral resources in a country-wise fashion. The second case study was performed using the Fairfax Forecast Households dataset, which signifies the parcel-level household prediction for 30 consecutive years. The proposed model integrates a serverless framework to reduce timing constraints and it also improves the performance associated to geospatial data processing for high-dimensional hyperspectral data.

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Patterns and Drivers of Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Myanmar

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13147539 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (14) ◽

pp. 7539

Author(s):

Zaw Naing Tun ◽

Paul Dargusch ◽

DJ McMoran ◽

Clive McAlpine ◽

Genia Hill

Keyword(s):

Remote Sensing ◽

Change Detection ◽

Local Governments ◽

Forest Canopy ◽

Forest Cover ◽

Forest Degradation ◽

Forest Monitoring ◽

Map Algebra ◽

Change Detection Analysis ◽

Detection Analysis

Myanmar is one of the most forested countries of mainland Southeast Asia and is a globally important biodiversity hotspot. However, forest cover has declined from 58% in 1990 to 44% in 2015. The aim of this paper was to understand the patterns and drivers of deforestation and forest degradation in Myanmar since 2005, and to identify possible policy interventions for improving Myanmar’s forest management. Remote sensing derived land cover maps of 2005, 2010 and 2015 were accessed from the Forest Department, Myanmar. Post-classification change detection analysis and cross tabulation were completed using spatial analyst and map algebra tools in ArcGIS (10.6) software. The results showed the overall annual rate of forest cover loss was 2.58% between 2005 and 2010, but declined to 0.97% between 2010 and 2015. The change detection analysis showed that deforestation in Myanmar occurred mainly through the degradation of forest canopy associated with logging rather than forest clearing. We propose that strengthening the protected area system in Myanmar, and community participation in forest conservation and management. There needs to be a reduction in centralisation of forestry management by sharing responsibilities with local governments and the movement away from corruption in the timber trading industry through the formation of local-based small and medium enterprises. We also recommend the development of a forest monitoring program using advanced remote sensing and GIS technologies.

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