Patterns of land system change in a Southeast Asian biodiversity hotspot

Marc Schmid,Andreas Heinimann,Julie G Zaehringer

doi:10.1016/j.apgeog.2020.102380

Abstract

Growing demand for agricultural commodities like rubber or oil palm is causing rapid change in Southeast Asia's biodiversity-rich forested landscapes. This change is particularly pronounced in Myanmar, whose economy is developing at great speed after the end of decades-long economic and political isolation and armed conflicts. Interventions are needed to ensure that development is sustainable. Designing successful interventions requires spatially explicit knowledge of recent landscape changes. To provide such knowledge, we applied a landscape mosaic approach and analysed land system change in Tanintharyi Region in southern Myanmar between 2002 and 2016. Our findings show that nearly half of the study region experienced degradation of the vegetation cover, intensification of agricultural use, or a combination of both. Although intact forest was still the prevailing vegetation cover of land systems in Tanintharyi Region in 2016, it had suffered from degradation in wide parts of the region. Land systems without or with only extensive agricultural use in 2002 had become dominated by smallholders' shifting cultivation systems and permanent betel nut gardens and paddy rice fields by 2016. Elsewhere, smallholder dominated land systems were intensified through the expansion of oil palm and rubber plantations, pointing to potential displacement effects. The land system maps offer a sound basis for planning interventions to slow the degradation of biodiversity-rich forests and support smallholder farmers in coping with the fast-paced expansion of commercial cash crop plantations and its social and environmental impacts. Sustainable development in this global biodiversity hotspot requires careful land use planning to support nature and people, along with continued efforts for peace-building.

Highlights

Southeast Asia’s biodiversity-rich forested landscapes are undergo ing large-scale changes due to global influences on land (Fox & Vogler, 2005; Hurni & Fox, 2018; Sodhi et al, 2010)
Smallholder dominated land systems were intensified through the expansion of oil palm and rubber plantations, pointing to potential displacement effects
In 2002, land systems whose predominant vegetation cover was intact forest were omnipresent in Tanintharyi, covering almost 88% of the study region, which has a total area of 40,283 km

Summary

Introduction

Southeast Asia’s biodiversity-rich forested landscapes are undergo ing large-scale changes due to global influences on land (Fox & Vogler, 2005; Hurni & Fox, 2018; Sodhi et al, 2010). Large-scale commercial permanent crop plantations have replaced shifting cultivation as the direct driver of deforestation in many areas of Southeast Asia (Curtis et al, 2018; Heinimann et al, 2017; van Vliet et al, 2012). This is the case in Laos, for example, where rubber plantations, often with investments from China, have replaced shifting cultivation systems and are expanding into forests (Hurni & Fox, 2018; Lu, 2017). LCLUC are among the key challenges to be addressed in order to attain the 2030 Agenda’s sustainable development goals (UN, 2015)

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