Implications of Land Use Change in the Mekong region for Upland

Forests and their Services

Dietrich Schmidt-VogtICRAF East- and Central Asia Node

Kunming, China

Presentation Outline

• The Mekong Region

• Land Use Change in the Mekong Region

• Implications of Land Use Change for Forest Cover, Livelihoods and Biodiversity

Forest Cover in the Mekong Region

Forest Cover of GMS (GMS Atlas of the Environment, 2004)

• Forest is the natural land cover of the GMS and would have covered nearly 100% of the land are before human interventions.

• Today, continuous forest occurs mainly in the uplands.

• Countries of the GMS differ significantly with respect to extent of forest cover and forest cover dynamics.

• Basic typologies distinguish forest types according to canopy characteristics (open/closed) which are often used as indicators of primary forest and secondary forest.

Shifting Cultivation in the Uplands of the Mekong Region

In the uplands of Mekong region large areas have in recent decades undergone conversion from swidden landscapes with a large share of secondary forests to other land uses.

Swidden cultivation is an agricultural system in which land under natural vegetation is cleared, burned and cultivated with crops for a few years, and then left untended while the natural vegetation regenerates during a fallow period.

Land Conversion in SwiddenLandscapes

From shifting cultivation to permanent farming

Rubber Expansion in Xishuangbanna1988-2010

Land Use Change in Manlin and Man Sai

Expansion of Rubber into Upper Elevations of Xishuangbanna

0

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20,000

40,000

60,000

80,000

100,000

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400-500 500-600 600-700 700-800 800-900 900-1000 1000-1100 1100-1200 1200-1300 1300-1400

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Area 1988 Area 2002 Area 2010 Percentage 1988 Percentage 2002 Percentage 2010

elevation (m)

Proportion (%) of Rubber Plantations With Respect to Rubber Net Present Value (NPV)

NPV(US$ ha-1)

1988 2002 2010 2010

Close canopy rubber Open canopy rubber

< 0 3.7 3.3 8.4 8.1 10.7

0-20,000 30.4 34.1 39.6 38.4 49.5

20,000-40,000 57.4 57.8 46.9 48.7 32.5

40,000-63,080 8.5 4.8 5.1 4.8 7.3

Sub-total 100 100 100 100 100

Countries with Large Net Changes in Forest Area 2000-2005 (FRA 2005)

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GreatLeap

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HouseholdResponsibility

SystemYangtze

Flood 2009Goal:23%

Goal:26%

1958 1981 1998 2009 2020 2050

Sources: Zhang (1949); Forestry Surveys (1976-2009); Forestry Ministry (2020, 2050)

Forest cover change in China

Goal reached: 20% by 2009

Turning point in 1981:12% forest cover

Forest Cover Change in Xishuangbanna

Secondary Forests in the Mekong region

Wangpakapattanawong，P., Kavinchan， N. ,

Vaidhayakarn，C., Schmidt-Vogt， D., Elliott，S. 2010: Fallow to forest: applying indigenous and

scientific knowledge to tropical forest restoration.

Forest Ecology and Management 260, pp. 1399-1406

Secondary forests in swidden

landscapes can be comparable to

natural forests in terms of species

diversity and have a high potential for

conservation.

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F o re s t c o n d i t i o n

L o c a l l i ve l i h o o d

Heinimann, A., Messerli, P., Schmidt-Vogt, D.,

Wiesmann, U. 2007: The dynamics of secondary

forest landscapes in the Lower Mekong Basin: a

regional scale analysis. In: Mountain Research and

Development 27 (3), pp. 232-241.

Thanichanon, P., Schmidt-Vogt, D., Messerli, P.,

Heinimann, A., Epprecht, M. Secondary forests and

local livelihood along a gradient of accessibility: a

case study in Luang Prabang, Lao PDR. Applied

Geography (submitted September 2011, under

review)

Secondary Forests in the Mekong Region :

Landscape Level

Secondary forest are declining all over the

Mekong region mainly as a result of

Improved accessibility.

Conclusions

• The upland portions of the Mekong region experience land use change on a massive scale and rapid rate.

• A significant portion of land use change is from traditional land use of natural/semi-natural forest to commercial tree crops.

• While this type of change may go hand in hand with maintenance of even increase of forest cover (depending on forest definition), it poses risks for biodiversity and livelihoods.

Thank you