Large net forest loss in Cambodia’s Tonle Sap Lake protected areas during 1992–2019
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A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä
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Date
2022-08
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Mcode
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Language
en
Pages
15
Series
Ambio, Volume 51, issue 8, pp. 1889-1903
Abstract
Historical land-use practices have caused forest loss in Cambodia’s Tonle Sap Lake area (TSLA), the largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia. However, it remains unclear if this deforestation trend had continued since 2001 when the land was designated as protected areas. Using satellite imagery, we investigated forest conversion flows and fragmentation patterns in the TSLA for 1992–2001, 2001–2010, and 2010–2019, respectively. Results show substantial forest losses and fragmentations occurring at the lower floodplain where the protected areas are located until 2010, with some forest regain during 2010–2019. The land conversions indicated that forest clearing and agricultural farming were the primary causes for observed extensive forest loss during 1992–2010. Hence, despite the creating of protected areas in 2001, our findings reveal the persistence of alarming forest loss in the TSLA until 2010. On the other hand, while net forest loss has stopped after 2010, forest regain during 2010–2019 is way too small to restore the region’s total forest area to even the level when the protected areas were established. Thus, more effective planning and implementations of forest management and restoration policies are needed for the TSLA.Description
Funding Information: This research was supported by the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. XDA20060401, XDA20060402), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 91537210, 42101041), the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (Grant No. 2021M691403), the China Scholarship Council, Swedish STINT (Grant Nos. CH2019-8377), and the Swedish VR (Grant No. 2017-03780), as well as Aalto University. Publisher Copyright: © 2022, The Author(s).
Keywords
Cropland expansion, Forest loss, Land-use/land cover change, Mekong, Tonle Sap Lake
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Citation
Chen, A, Chen, A, Varis, O & Chen, D 2022, ' Large net forest loss in Cambodia’s Tonle Sap Lake protected areas during 1992–2019 ', Ambio, vol. 51, no. 8, pp. 1889-1903 . https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-022-01704-4