A regression tree-based method for integrating land-cover and land-use data collected at multiple scales

As data sets of multiple types and scales proliferate, it will be increasingly important to be able to flexibly combine them in ways that retain relevant information. A case in point is Amazonia, a large, data-poor region where most whole-basin data sets are limited to understanding land cover interpreted through a variety of remote sensing techniques and sensors. A growing body of work, however, indicates that the future state of much of Amazonia depends on the land use to which converted areas are put, but land use in the tropics is difficult to assess from remotely sensed data alone. An earlier paper developed new snapshots of agricultural land use in this region using a statistical fusion of satellite data and agricultural census data, an underutilized ancillary data source available across Amazonia. The creation of these land-use maps, which have the spatial detail of a satellite image and the attribute information of an agricultural census, required the development of a new statistical technique for merging data sets at different scales and of fundamentally different data types. Here we describe and assess this nonlinear technique, which reinterprets existing land cover classifications by determining what categories are most highly related to the polygon land-use data across the study area. Although developed for this region, the technique appears to hold broad promise for the systematic fusion of multiple data sets that are closely related but of different origins. The figures in the printed version of this article appear in black and white. Color figures are available from the author upon request.     

The Global in the Local: A Case Study on Deforestation in a Ukrainian Journalistic Field

It is widely assumed nowadays that in order to effectively respond to environmental challenges, humanity must cultivate cosmopolitan ethical consciousness. An important role, according to this outlook, should be assigned to journalists, who must possess a cosmopolitan sense of responsibility. How can this global responsibility emerge out of the local sense of belonging? To examine this question, we present the case study of the decision of 107495 the Kharkov (Ukraine) municipal council to cut down a local recreation forest. The content of local news and the interviews with journalists are presented and analyzed. The study shows that local patriotism appears not to be a decisive factor in forming journalists’ sentiments toward the issues of global responsibility. Rather, it is a sense of exclusion from the global community that explains the fact that no news medium under analysis has managed to relate local events to the global problem of deforestation.     

Pressure cookers or pressure valves: Do roads lead to deforestation in China?

The effect of roads on forests is ambiguous. Many studies conclude that building and upgrading roads increases pressure on forests but some find that new and better roads may reduce the rate of deforestation. In this paper we use satellite remote sensing images of forest cover in Jiangxi Province, China, to test whether the existence and the size of roads (ranging from expressways to tertiary roads) in 1995 affected the level of forest cover in 2000 or the rate of change between 1995 and 2000. To account for road access for each of our 1 km² (“pixel”) units of forest cover we measure whether or not and what type of roads penetrate the “watershed” in which the pixel lies. These watersheds allow more plausible measures of accessibility than do traditional “crowfly” distance measures that ignore topography. To account for possible confounding we also use 12 additional covariates: geographic and climatic variables (e.g., elevation, slope, rainfall, temperature, soil properties); demographic and economic variables (e.g., local population and GDP per square kilometer); and distance variables (e.g., distance to the nearest provincial capital). Although simple univariate OLS regressions show that forest levels are lower and deforestation rates higher either when there is a road, or when there is a higher quality road, these results are not robust. Controlling for all of the covariates and also using recently developed covariate matching techniques to estimate treatment effects, we find that roads in China’s Jiangxi Province can most safely be described as having no impact on the level of forests and no impact on the rate of deforestation.     

Seasonal and Inter-Annual Variations in Methyl Mercury Concentrations in Zooplankton from Boreal Lakes Impacted by Deforestation or Natural Forest Fires

We compared the effects of natural and anthropogenic watershed disturbances on methyl mercury (MeHg) concentration in bulk zooplankton from boreal Shield lakes. MeHg in zooplankton was monitored for three years in nine lakes impacted by deforestation, in nine lakes impacted by wildfire, and in twenty lakes with undisturbed catchments. Lakes were sampled during spring, mid- and late summer. MeHg in zooplankton showed a seasonal trend: concentrations were the lowest in spring, then peaked in mid-summer and decreased in late summer. Over the three study years, MeHg concentrations observed in mid-summer in zooplankton from forest harvested lakes were significantly higher than in reference and fire-impacted lakes, whereas differences between these two groups of lakes were not significant. The pattern of distribution of MeHg in zooplankton during the different seasons paralleled that of dissolved organic carbon (DOC), which is known as a vector of Hg from watershed soils to lake water. Besides DOC, MeHg in zooplankton also showed a positive significant correlation with epilimnetic temperature and sulfate concentrations. An inter-annual decreasing trend in MeHg was observed in zooplankton from reference and fire-impacted lakes. In forest harvested lakes, however, MeHg concentrations remained higher and nearly constant over three years following the impact. Overall these results indicate that the MeHg pulse observed in zooplankton following deforestation by harvesting is relatively long-lived, and may have repercussions to the accumulation of MeHg along the food chain. Therefore, potential effects of deforestation on the Hg contamination of fish should be taken into account in forest management practices.     

Environmental degradation by mud in tropical estuaries

In wet tropical countries, the intense rainfall and the lack of effective restrictions on human activities in the river catchment leads to increased rates of soil erosion. This has increased the sediment loads many times over from the natural level. As a result, estuarine and coastal waters are becoming increasingly muddy with associated losses for society in terms of increased flooding and a degradation of the environment, the fisheries and the economic use of these waters. It is suggested that science-based models be used to predict the fate of mud in estuaries and coastal waters when planning development in river catchments, particularly in wet tropical countries. This would help integrate land and water management. Modelling technology is demonstrated by a combination of field and model studies in four turbid tropical estuaries, namely the Fly River in Papua New Guinea, the Mekong River in Vietnam, the Cimanuk River in Indonesia, and Hinchinbrook Channel in Australia. The final model is adapted to local conditions and extensively uses data assimilation especially for open boundary conditions. There can be a feedback between the hydrodynamics and the mud dynamics when the system silts; in wet tropical countries this can occur rapidly, sometimes in only 30 years. Electronic Publication     

Forest cover dynamics in the Selva Maya of Central and Southern Quintana Roo,Mexico: deforestation or degradation?

ABSTRACT

Forest cover dynamics (1993-2018) was assessed in two regions on the Yucatan Peninsula: Zona Maya (ZM), 67% indigenous with shifting cultivation and community forestry; and Bacalar–Rio Hondo (BRH), mainly commercial agriculture and pastureland. Degradation (12,915 ha y^?1) exceeded deforestation (5882 ha y^?1) and was worse in BRH. In BRH there was a net forest loss (?1.6% y^?1) associated with pastureland and commercial agriculture. In ZM, mature forest recovery (1.4% y^?1) and dynamic forest cover (continuous loss and gain) were associated with shifting cultivation. Changes were more intense during 2011–2018 and gains of mature forest in ZM and deforested areas in BRH targeted secondary vegetation. Fragments of mature and secondary vegetation decreased, and connectivity improved in ZM, but opposite trends occurred in BRH. Reporting and monitoring deforestation using Global Forest Watch data is inadequate since 62% of forest cover loss represent degrading or recovering forest cover.     

Drivers of deforestation and REDD+ benefit-sharing: A meta-analysis of the (missing) link

REDD+ (reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation and related forest activities) is a climate change mitigation mechanism currently being negotiated under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It calls for developed countries to financially support developing countries for their actions to reduce forest-sector carbon emissions. In this paper, we undertake a meta-analysis of the links, if any, between multiple and diverse drivers of deforestation operating at different levels and the benefits accruing from and being shared through REDD+ projects. We do so by assessing the nature of this link in (a) scholarly analysis, through an in-depth analysis of the posited relationship between drivers and REDD+ benefit-sharing, as examined in the peer-reviewed literature; and (b) in policy practice, through analysing how this link is being conceptualised and operationalised, if at all, in REDD+ project design documents. Our meta-analysis suggests that while some local, direct drivers and a few regional indirect drivers of deforestation and forest degradation are being targeted by specific REDD+ interventions and associated benefit-sharing mechanisms at the project-level, most national and international indirect drivers are not. We conclude that the growing academic analyses of REDD+ projects do not (as yet) advance viable theories of change, i.e. there is currently little focus on how REDD+ benefits could play a transformative role in catalysing action on drivers.     

Migrant land rights reception and 'clearing to claim' in sub-Saharan Africa: A deforestation example from southern Zambia

The relationship between migration and deforestation in the developing world continues to receive significant attention. However beyond direct population increase, the precise mechanisms that operate within the intersection of migrant/host land rights remain largely unexamined. Where migrants are provided with land and rights by the State and/or local communities, how such rights are perceived by the migrants is of primary importance in their interaction with land resources, and in aggregate it impacts the development opportunities and environmental repercussions of migration. The authors analyze the operative aspects of land rights reception (as opposed to provision) by migrant populations, and the relationship between this reception and deforestation. The article examines a case in Zambia to analyze how tenurial constructs, emerging from the way rights are perceived by migrants, lead to the continued clearing of areas much larger than needed for cultivation, even when the arrangement appears counter‐productive in terms of land rights provision and labour allocation. While valuable policy efforts have focused on providing resource rights to migrants, how such rights are received and the relationship of this reception to resource management needs greater policy attention.     

Avança Brasil: Environmental and Social Consequences of Brazil's Planned Infrastructure in Amazonia

“Avança Brasil” (Forward Brazil) is a package of 338 projects throughout Brazil; the portion of the plan to be carried out in Brazil's Legal Amazon region totals US$43 billion over 8 years, US$20 billion of which would be for infrastructure causing environmental damage. Brazil's environmental impact assessment system is not yet capable of coping with the challenge presented by Avança Brasil. Generic problems with the licensing process include stimulation of a lobby in favor of construction before decisions are made on the advisability of the projects, the “dragging effect” of third parties, whereby economic activity is attracted to the infrastructure but escapes the environmental impact assessment system, a tendency for consulting firms to produce favorable reports, a bureaucratic emphasis on the existence of steps without regard to the content of what is said, and the inability to take account of the chain of events unleashed when a given project is undertaken.The environmental and social costs of forest loss are high; among them is loss of opportunities for sustainable use of the forest, including loss of environmental services such as biodiversity maintenance, water cycling, and carbon storage. The benefits of export infrastructure are meager, especially from the point of view of generating employment. Much of the transportation infrastructure is for soybeans, while the hydroelectric dams contribute to processing aluminum. The example of Avança Brasil makes clear the need to rethink how major development decisions are made and to reconsider a number of the plan's component projects.     

Firewood consumption in a Nepali village

People's dependence on firewood as a primary source of energy is causing serious deforestation problems in many developing countries. Reliable information on firewood consumption rates is needed to develop afforestation plans and to control deforestation. This study compares three methods used to determine firewood consumption in a Nepali village. Cultural and environmental factors that affect firewood consumption in the village are also examined.Theweight survey proved to be the most accurate method used. The less precisedaily recall andannual recall surveys overestimated actual firewood consumption by factors of 1.76 and 1.95, respectively. Overestimates are attributed to both physical and social factors. In view of the good agreement between daily and annual recall surveys, and the much greater ease of conducting the latter, annual recall surveys are recommended as the most practical method of monitoring firewood consumption rates. Validating the survey with occasional weighed measurements is suggested as a means of improving accuracy.