Regional Deforestation Trends within Local Realities: Land-Cover Change in Southeastern Peru 1996–2011

Estimating deforested areas and deforestation rates have become key steps for quantifying environmental services of tropical rain forests, particularly as linked to programs such as Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD). In Southeastern Peru, reliable estimates of land-c...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Land (Basel) 2013-06, Vol.2 (2), p.131-157
Main Authors: Chávez Michaelsen, Andrea, Huamani Briceño, Leticia, Fernandez Menis, Ronny, Bejar Chura, Nemin, Valera Tito, Frank, Perz, Stephen, Brown, I., Domínguez Del Aguila, Sandro, Pinedo Mora, Raúl, Alarcón Aguirre, Gabriel
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agricultural expansion
Amazon
change detection
Deforestation
Emissions control
Environmental services
Forest degradation
Forest products
land cover change
Land tenure
Land use
Madre de Dios
Natural resources
Pasture
Peru
Rainforests
Rivers
Tropical forests
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Summary:Estimating deforested areas and deforestation rates have become key steps for quantifying environmental services of tropical rain forests, particularly as linked to programs such as Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD). In Southeastern Peru, reliable estimates of land-cover change (LCC) are important for monitoring changes in the landscape due to agricultural expansion, pasture creation and other socio-economic influences triggered by the Inter-Oceanic Highway (IOH). Our study reports a land-use/land-cover change (LULCC) analysis during a 15-year period from 1996 to 2011 in the Province of Tahuamanu, Madre de Dios. We draw on multiple years of observations of LULCC to relate changes in land cover to the use of natural resources (pasture, timber, crops and forest products) and tenure types based on their distances from the highway and the Tahuamanu River. We are able to distinguish titled areas for agriculture close to the IOH from other land tenure types such as timber concessions. The findings show that LULCC varies among different types of land tenure and by distance from the highway. Agricultural areas close to transportation infrastructure within 1 km to 5 km buffers have gradually increased in non-forest areas, whereas timber concession areas away from 1 km buffer of secondary roads have maintained forest cover. Riverine settlements show a similar distance effect in forest clearance along rivers as along roads.
ISSN:2073-445X
2073-445X
DOI:10.3390/land2020131