Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-fbnjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T08:12:51.009Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Deforestation and forest degradation as measures of Popa Mountain Park (Myanmar) effectiveness

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 February 2010

NAING ZAW HTUN ,
NOBUYA MIZOUE ,
TSUYOSHI KAJISA  and
SHIGEJIRO YOSHIDA
NAING ZAW HTUN*
Affiliation:
Nature and Wildlife Conservation Division, Forest Department, Myanmar Graduate School of Bioresource and Bioenvironmental Sciences, Laboratory of Forest Management, Kyushu University, 6-10-1 Hakozaki, Higashi-ku, Fukuoka 812-8581, Japan
NOBUYA MIZOUE
Affiliation:
Faculty of Agriculture, Kyushu University, 6-10-1 Hakozaki, Higashi-ku, Fukuoka 812-8581, Japan
TSUYOSHI KAJISA
Affiliation:
Faculty of Agriculture, Kyushu University, 6-10-1 Hakozaki, Higashi-ku, Fukuoka 812-8581, Japan
SHIGEJIRO YOSHIDA
Affiliation:
Faculty of Agriculture, Kyushu University, 6-10-1 Hakozaki, Higashi-ku, Fukuoka 812-8581, Japan
*
*Correspondence: Naing Zaw Htun Tel: +81 92 642 2867 Fax: +81 92 642 2867 e-mail: nzhtun@yahoo.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

The effectiveness of protected areas (PAs) has often been measured by comparing deforestation or land cover loss before and after PA establishment or within and outside the PA. Such evaluations ignore forest degradation or the decline in quality of the ecological values of the forest. Landsat image processing and geographical information systems were used to study forest cover changes in and around Popa Mountain Park (central Myanmar). Deforestation inside the Park was lower than outside the Park, but forest degradation, namely the net area that changed from dense forest to open forest, within the Park had grown at rates exceeding those outside the Park. The effectiveness of the PA was overestimated by adopting deforestation as the only indicator of conservation effectiveness. Forest degradation studies can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of PAs.

Keywords

deforestationforest degradationlocal peopleprotected arearemote sensing
Type
Papers
Information
Environmental Conservation , Volume 36 , Issue 3 , September 2009 , pp. 218 - 224
Copyright
Copyright © Foundation for Environmental Conservation 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Allendorf, T., Swe, K.K., Oo, T., Htut, Y., Aung, M., Aung, M., Leimgruber, P. & Wemmer, C. (2006) Community attitudes toward three protected areas in Upper Myanmar. Environmental Conservation 33 (4): 344–352.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Andam, K.S., Ferraro, P.J., Pfaff, A., Sanchez-Azofeifa, G.A. & Robalino, J.A. (2008) Measuring the effectiveness of protected area networks in reducing deforestation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 105 (42): 16089–16094.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Aung, M., McShea, W.J., Htung, S., Than, A., Soe, T.M., Monfort, S. & Wemmer, C. (2001) Ecology and social organization of a tropical deer (Cervus eldi thamin). Journal of Mammalogy 82 (3): 836–847.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aung, M., Swe, K.K., Oo, T., Moe, K.K., Leimgruber, P., Allendorf, T., Duncan, C. & Wemmer, C. (2004) The environmental history of Chatthin Wildlife Sanctuary, a protected area in Myanmar (Burma). Journal of Environmental Management 72 (4): 205–216.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Aung, U.M. (2007) Policy and practice in Myanmar's protected area system. Journal of Environmental Management 84 (2): 188–203.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bruner, A.G., Gullison, R.E., Rice, R.E. & da Fonseca, G.A.B. (2001) Effectiveness of parks in protecting tropical biodiversity. Science 291: 125–128.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Curran, L.M., Trigg, S.N., McDonald, A.K., Astiani, D., Hardiono, Y.M., Siregar, P., Caniago, I. & Kasischke, E. (2004) Lowland forest loss in protected area of Indonesian Borneo. Science 303: 1000–1003.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
ERDAS IMAGINE (2005) ERDAS IMAGINE Tour Guides. Geosystems. Geospatial Imaging, LLC, Norcross, Georgia, USA.Google Scholar
FAO (2005) Global Forest Resources Assessment 2005, country report 107: Myanmar. Rome, Italy: FAO [www document]. URL http://www.fao.org/forestry/fra/fra2005/en/Gaveau, D.L.A.,Google Scholar
Wandono, H. & Setiabudi, F. (2007) Three decades of deforestation in southwest Sumatra: have protected areas halted forest loss and logging, and promoted re-growth? Biological Conservation 134 (4): 495–504.Google Scholar
Geist, H.J. & Lambin, E.F. (2002) Proximate causes and underlying forces of tropical deforestation. Bioscience 52 (2): 143–150.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giriraj, A., Babar, S. & Reddy, C.S. (2008) Monitoring of forest cover change in Pranahita Wildlife Sanctuary, Andhra Pradesh, India using remote sensing and GIS. Journal of Environmental Science and Technology 1 (2): 73–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
James, A., Gaston, K.J. & Balmford, A. (2001) Can we afford to conserve biodiversity? BioScience 51 (5): 43–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kideghesho, J.R., Nyahongo, J.W., Hassan, S.N., Tarimo, T.C. & Mbije, N.E. (2006) Factors and ecological impacts of wildlife habitat destruction in the Serengeti ecosystem in Northern Tanzania. African Journal of Environmental Assessment and Management 11: 917–932.Google Scholar
Leimgruber, P., Kelly, D.S., Steininger, M., Brunner, J., Muller, T. & Songer, M.A. (2005) Forest cover change pattern in Myanmar (Burma) 1990–2000. Environmental Conservation 32: 356–364.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liu, J., Linderman, M., Quyang, Z., An, L., Yang, J. & Zhang, H. (2001) Ecological degradation in protected areas: the case study for Wolong Nature Reserve for Giants Pandas. Science 292: 98–101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lugo, A.E. (1980) Are tropical forest ecosystems sources or sinks of carbon? In: The Role of Tropical Forests in the World Carbon Cycle, ed. Brown, S., Lugo, A.E. & Liegel, B., pp. 1–18. Washington, DC, USA: US Department of Energy.Google Scholar
Mas, J.F. (2005) Assessing protected area effectiveness using surrounding (buffer) areas environmentally similar to the target area. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment 105: 69–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McShea, W.J., Leimgruber, P., Aung, M., Monfort, S.L. & Wemmer, C. (1999) Range collapse of a tropical cervid (Cervus eldi) and the extent of remaining habitat in Central Myanmar. Animal Conservation 2: 173–183.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morrogh-Bernard, H., Husson, S., Page, S.E. & Rieley, J.O. (2003) Population status of the Bornean orang-utan (Pongo pygmaeus) in the Sebangau peat swamp forest, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. Biological Conservation 110 (1): 141–152.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Myers, N., Mittermeier, R.A., Mittermeier, C.G. & Fonseca, G.A.B. & Kent, J. (2000) Biodiversity hotspots for conservation priorities. Nature 403: 853–858.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nagendra, H., Tucker, C. & Carlson, L. (2004) Monitoring parks through remote sensing: studies in Nepal and Honduras. Environmental Management 34 (5): 748–760.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nagendra, H., Pareeth, S. & Ghate, R. (2006) People within the parks-forest villages, land cover change and landscapes fragmentation in the Tadoba Andhari Tiger reserve, India. Applied Geography 26: 96–112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nagendra, H. (2008) Do parks work? Impact of protected areas on land cover clearing. Ambio 37 (5): 330–337.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
NWCD (2007) Protected areas of Myanmar. Forest Department, Nature and Wildlife Conservation Division, Myanmar.Google Scholar
Oestreicher, J.S., Benessaiah, K., Ruiz-Jaen, M.C., Sloan, S., Turner, K., Pelletier, J., Guay, B., Clark, K.E., Roche, D.G., Meiners, M. & Potvin, C. (2009) Avoiding deforestation in Panamanian protected areas: An analysis of protection effectiveness and implications for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation. Global Environmental Change 19: 279–291.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Phua, M.H., Tsuyuki, S., Furuya, N. & Lee, J.S. (2008) Detecting deforestation with a spectral change approach using multitemporal Landsat data: a case study of Kinabalu Park, Sabah, Malaysia. Journal of Environmental Management 88 (4): 784–795.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rabinowitz, A., Schaller, G.B. & Uga, U. (1995) A survey to assess the status of the Sumatran rhinoceros and other large mammal species in Tamanthi Wildlife Sanctuary, Myanmar. Oryx 29 (2): 123–128.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rao, M., Rabinowitz, A. & Khaing, S.T. (2002) Status review of the protected area system in Myanmar, with recommendations for conservation planning. Conservation Biology 16: 360–368.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Renner, S.C., Rappole, J.H., Leimgruber, P., Kelly, D.S., Shwe, N.M., Aung, T. & Aung, M. (2007) Land cover in the Northern Forest Complex of Myanmar: new insights for conservation. Oryx 41 (1): 27–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sarma, P.K., Lahkar, B.P., Ghosh, S., Rabha, A., Das, J.P., Nath, N.K., Dey, S. & Brahma, N. (2008) Land-use and land-cover change and future implication analysis in Manas National Park, India using multi-temporal satellite data. Current Science 95 (2): 223–227.Google Scholar
Singh, A. (1989) Review article-digital change detection techniques using remotely–sensed data. International Journal of Remote Sensing 10: 989–1003.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vasconcelos, M.J.P., Biai, J.C.M., Araujo, A. & Diniz, M.A. (2002) Land cover change in two protected areas of Guinea-Bissau (1956–1998). Applied Geography 22: 139–156.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vitousek, P.M., Mooney, H.A., Lubchenco, J. & Melillo, J.M. (1997) Human domination of Earth's ecosystems. Science 277: 494–499.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wadsworth, F.H. (1983) Production of usable wood from tropical forests, tropical rain forest ecosystems: structure and function. In: Ecosystems of the World, ed. Golley, F.B., pp. 279–288. New York, NY, USA: Elsevier.Google Scholar
Western, D., Russell, S. & Cuthil, I. (2009) The status of wildlife in protected areas compared to non-protected areas of Kenya. PLos ONE 4 (7): e6140. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0006140CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed