Abstract

Indonesia has experienced one of the world’s greatest dynamic land changes due to forestry and agricultural practices. Understanding the drivers behind these land changes remains challenging, partly because landscape research is spread across many domains and disciplines. We provide a systematic review of 91 studies that identify the causes and land change actors across Sumatra and Kalimantan. Our review shows that oil palm expansion is the most prominent (65 studies) among multiple direct causes of land change. We determined that property rights are the most prominent issue (31 studies) among the multiple underlying causes of land change. Distinct combinations of mainly economic, institutional, political, and social underlying drivers determine land change, rather than single key drivers. Our review also shows that central and district governments as decision-making actors are prominent (69 studies) among multiple land change actors. Our systematic review indicates knowledge gaps that can be filled by clarifying the identification and role of actors in land change.

Highlights

  • The expansion of agricultural areas has been by far the main direct cause of land change in Sumatra and agricultural areas has been by far the main direct cause of land change in Sumatra and Kalimantan

  • Oil palm and timber plantations that led to the most changes can be found in all provinces palm and timber plantations that led to the most changes can be found in all provinces except North Kalimantan (See Appendix B, Table A5)

  • North Kalimantan is a new provresulting from the division of East Kalimantan; the direct causes of land change ince resulting from the division of East Kalimantan; the direct causes of land change occurring in this region can be seen in the eastern province

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Summary

Introduction

Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Changes in land cover (biophysical attributes of the earth’s surface) and land use (human purpose or intent applied to these attributes) are so pervasive that, when aggregated globally, they significantly affect crucial aspects of the earth system functioning [1]. Tropical lowland regions in many parts of the world have experienced large land-use changes, leading to a decline in forest areas, while the area used for agricultural production has increased [2]. Land changes in the tropics significantly affect food security [3]. The loss of natural forests has resulted in the decline of values from several ecosystem services [4]

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