Loss Of Forest Resources Research Articles

A High-Precision Ensemble Model for Forest Fire Detection in Large and Small Targets

Forest fires are major forestry disasters that cause loss of forest resources, forest ecosystem safety, and personal injury. It is often difficult for current forest fire detection models to achieve high detection accuracy on both large and small targets at the same time. In addition, most of the existing forest fire detection models are single detection models, and using only a single model for fire detection in a complex forest environment has a high misclassification rate, and the accuracy rate needs to be improved. Aiming at the above problems, this paper designs two forest fire detection models (named WSB and WSS) and proposes an integrated learning-based forest fire detection model (named WSB_WSS), which also obtains high accuracy in the detection of forest fires with large and small targets. In order to help the model predict the location and size of forest fire targets more accurately, a new edge loss function, Wise-Faster Intersection over Union (WFIoU), is designed in this paper, which effectively improves the performance of the forest fire detection algorithm. The WSB model introduces the Simple-Attention-Module (SimAM) attention mechanism to make the image feature extraction more accurate and introduces the bi-directional connectivity and cross-layer feature fusion to enhance the information mobility and feature expression ability of the feature pyramid network. The WSS model introduces the Squeeze-and-Excitation Networks (SE) attention mechanism so that the model can pay more attention to the most informative forest fire features and suppress unimportant features, and proposes Spatial Pyramid Pooling-Fast Cross Stage Partial Networks (SPPFCSPC) to enable the network to extract features better and speed up the operation of the model. The experimental findings demonstrate that the WSB model outperforms other approaches in the context of identifying forest fires characterized by small-scale targets, achieving a commendable accuracy rate of 82.4%, while the WSS model obtains a higher accuracy of 92.8% in the identification of large target forest fires. Therefore, in this paper, a more efficient forest fire detection model, WSB_WSS, is proposed by integrating the two models through the method of Weighted Boxes Fusion (WBF), and the accuracy of detecting forest fires characterized by small-scale targets attains 83.3%, while for forest fires with larger dimensions, the accuracy reaches an impressive 93.5%. This outcome effectively leverages the strengths inherent in both models, consequently achieving the dual objective of high-precision detection for both small and large target forest fires concurrently.

Spatial distribution patterns of trunk internal decay of Euphrates poplar riparian forest along the Tarim River, northwest China

Trunk internal decay is a common phenomenon in forest ecosystems, causing the loss of forest resources. Euphrates poplar (Populus euphratica Oliv.) is the only constructive tree species of the desert riparian forests along the Tarim River in northwestern China. The ecosystem stability of these forests has been damaged due to widespread internal decay or hollow rot in many tree trunks. However, forest resource conservation is difficult due to the unclear spatial patterns of P. euphratica trunk decay under different water conditions and tree morphology in the middle (MTR) and lower reaches (LTR) of the Tarim River. We conducted a field experiment and lab analysis to assess the reliability of the ARBOTOM® 2D stress wave Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) technique on P. euphratica populations. We explored the quantitative characterization method and the spatial distribution patterns of P. euphratica trunk internal decay in the MTR and LTR. Our study found that (1) the accuracy of the stress wave NDT technique in detecting trunk decay of P. euphratica in the arid desert area was more than 80%; The severity of internal trunk decays can be quantitatively characterized by the combination of the Matlab Image Processing Toolbox, (2) the trunk decay proportion of P. euphratica showed an increasing trend with the tree height in the MTR. The LTR first increased, then decreased. The degree of decay was highest when the tree height was 6–7 m. The trunk decay proportion of individual trees positively correlated with the diameter at breast height and crown loss (p < 0.001) and negatively correlated with the crown diameter (p < 0.001). The higher the decay occurrence, the worse the individual size was, and vice versa, and (3) the decay proportion of the P. euphratica showed an overall increasing trend with an increase in groundwater depth. The trunk decay was significantly higher in the LTR compared to the MTR at the same distance of 300–1050 m from the river channel. Our findings suggested that the trunk decay in P. euphratica had a higher difference among different tree morphology, and the occurrence of decay in the LTR was much higher than in the MTR. The water stress at the site is one of the leading factors in internal defects in the riparian forests along the Tarim River. The results provide a theoretical basis and scientific support for desert riparian forest ecosystems’ conservation and sustainable management.

Forest cover change in China from 2000 to 2016

ABSTRACT Due to favourable afforestation policies in the past few decades, China has become the nation with the greatest afforestation area in the world. However, there are few specific distribution maps of forest change at regional and national level in China. Here, we applied all available Landsat time series images in the growing seasons from 1990 to 2018 on the Google Earth Engine platform to track annual forest changes in China. Our validation indicates that the overall accuracy reached 89%. From 2000 to 2016, most forest change in China occurred on the east side of the Line of Huanyong Hu (a line linking Aihui in Northeast China and Tengchong in Southwest China dividing China into east and west parts). Forest growth is the major change type in China with a forest-area expansion of 494,317 ± 22,830 km2. Meanwhile, there have also been some forest losses mostly scattered in southern and northeastern China. The total loss of the forest area was 52,856 ± 3366 km2. Thus, from 2000 to 2016, the net increase in forest area in China was 441,461 ± 26,196 km2, which is approximately 4.6% of the terrestrial area of China, almost equivalent to the entire Thailand. Among these 16 years, there have also been some forest areas recovered or replanted after disturbances. Meanwhile, afforestation achievements and effectiveness have also met the great risk that some afforested areas are eventually destroyed back to previous non-forest land again. The areas for these two change types are 43,728 ± 6574 km2 and 18,457 ± 2396 km2, respectively. The results indicated great afforestation achievements, but there was also some loss of forest resources and threats to consolidating afforestation achievements in China. The results of this study offer greater detail of forest change, especially afforestation, and can provide useful information for forest management and ecological restoration evaluation. Additionally, the forest change result will be available online (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5501089).

Towards sustainable development: A multi‐country persistence analysis of forest products footprint using a stationarity test with smooth shifts

AbstractThe human demand on forest products has been getting more significant over time as people increasingly continue to convert forests to agricultural and urban uses. The consequence of these human activities is the loss of forest resources through deforestation and forest degradation as exemplified by the continued degradation of the Amazon rainforest, which has implication for sustainable development. However, several economic aspects of forestry have not been adequately investigated in the existing literature including the persistence of forest products footprint. The importance of examining the persistence or nonstationary of forest products footprint is that it tells us whether blueprints to address the rising forest products footprint will be effective or not. The aim of this paper is to examine the nonstationarity of forest products footprint in 89 countries using a new panel stationarity test that provides for gradual breaks, heterogeneity across cross‐sectional units and cross‐sectional dependency. The results suggest significant evidence for nonstationarity of the forest products footprint. The policy implications of the results are elaborated in the body of the paper.

Prediction of Fire Spread Based on Geographical Cellular Automata

China is a country with frequent forest fires. Forest fires not only damage the forest ecosystem, cause the loss of forest resources, but also threaten the safety of people’s lives and property. If the spread trend of forest fire can be predicted quickly and accurately after the fire, it will be of great significance and role to put out the fire and reduce the loss and casualties. In this study, based on the in-depth comparison of domestic and foreign commonly used forest fire spread models and related algorithms, the geographic cellular automata is selected as the diffusion algorithm, combined with the revised Wang Zhengfei fire spread model, and the host development method is adopted to achieve the forest fire spread prediction. Through the comparative analysis of the prediction results in the actual cases, the error is within the acceptable range, achieving the expected effect, meeting the requirements of real-time and efficient simulation of forest fire spread, and providing reliable decision support for the management.

Farmer’s perception of climate change and agriculture adaptation strategies in Reasi district of Jammu and Kashmir

Agriculture is the most important sector of the economy in India and it is highly dependent on climate. Climate change have altered and the evidences reveal trends of marked seasonal fluctuations, extreme weather events, aberrant precipitation, forest and agricultural shifts, disease outbreaks, water stress, food insecurity etc. The impacts of climate change are particularly worrying for the farmers of Himalayan state of Jammu and Kashmir as the region is ecologically highly fragile and encompass vivid livelihood based natural resources. The issue of climate change has gained increased attention in recent times due to the perceived negative repercussions it has on a range of activities chiefly agriculture. The study was conducted in the selected villages of KVK Reasi. These villages have well known farming areas and contributing significantly in agriculture to the district. This research paper analysed farmer&#39;s perception of causes, constraints and strategies towards effective climate change adaptation in district Reasi. Data were collected by survey method on 210 respondents using structured interview schedule and questionnaire. Data were analyzed with descriptive statistics and linear regression model to test farmers’ perception on climate change. The targeted farmers were adult farmers with at least 10 years of farming experience in the area. Data was collected on perceptions about temperature changes and variability in precipitation over a period of 10 years. The study reveals that 70% of interviewed farmers are in a certain degree aware of climate change and 30% of farmers think the climate has not changed. But most of farmers unaware about the reasons of climate change. About 92% of the respondents perceived increases in temperature, while 87% perceived decrease in precipitation over the years. The extent of climate change on farms were revealed by changes in uncertainties of onset of farming season, including the delay in onset of rainfall, erratic rainfall pattern, higher temperature; extremities of weather events such as high sun intensity, desertification, heavy rainfall, loss of forest resources, heavy winds; and increase in farming problems, such as loss of soil fertility, reduction in farm yields and high rate of disease/pest incidence. Adaptive strategies used included change in cropping pattern, agronomic practices, and use of resistant varieties, processing to minimize post harvest loss, and reforestation. The farmer’s expectation to mitigate the ill effects of climate change was to create awareness among farmers about appropriate adaptation measure. The farmer’s constraints to adaptation included lack of financial resources, lack of access to weather forecasts, and limited access to improved crop varieties.

Environmental impact of women exploitation of forest resources in some forest reserves in Osun State, Nigeria

Loss of forest resources in Nigeria is between 2.6% and 3.5% per annum. Thus, an investigation on the effects of utilization of forest resources by women in five forest reserves, namely; Oba Hill, Ago-Owu, Shasha, Ife Native and Ikeji-Ipetu Forest Reserves in Osun State was conducted. Five hundred questionnaires were administered across the five locations at an average of one hundred per study area. Focus Group Discussions were also carried out as data quality control measure. Data analysis adopted tabulation, frequency distribution and percentages. The results across the five locations showed that the total proportion of live woody forest products collected was 19.0% higher than 14.8% of dry woody forest products collected with FGDs revealing that 87.2% did not bother about replanting. The implication of these findings is that more land areas were opened up to direct run-off and solar radiation through the cutting and collection of live trees, the situation suggesting that forest degradation is on course in the area with no interest in replacing trees removed among the respondents. It is therefore, recommended that alternative sources of energy should be introduced and made available to the women in the study area to minimise forest trees removal and to avert energy source-related crisis. Also, appropriate legislation should be put in place to protect the forest from further depletion and women are enlightened on environmental degradation caused by forest live trees removal.

The economic impact of fire management on timber production in the boreal forest region of Quebec, Canada

Wildfire is an important component of the dynamics of boreal-forest ecosystems, but it can also contribute to the loss of forest resources, especially when fires escape initial attack and become large. Annual fire management costs in the province of Quebec are substantial (annual average of C$69 million for 1994–2014). The main objective of this study was to evaluate the financial impact of fire management on forest resources in Quebec. Our study includes cost–benefit analyses of nine fire management presuppression expenditure scenarios using forest and fire data for three commercially managed forest management units in the province of Quebec that experience varying mean annual burn rates (0.06–0.56%year−1). The reduction in the burn rate attributed to fire management increased the revenue from the sale of primary-processed wood product and reduced fire suppression expenditure. The combined effects of reduced suppression expenditure and increased revenue from value-added timber harvest and wood processing with a lower fire risk compensated for increased fire presuppression expenditure.

Shifting Cultivation in Manipur:Land, Labour and Environment

Shifting cultivation is the main source of livelihood system in the hill areas of Manipur, one of the north-eastern States in India. It is widely prevalent due to lack of alternative farm employment. Its inputs are crude and traditional in nature resulting in subsistence income. Shifting cultivation is labour-intensive and has a traditional character. Empirical evidence shows that rapid population growth has increased the use of forest land for shifting cultivation in Manipur. The system's cycle has substantially declined due to population pressure on land thereby reducing the productivity. It has resulted in environmental degradation and problems of forest land re-vegetation. It has also led to a huge loss of forest resources every year. Its production is mostly organic due to sparingly use of inorganic fertilisers. Institutional changes in the form of private ownership of land have resulted in commercialisation of forest products like timber and firewood. Land use and forest laws need to be strengthened to safeguard and protect forest land. Ensuring food security and restructuring of land ownership system from community to private may reduce the practice of shifting cultivation and conserve forest cover.

Forest Resource Extraction by Local Communities: A Comparative Dynamic Analysis

Much of the world's gene pool is located in tropical rainforests, which are being destroyed at an alarming rate. Proper management of protected forests is crucial to avoid further loss of forest resources and biodiversity. Resource extraction by local communities has been cited as a major impediment to the efficient management of protected forests. This paper develops a two sector dynamic model for agriculture and forest resource extraction which suggests that agricultural development in the periphery of protected forests may be an effective strategy for forest protection. Comparative dynamic results show that higher prices for agricultural output, lower input prices, better knowledge of agricultural production techniques and a lower rate of individual time preferences result in higher equilibrium stock of forest resources. Tobit analysis with data collected from the Sinharaja forest in Sri Lanka provides supportive empirical evidence.

A policy proposal for natural resource management in the rainforest of Madre de Dios, Peru: The concession system and land tenure reform

AbstractMadre de Dios in south‐eastern Peru, like other tropical regions, faces important threats that are resulting in a loss of forest resources. The predominant types of land tenure in the rural zones of Madre de Dios are mining, agricultural and forestry concessions of land given by each Ministry to the settlers. Concessionaires fail to act as owners, because concession contracts do not guarantee secure property rights. Short‐term non‐sustainable land uses are favored over sustained management practices. The way in which people use the natural resources depends upon the allocation of rights over those resources. Considering communal property as a policy proposal: a system of land tenure which does not facilitate legal titling of the lands occupied by settlers and loggers will continue to hinder the possibility of developing sustainable long‐term management strategies. In this article, the main proposal for a policy reform is that the land tenure system of concessions currently employed by the Peruvian government must be replaced with the assignment of legal communal land titles to the settlers' communities (not to isolated individuals) who are currently occupying forest lands in the region. The communal land titles would create an incentive for privately motivated group management of the forests, which could help reverse some of the wasteful and indiscriminate uses of land currently government‐owned.

Loss assessment of burned forest using remote sensing and geographical information techniques

After forest fire, it is very needed to locate fire position and assess the loss of forest resources. In this paper, a method of burned forest assessment with satellite remote sensing data and over-laying techniques is discussed and used in the assessment of the burned forest in Malin Forest Farm after the large forest fire of May, 1987.

Utilization of lands with high water tables in the vicinity of hydroelectric station reservoirs

1. All necessary prerequisites are present for the normal and even intensive use of high water-table lands. 2. In regions where reservoirs are being created preparation of the high water-table lands for normal use must be included in the plan of State undertakings, which will permit preserving and using the wealth of natural fertility, strenghthening the fodder base of animal husbandry, and avoiding loss of forest resources. 3. It is necessary to eliminate the practice of using high water-table lands as pastures, since grazing on excessively wet lands is inadmissible.