Forest Cover Change and the Effectiveness of Protected Areas in the Himalaya since 1998

Changjun Gu, Pei Zhao, Qiong Chen, Shicheng Li, Lanhui Li, Linshan Liu and Yili Zhang
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Changjun Gu: Key Laboratory of Land Surface Pattern and Simulation, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, CAS, Beijing 100101, China
Pei Zhao: College of Geographic Sciences, Qinghai Normal University, Xining 810008, China
Qiong Chen: College of Geographic Sciences, Qinghai Normal University, Xining 810008, China
Shicheng Li: Department of Land Resource Management, School of Public Administration, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430074, China
Lanhui Li: Fujian Key Laboratory of Pattern Recognition and Image Understanding, Xiamen University of Technology, Xiamen 361024, China
Linshan Liu: Key Laboratory of Land Surface Pattern and Simulation, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, CAS, Beijing 100101, China
Yili Zhang: Key Laboratory of Land Surface Pattern and Simulation, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, CAS, Beijing 100101, China

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 15, 1-24

Abstract: Himalaya, a global biodiversity hotspot, has undergone considerable forest cover fluctuation in recent decades, and numerous protected areas (PAs) have been established to prohibit forest degradation there. However, the spatiotemporal characteristics of this forest cover change across the whole region are still unknown, as are the effectiveness of its PAs. Therefore, here, we first mapped the forest cover of Himalaya in 1998, 2008, and 2018 with high accuracy (>90%) using a random forest (RF) algorithm based on Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform. The propensity score matching (PSM) method was applied with eight control variables to balance the heterogeneity of land characteristics inside and outside PAs. The effectiveness of PAs in Himalaya was quantified based on matched samples. The results showed that the forest cover in Himalaya increased by 4983.65 km 2 from 1998 to 2008, but decreased by 4732.71 km 2 from 2008 to 2018. Further analysis revealed that deforestation and reforestation mainly occurred at the edge of forest tracts, with over 55% of forest fluctuation occurring below a 2000 m elevation. Forest cover changes in PAs of Himalaya were analyzed; these results indicated that about 56% of PAs had a decreasing trend from 1998 to 2018, including the Torsa (Ia PA), an area representative of the most natural conditions, which is strictly protected. Even so, as a whole, PAs in Himalaya played a positive role in halting deforestation.

Keywords: deforestation; fragmentation; Google Earth Engine; Himalaya; propensity score matching; protected areas; random forest (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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