Problem Of Deforestation Research Articles

Driving factors of Deforestation in Indonesia: A case of Central Kalimantan

As one of countries which has the large tropical forests in the world and the largest in ASEAN, Indonesia has been facing serious deforestation problems. Eventhough some scholars have found causes of the deforestation and have tried to give solutions, however, identifications of deforestation causes are still worth studying as the deforestation still becomes an important issue in Indonesia. This study tries to extend and explore the causes of deforestation in Central Kalimantan, one of Provinces in Indonesia which has been facing the highest deforestation problem caused by many factors. This study applied a qualitative approach. Data were collected by using interview and focus group discussions. It involved about 27 informants representing 14 organizations including goverment officers and non-governmental organization leaders such as WALHI,AMAN, Save Our Borneo, Yayasan Bentang Borneo, Ampuh, TUK Jakarta, Greenpeace, SIEJ, SPKS, Sawit Watch, Forest Watch Indonesia, Mongabay, Institute Dayakologi, LINK-AR Borneo, WWF and Academia as informants. The study found that as a socio political construct, deforestation in Indonesia emerges at the intersection between the biophysical changes of the politically defined forest and the political economic struggles around access and control over forestland resources by domestic and international actors. Hardly is a given issue, the term deforestation itself is still subject to debate as state definition of deforestation is continuously being challenged by the definition developed by civil society members. Deforestation, in many of its aspects, is also associated with governance failure and complex political economic settings that shape its emergence.

Ecological problem of modernity as a global problem of humanity

This article considers the main types of global environmental problems as crisis ecological situations that are relevant for the entire planet, the solution of which is possible only with the participation of all humanity. Global environmental problems closely related to other global world problems, they affect each other and the emergence of some leads to the emergence or aggravation of others. The paper is concerned that such a complex world problem as the demographic caused by the explosive growth of the world's population leads to a sharp increase in the burden on the environment due to an increase in people's needs for food, energy, housing, industrial goods, etc. Obviously, without solving the demographic problem, without stabilizing the population, it is impossible to restrain the development of crisis ecological processes on the planet. In turn, the ecological problems of desertification, deforestation, causing degradation and loss of agricultural land, lead to an aggravation of the world food problem. The ecological danger of such global problem as military is great. In this article, we have determined that environmental degradation leads to significant economic costs as a result of degradation of natural resources, pollution, deterioration of public health.

Percepção da população de Santa Maria de Itabira (MG) acerca da implantação de uma mina de minério de ferro na região de Morro Escuro

A atividade minerária representa um dos setores fundamentais para a economia mundial, atuando no suprimento de matérias-primas para os mais variados seguimentos e na manutenção da qualidade de vida da população. No entanto, a mineração desencadeia impactos sociais, econômicos e ambientais, os quais requerem o estabelecimento de políticas que possibilitem o desenvolvimento desta atividade em bases mais eficientes. Neste contexto, esta pesquisa objetivou analisar a percepção da população de Santa Maria de Itabira (MG) acerca da implantação de uma mina de minério de ferro ao longo da Serra de Morro Escuro e dos impactos socioeconômicos e ambientais decorrentes de tal atividade. Para tal, foram aplicados questionários a 371 moradores desse município. Dessa forma, foi possível avaliar que apesar da população identificar os impactos socioambientais negativos desencadeados pela atividade minerária, tais como degradação, poluição, desmatamento, contaminação, risco de acidentes e problemas de saúde, uma parcela significativa considera importante a instalação de tal atividade na cidade, dada a possibilidade de geração de empregos e crescimento econômico do município. Ressalta-se a importância da realização de novas pesquisas voltadas para a compreensão dos anseios e percepções dos diferentes atores sociais envolvidos na extração mineral, de modo que esta atividade possa promover práticas sustentáveis que permitam aos cidadãos o direito de suprir suas necessidades, sem comprometer àquelas relacionadas à geração futura.

Opportunities of using the analytic hierarchy process method in geographic research. An application of the AHP on the deforestation problem in Romania

The value of geographic research consists in its desiderata to understand, improve and protect its object of study and in its capacity to constantly expand its horizons by developing new methods or integrating the ones that are commonly used in other fields of research. The AHP is a multi-criteria decision-making method tangentially used in Geography, especially regarding risk assessments and site suitability studies. This paper aims to reveal the opportunities of using the AHP in geographic research providing a compelling example of an application of this method in a geographic context. The AHP application focuses on the deforestation problem in Romania, evaluating it in four counties (Alba, Gorj, Maramureș and Suceava) with respect to five factors – the deforested area, the deforestation rate, the regeneration works, the GDP per capita and the population density. Ensuring a better understanding of the method’s implementation, the example helps to illustrate the contribution of the AHP in solving geographic matters. The integration of the AHP as a research tool in this field is discussed in correlation with its advantages and disadvantages. The bias induced by the subjective evaluations of the decision maker is balanced by the inclusion of both quantitative and qualitative aspects and by the consistency checking mechanism. This makes the AHP a complete aggregation method that provides reliable results that can be effectively used in the pursuit of sustainable development, social innovation and increasing territorial resilience. DOI: 10.15551/lsgdc.v45i0.02

Natural Model based Design in Context: an Effective Method for Environmental Problems

Analyzing complex problem domains is not easy. Simulation tools support decision makers to find the best policies. Model-based system development is an approach where a model of the application domain is the central driving force when designing simulation tools. State-of-the-art techniques however still require both expert knowledge of the application domain and the implementation techniques as provided by ICT (such as multilevel agent technology). Domain experts, however, usually do not master ICT sufficiently. Modeling is more insightful for the domain expert when its goal is to formalize the language being used in that domain as a semi-natural language. At the meta level, this language describes the main concepts of the type of application domain. The model then is a concretization of this meta model. The main focus of this article is (1) to propose a natural-language-based approach to modeling application domains, (2) to show how these models can be transformed systematically into computational models, and (3) to propose the tool TiC (Tool in Context) that supports the domain expert when developing a model and generating a simulation tool. Our research methodology is based on Design Science. We verify our approach by describing the various transformation steps in detail, and by demonstrating the way of working via a sample session applying a real problem of Laf Forest Reserve deforestation in North Cameroon.

Evaluación ambiental integrada de áreas inscritas en el programa federal de Pago por Servicios Ambientales Hidrológicos. Caso de estudio: Ajusco, México

Since the specific problem of deforestation on an international level, they have created compensation mechanisms for ecosystem services, which have recently been increasing interest in the academic and government sectors, however, a lack of information on their potential effects is detected, especially from the aspects of integrative approach and spatial. Therefore, this work presents the case study of the community of San Miguel and Santo Tomas Ajusco, located on the suburbs of México City, because the community has participated in the federal program payments for hydrological environmental services (phes) since 2004. Based on the construction of longitudinal profiles (which are incorporated thematic geographic information layers) we analyzed if there is correspondence between the potential of ecosystem services and enrolled in the program areas. In addition, the effectiveness of the program regarding deforestation detected in the area was observed. For the profiling, it is noticed the exercise of combining the different layers selected for analysis, forming a two-dimensional model that allows us to appreciate the altitudinal gradient of the area with its biophysical components (vegetation and land use, soil science, geology and landforms highlights) with information environmental Services (ES). This facilitates the analysis of all these variables and has the advantage that it can be adapted to the number of variables we have, since they must only be incorporated to the profile (with pretreatment data).The profiles helped to identify whether registered in the phes program areas correspond to the most important areas for the provision of environmental services; however, a complementary work was developed consisting of a map which would bring together the most important areas for the contribution of es; This was generated by applying the statistical model of Jenks’ Natural Breaks “(which allows to discriminate classes by the similarity of values that compose them), in the layers of ES that it had (potential infiltration, carbon stock in forests, surface runoff and provision of habitat), establishing quantitative 5 for each category. The criterion model allow standardize classes; therefore, quantitative categories were matched to (very low, low, medium, high and very high) qualitative categories. Then the “high” and “very high” categories were selected and merged into a map with software tools Arc. map 10.1. denominating as “high priority areas for ecosystem services”.ES mapping was deployed with phes polygons and correspondence between sites on phes and areas with greatest potential for ES (except for an area of 236.7 hectares) was found. However, in many cases, the highest values of es not correspond to water resources, as they are more associated with vegetation and biodiversity (carbon stock in forestsand provision of habitat), which helps to conclude that the phes program should consider other variables and not be restricted to the es associated with hydrology. Two studies on quantifying forest cover were reviewed in the area (one covers from 1986 to 2010, with a projection to 2030 and the other from 2006 to 2014). The information regarding sites on phes Program and the result shows that deforestation has remained revised (although the rate decreased in the period 2006-2014) and deforested areas within enrolled in the program areas phes are greater than those who have not been. Although factors that could contribute to the process are identified, it is concluded that a program like phes implemented in an isolated manner, has no bearing on the problem of deforestation. Finally, the importance of obtaining the map “high priority areas for ecosystem services”, the most environmentally important areas are identified and this helps manage phes expanding areas and get other resources or protection status in areas with natural ecosystems.

Perceptions and attitudes of local people towards participatory forest management in Tarmaber District of North Shewa Administrative Zone, Ethiopia: the case of Wof-Washa Forests

IntroductionSince the last few decades, the government of Ethiopia has introduced and adopted participatory forest management (PFM) in different regions of the country. However, there is a lack of research dealing with perceptions and attitudes of local people towards PFM in Wof-Washa Forests (WWF). The aim of this study was to evaluate the perceptions and attitudes of local people towards PFM implemented in WWF. We hypothesized that the perceptions and attitudes of local people towards PFM differ with socio-economic variables, such as sex, age, level of education, family size, occupation type, annual income, length of duration of local residence, livestock, and land ownership.MethodsA structured questionnaire comprised of close- and open-ended questions was developed and administered to a total of n = 64 households to collect information on the perceptions and attitudes of local people towards PFM in WWF. Descriptive statistics and multiple linear regressions were used to analyze and interpret the data.ResultsThe results revealed that socio-economic variables had significant effects on the perceptions towards “the prevalence of the problems with the existing PFM system” (39% variance explained), “the concept of PFM” (30% variance explained), and “the presence of PFM practice” (11% variance explained). Majority of the respondents accepted the PFM program introduced in WWF in order to protect and manage the WWF. The study also revealed that socio-economic variables had significant effects on the attitudes towards “managing forests via participatory approach” (16% variance explained), “having the responsibility to protect the WWF” (40% variance explained), and “accepting the PFM practice” (54% variance explained). However, the findings suggested that there were some respondents who were yet unsure to fully accept the concept and practice of PFM.ConclusionsCreating public awareness about PFM is crucial to alleviate the problems of deforestation and reduce the unsustainable use of the WWF. As socio-economic variables that affect perceptions and attitudes of local people towards PFM may change over time, future research is crucial to consider the time dimension as possible factor while studying perceptions and attitudes of local people towards PFM.

Exploring multi-scale forest above ground biomass estimation with optical remote sensing imageries

Forest shares 80% of total exchange of carbon between the atmosphere and the terrestrial ecosystem. Due to this monitoring of forest above ground biomass (as carbon can be calculated as 0.47 part of total biomass) has become very important. Forest above ground biomass as being the major portion of total forest biomass should be given a very careful consideration in its estimation. It is hoped to be useful in addressing the ongoing problems of deforestation and degradation and to gain carbon mitigation benefits through mechanisms like Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+). Many methods of above ground biomass estimation are in used ranging from use of optical remote sensing imageries of very high to very low resolution to SAR data and LIDAR. This paper describes a multi-scale approach for assessing forest above ground biomass, and ultimately carbon stocks, using very high imageries, open source medium resolution and medium resolution satellite datasets with a very limited number of field plots. We found this method is one of the most promising method for forest above ground biomass estimation with higher accuracy and low cost budget. Pilot study was conducted in Chitwan district of Nepal on the estimation of biomass using this technique. The GeoEye-1 (0.5m), Landsat (30m) and Google Earth (GE) images were used remote sensing imageries. Object-based image analysis (OBIA) classification technique was done on Geo-eye imagery for the tree crown delineation at the watershed level. After then, crown projection area (CPA) vs. biomass model was developed and validated at the watershed level. Open source GE imageries were used to calculate the CPA and biomass from virtual plots at district level. Using data mining technique, different parameters from Landsat imageries along with the virtual sample biomass were used for upscaling biomass estimation at district level. We found, this approach can considerably reduce field data requirements for estimation of biomass and carbon in comparison with inventory methods based on enumeration of all trees in a plot. The proposed methodology is very cost effective and can be replicated with limited resources and time.

The issues of rational use of natural resource potential of the western region of Ukraine

The present article deals with the current state of natural resource potential (NRP) of the Western region of Ukraine and the main challenges in line with eurointegration processes and rational environmental management. The place of region in total Ukraine’s NRP and its internal structure in section of six oblasts: Lviv, Zakarpattya, Ivano-Frankivsk, Chernivtsi, Volyn, Rivne, Ternopil and Khmelnytsky are analyzed. Land resources of the region, which constitute approximately half of the total value of NRP are characterized. Tendency of reduction of arable land in the region is grounded and problems of land valuation are considered. The growing role of water resources and its national and international importance is investigated. Biological potential of the region, which is representing mainly by forest resources are studied. Forest fund of region, its square, structure and stand of timber are characterized. The problem of illegal deforestation on large areas of the Western region of Ukraine was described with particular attention. Special attention is paid to the growing role of recreational resources of the region, similar in structure to the appropriate resources of neighboring European countries. Western region is a leader for protected areas in Ukraine (about 40% of total area of nature reserve fund). The current state of mineral resources, the importance of which for the Western region needs revaluation is considered. A significant share of mineral resources is characterized by the depletion of deposits and their exploitation unprofitable. The authors detected territorial combination of natural resources, that centralize close in space one to others. Ten local territorial combinations in the mountainous part of the Western Region are allocated. New trends in the use of NRP and prospects of renewable energy in the region are studied. The authors predict an increase in the role of recreation and water resources and rising land prices. The problem of low investment attraction, that should be solved based on the cross-border position of the Western region is analyzed.

Anthropic Actions in the Environment: The Idea of “Environmental Underdevelopment”

This article discusses the idea of environmental underdevelopment. It is observed that anthropic actions in the pursuit of social and economic development often result in pollution and degradation of the environment. The objective is to draw attention to the importance of discussing and taking action to achieve environmental development on the planet. With the bibliographical revision, the problems of unsustainable land occupation, deforestation and environmental pollution were highlighted. Were given examples of deforestation in the Amazon and environmental disaster in Rio Doce. It is concluded that countries or citizens with practices of environmental degradation can not be considered developed. And that the degree of development must be measured considering also the practices and results of environmental conservation in its territory and outside it.

Effects of Anthropogenic Activities and Eutrophication along River Chanchaga, Minna, Nigeria

River Chanchaga is the major source of drinking water in Minna, Nigeria. This river has been a medium to an increasing pollution loads from contaminated runoff from different land uses degrading aquatic ecosystem and water quality in the river.This paper investigates the threat of anthropogenic influence on river environment and aquatic ecosystem distortion of River Chanchaga, Minna, Nigeria. Field work which include interview and observation methods were used to collect data on effect of anthropogenic and eutrophication along the study area. A total of Two Hundred and Fifty (250) people accounting for 0.5% of the total population were interviewed, making it eight per each community in thirty settlements along the study area. Physical observation of deforestation around sample sites spatially distributed along River Chanchaga depicted in Figure 2 was carried out to study mining activities, farming practice, crop types, and fallow duration to generate the mean and percentages of different anthropogenic activities along the study area. The findings revealed that deforestation is links to high demand for fire wood, lumbering, irrigation farming bank-side mining for sand and gold as depicted in Plat 1 and 2. Eutrophication at the upper course of river is links to high inflow of agricultural wastes and seasonal nature of the river from site A to C evident from Table 4 and constant flow from site C to K as a result of released water from Tagwai Dam that keeps (site C, the confluence of River Chanchaga and River Numui) middle and lower courses of River Chanchaga with sustainable moving water. The result further indicated that continue increase of pollution has a direct relationship to an increasing level of human activities like deforestation, mining activities and agricultural practices along the study area. The result also shows that there is decline in fallow duration as indicated in Table 1 and increase environmental related issues such as soil erosion, water floor (depth) reduction and distortion of river morphology of the study area. It is therefore recommended that the identified anthropogenic activities that lead to pollution and eutrophication such as river-side deforestation, irrigation farming, mining and other related environmental problems should be regulated and discourages to avoid further increase of pollution and distortion of river environment of the study area.

Opportunities for biodiversity gains under the world's largest reforestation programme.

Reforestation is a critical means of addressing the environmental and social problems of deforestation. China's Grain-for-Green Program (GFGP) is the world's largest reforestation scheme. Here we provide the first nationwide assessment of the tree composition of GFGP forests and the first combined ecological and economic study aimed at understanding GFGP's biodiversity implications. Across China, GFGP forests are overwhelmingly monocultures or compositionally simple mixed forests. Focusing on birds and bees in Sichuan Province, we find that GFGP reforestation results in modest gains (via mixed forest) and losses (via monocultures) of bird diversity, along with major losses of bee diversity. Moreover, all current modes of GFGP reforestation fall short of restoring biodiversity to levels approximating native forests. However, even within existing modes of reforestation, GFGP can achieve greater biodiversity gains by promoting mixed forests over monocultures; doing so is unlikely to entail major opportunity costs or pose unforeseen economic risks to households.

Estrategias de recuperación de selvas en dos ejidos de Quintana Roo, México

Con el fin de contrarrestar el grave problema de la deforestación en Quintana Roo, en 1984 se creó el Plan Piloto Forestal que se desarrolló en la zona centro y sur del estado, el cual derivó en Sociedades Civiles como la Organización de Ejidos Productores Forestales de la Zona Maya. (OEPFZM. S.C.). A ella pertenecen los ejidos Naranjal y Santa María cuyas actividades de aprovechamiento y conservación de sus selvas se contemplan en un plan de manejo forestal basado en las características ecológicas y fisiográficas particulares de la selva mediana subperennifolia, el cual es elaborado por una Dirección Técnica Forestal. En el presente trabajo se presentan acciones del Plan de Manejo como la reforestación hecha con base en los datos del inventario, así como la participación campesina de los ejidos Naranjal y Santa María que son considerados como un ejemplo de esta Organización. En asamblea ejidal se establecieron las áreas forestales permanentes y la cuantificación de los aprovechamientos se realizó con los inventarios forestales para definir la existencia de volúmenes de “maderas preciosas” y de las “comunes” o tropicales “corrientes”. Una acción importante es la promoción del uso diversificado de la selva con especies no conocidas comercialmente, que están bien representadas y cuyas potencialidades de uso se llevan a cabo con estudios de anatomía y ensayos tecnológicos de la madera. La asesoría técnica, otros estudios interdisciplinarios, la capacitación campesina y la toma de decisiones en asambleas ejidales permiten el adecuado aprovechamiento y administración de los recursos forestales y su conservación.

Dinámica de perturbación-recuperación de las zonas forestales en el Parque Nacional Nevado de Toluca

Pese a la plena conciencia sobre los graves problemas de deforestación que sufren los bosques mexicanos, existen muy pocos estudios detallados que permitan identificar, de forma precisa, las dinámicas de perturbación-recuperación a que estos ecosistemas se encuentran sujetos. El presente trabajo, plantea una metodología detallada para analizar los procesos de cambio en la cobertura vegetal y uso del suelo, del Parque Nacional Nevado de Toluca (PNNT) para el periodo 1972-2000 aplicando métodos de cartografía automatizada y procesos de reclasificación. Se estimó una tasa de deforestación de 8,4% para dicho periodo, con un cambio en más de 2,000 ha y una pérdida anual de superficie forestal cercana a 156 ha. Se estimaron además las probabilidades de transición, a fin de conocer la disminución y/o incremento en la densidad de las zonas forestales, y en consecuencia, la dinámica de perturbación-recuperación forestal. Finalmente, fue posible caracterizar los procesos de deforestación de una de las áreas naturales protegidas más emblemáticas de México.

Proceso de deforestación en el municipio de Cherán, Michoacán, México (2006-2012)

La devastación de los ecosistemas en los últimos años está aumentando la desigualdad y los conflictos sociales y, en particular, la marginación de los pueblos indígenas, que en muchos casos son los legítimos propietarios de las tierras forestales. En este trabajo se analiza el caso de la población purépecha de Cherán, Michoacán, comunidad que en 2011 organizó un levantamiento armado como protesta por la tala ilegal de sus bosques, frente a la indiferencia de las autoridades. A partir de imágenes satelitales Spot, de alta resolución (10 m) se estimó la pérdida anual de la cubierta forestal, entre 2006 y 2012. Utilizando un criterio basado en el NDVI y la firma espectral, se obtuvieron y validaron los mapas de suelo / vegetación, para cada año del período estudiado; la comparación de los mapas anuales permitió construir el mapa de deforestación anual. En total, fueron deforestadas 9069 hectáreas, lo que equivale a 71% de la superficie vegetal existente en 2006. La mayor parte de la deforestación se produjo entre 2010 y 2011 (2815 ha) y corresponde la zona más cercana al núcleo urbano; muchas zonas taladas también fueron quemadas. Estos resultados permiten dimensionar el problema de la deforestación en Cherán y ayudan a entender la reacción de la comunidad ante la devastación de sus bosques.

Multi-temporal Analysis of Vegetation Dynamics Over Three Decades for Sustainable Management of Woody Vegetation: The Case of Abaya-Gelana Area, Borena Zone, Southern Ethiopia

Up-to-date and reliable land use/land cover (LULC) information forms an essential component of local and regional planning. So, the aim of the present study is to analyze and quantitatively evaluate LULC changes in Abaya-Gelana area between 1986 and 2015 using remotely sensed data and techniques. To realize the aforementioned objective, cloud free orthorectified multispectral land sat 5 thematic mapper (TM) acquired in 1986 and land sat 8 operational land imager (OLI) acquired in 2015 were used for LULC change detection. In addition to the land sat images, collateral information was obtained from topographic maps, field data, and Google earth images. After digital image processing and visual interpretation of the land sat images, supervised classification with maximum likelihood algorithm was applied and LULC maps for 1986 and 2015 were produced. Finally, post-classification comparison was made to analyze LULC changes over the past three decades. The results of the change detection analysis show that there is obvious deforestation problem in the study area which is manifested by the reduction of bushland by 46.89% and an increase in bareland by 253.34% within 29 years. Besides, a reduction in grass land, a remarkable increase in cultivated land, urban expansion, an increase in water surface are among the major LULC changes over the past three decades.

Precision Forestry: Trees Counting in Urban Areas Using Visible Imagery based on an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

Abstract: This research work describes an approach to count trees in an urban environment. Furthermore it addresses the problems involved in detection of trees in aerial imagery. This work can be used to solve the problem of forest degradation and deforestation. Right now forest man labor isn’t efficient enough to detect or prevent this problem. A multi-rotor UAV equipped with high resolution RGB camera was used to acquire aerial images and to count number of trees in surveyed area. Various issues involved in the robust implementation of proposed algorithm are discussed. The result of successful implementation of the proposed algorithm on multiple scenarios are also presented and we show that our naive approach is able to achieve ≈ 0.72 accuracy within reasonable amount of time.

English

Deforestation and poverty are challenging problems in Ethiopia. The deforestation-poverty nexus is complicated by the institutional failures related to management of natural resources. This study was conducted to analyse the determinants of deforestation in Ethiopia, Western Oromia, the case of Komto Forest in East Wollega Zone, employing primary cross-sectional data on sampled households. Multistage sampling technique was used in selecting 150 household head respondents. Volume of woody biomass consumed and sold in cubic meter (M3) was used to measure deforestation. The Heckman maximum likelihood model estimates showed that large landholding size explain lower level of deforestation. It was also found that forest product sale, and corruption behaviour of households and staff of institution aggravates deforestation. Probability of forest product use is negatively related to kerosene use and positively to road access, purpose of use, and corruption perception. The study showed that poverty and institutional failure related to the forest management are key factors determining deforestation and forest degradation in the study area. Thus solving poverty and institutional failures would help solve deforestation problem of the study area. Key words: Deforestation, poverty, institutional failure, Heckman selection model.

Analysis of factors influencing farmers' voluntary participation in reforestation programme in Ghana

Policy-makers consider participatory reforestation and forest resource management to be the key to reducing the problems of deforestation and forest degradation. In this regard, the government of Ghana introduced a modified taungya system as a mechanism to restore degraded forest reserves under the National Forest Plantation Development Programme to allow landless farmers access to land for temporary crop production and secured tree tenure rights. However, there is an information gap concerning the role of individual farmers residing in the off-reserve areas that are dominated by agricultural landscapes in this national reforestation drive. The objective of this paper is to determine the socioeconomic factors influencing farmers' decisions to participate in voluntary tree planting projects in rural communities in Ghana. Two hundred twenty farm households from four communities in Wenchi District, Brong Ahafo Region of Ghana were randomly selected and interviewed using a structured questionnaire. Logistic regression modelling was employed to understand the socioeconomic factors influencing a farmer's decision to participate in voluntary tree planting. The results suggest that secured land tenure rights, large landholdings and on-farm conservation of remnant forest tree species by farmers and the dynamics of soil erosion are key variables that significantly and positively influence farmers' decision to engage in voluntary tree planting. However, large household size and increasing cultivated land area under crop production decrease the likelihood that a farmer will be involved in voluntary tree planting in the target communities. Thus, policy-makers, planners and project designers should incorporate these findings into participatory forest management strategies in Ghana.

Application of Remote Sensing and GIS in Forest Cover Change in Tehsil Barawal, District Dir, Pakistan

The forests of Pakistan replicate plentiful climatic, physiographic and edaphic differences in the country and these forests face a serious problem of deforestation. Geographic information system (GIS) techniques and remote sensing (RS) from satellite platforms offer a best way to identify those areas of deforestation, and thus a GIS and RS based study was conducted in tehsil Barawal, district Dir (U) to analyze forest cover change. The main objectives of the study were to: 1) identify different classes of land use and land cover, and its spatial distribution in the study area; 2) determine the trend, nature, location and magnitude of forest cover change; and 3) prepare maps of forest-cover change in different time periods in the study area. To assess the objectives remote sensing and GIS techniques were utilized. A supervised image classification technique was applied on Landsat 5 satellite images of 2000 and 2012. Five main classes such as agriculture, forest, barren land, snow and water were identified. The results showed that the area of forest, barren land, agriculture, water and snow in year 2000 was 49.54%, 43.38%, 5.19%, 1.40% and 0.49% and the area in 2012 was 37.17%, 41.36%, 12.69%, 5.05% and 3.72% respectively. Furthermore 2.02% decrease in barren land, 12.37% decrease in forest and 7.5% increase in agriculture land were identified. Due to high deforestation rate and increased agricultural activities, it is recommended that awareness campaign should be launched in the study area to protect and conserve this forest from further deforestation.