Forest Conversion and Land Use Change in Rural Northwest Yunnan, China

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Abstract
Contrary to the trend of rapid deforestation continuing across Asia, regional assessments point to recent increases in forest cover in China, including Yunnan Province, since the implementation of dramatic forestry policy changes. There is debate about whether the statistics that describe increasing forest cover adequately account for forest status and quality. In this context, the present article aims to quantify forest cover and land use changes in a Tibetan-dominated rural township in northwest Yunnan, China—an ecologically important region affected by recent forest policy changes. Three sequences of Landsat satellite imagery dating from 1981 to late 1999 and other digital datasets were used in a rules-based hybrid classification approach, achieving acceptable accuracy assessment scores. The results show an average aggregate decline in conifer forests of 23%, mostly due to an active logging industry. Much of this forest has converted to shrubland, which increased in area by over 100%. Grasslan...

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