This presentation by Dietrich Schmidt-Vogt provides information on the dynamics of land use change in the Mekong region and its implication for forest cover, livelihoods and biodiversity.
Item 6. Revision and consolidation of energy-related legal instruments
Implication of land use change in the Mekong region for upland forests and their services
1. Implications of Land Use Change in
the Mekong region for Upland
Forests and their Services
Dietrich Schmidt-Vogt
ICRAF East- and Central Asia Node
Kunming, China
2. Presentation Outline
• The Mekong Region
• Land Use Change in the Mekong Region
• Implications of Land Use Change for Forest
Cover, Livelihoods and Biodiversity
5. 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.
6. 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.
17. 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.
18. 0
1 2
2 4
3 6
4 8
6 0
0 2 0 4 0 6 0 8 0 1 0 0 1 2 0
D is ta n c e ( k m )
Forestconditon
(basalaream2/ha)
0
2
4
6
8
1 0
Locallivelihood
(averageincomeperyear-
millionkips)
F o re s t c o n ditio n
L o c a l live lih 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.
19. 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.