LandUse and LandCover Change in Montane Mainland

Authors: Jefferson Fox John B Vogler

Publish Date: 2005/08/23

Volume: 36, Issue: 3, Pages: 394-403

PDF Link

Abstract

This paper summarizes landcover and landuse change at eight sites in Thailand Yunnan China Vietnam Cambodia and Laos over the last 50 years Project methodology included incorporating information collected from a combination of semiformal key informant and formal household interviews with the development of spatial databases based on aerial photographs satellite images topographic maps and GPS data Results suggest that land use eg swidden cultivation and land cover eg secondary vegetation have remained stable and the minor amount of landuse change that has occurred has been a change from swidden to monocultural cash crops Results suggest that two forces will increasingly determine landuse systems in this region First national land tenure policies—the nationalization of forest lands and efforts to increase control over upland resources by central governments—will provide a push factor making it increasingly difficult for farmers to maintain their traditional swidden landuse practices Second market pressures—the commercialization of subsistence resources and the substitution of commercial crops for subsistence crops—will provide a pull factor encouraging farmers to engage in new and different forms of commercial agriculture These results appear to be robust as they come from eight studies conducted over the last decade But important questions remain in terms of what research protocols are needed if any when linking social science data with remotely sensed data for understanding humanenvironment interactions

Keywords: