Abstract
A few studies have recently been published on changes in land use/land cover (LU/LC) of Angolan Miombo forests, however, none have attempted to offer forest management solutions for degraded Miombo forests. Landscapes are witness to past and present natural and social processes influencing the environment, where each period in the past leaves footprints on the landscape’s development, which can be described by a continual decrease in forest area over time. The expansion of degraded areas from 2000 to 20017 began near urban areas where many Miombo forests have been eliminated or highly degraded, particularly in the southwest and northeast of the Huambo province. Large areas of degraded forests were observed along the Benguela railway (Caminho de ferro de Benguela). Our detailed analysis of the landcover map suggests that the impact has been devastating and there is no form of forest protection, which leads to unregulated exploitation. Descriptions of the Miombo forest dynamics are explained using height–diameter curves developed for different vegetation types that provide important insights about forest structures in the management zones. The height–diameter models differed for all vegetation types, and four management zones (MZ) were created based on a set of particular attributes. The vegetation types differed in each management zone, which included agricultural land and bare soil (MZ–E), grassland or savanna (MZ–C), open Miombo forests (MZ–B), and closed Miombo forests (Miombo forests). The four management zones were easily identified on the available maps and the height–diameter models developed represent a fundamental tool for future studies on forest planning.
Highlights
Land use (LU) and land cover (LC) arise from interactions of human activities and global climate change, which can interact to produce degraded and deforested areas
We modelled stem volume using diameter at breast height (DBH) and total height (HEIGHT) as the main predictors and vegetation types, stand basal area, and DBH-to-quadratic mean diameter ratio were used as covariate predictors: SVij = b1exp b2DBHi2j × HEIGHTij + εij with b1 = α1V1 + α2V2 + α3BAi + α4 dqij where SVij is the stem volume of the jth tree on the ith sample plot; α1, α2, . . . , α4, and b2 are parameters to be estimated, V1 and V2 are dummy variables that account for the effects of vegetation types on the stem volume, and εij is an error term that is assumed to be normally distributed with mean zero and constant variance
The primary focus of this study was to define patterns of deforestation and propose a management framework for the degraded areas based on our intensive characterization of the forest attributes, including the use of basic height–diameter models
Summary
Land use (LU) and land cover (LC) arise from interactions of human activities and global climate change, which can interact to produce degraded and deforested areas. Forest degradation occurs when forest ecosystems lose their capacity to provide important goods and services to people and nature [2]. The scale of the environmental legacy of deforestation is dependent on both the magnitude and timing of historic land cover changes, not merely the snapshot of forest cover that is directly observable today [9,10,11,12,13,14]. Analysing landscape changes due to past and present natural and social processes at different scales over time constitutes the departure point for landscape management because of close links between forests and physical attributes of the landscape. The spatial arrangement of different land uses and cover types (landscape structure), and the norms and modalities of land governance contribute to the character of a landscape and its management [15,16]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
