Response of Ecosystem Services to Land Use Change in Madagascar Island, Africa: A Multi-Scale Perspective

Flaubert Tiandraza, Shijin Qu (), Shougeng Hu, Christopher N. Mkono, Anna Tikhomirova and Solo Nirina Randrialahamady
Additional contact information
Flaubert Tiandraza: Department of Land Resource Management, School of Public Administration, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430074, China
Shijin Qu: Department of Land Resource Management, School of Public Administration, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430074, China
Shougeng Hu: Department of Land Resource Management, School of Public Administration, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430074, China
Christopher N. Mkono: Key Laboratory of Theory and Technology of Petroleum Exploration and Development in Hubei Province and Key Laboratory of Petroleum Resources, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430074, China
Anna Tikhomirova: School of Economics and Management, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430074, China
Solo Nirina Randrialahamady: Department of Law, Economics, and Management at the Management Mention Finance and Accounting Course, University of Toamasina, Toamasina 501, Madagascar

IJERPH, 2023, vol. 20, issue 4, 1-21

Abstract: “Land Use and Land Cover Change (LULCC)” is increasingly being affected by ecosystem services value. LULCC patterns have been subjected to significant changes over time, primarily due to an ever-increasing population. It is rare to attempt to analyze the influence of such changes on a large variety of ecosystem benefits in Madagascar island. The economic value of ecosystem services in Madagascar island is evaluated throughout the period from 2000 to 2019. The expansion of the human population affects the changing value of ecosystem services directly. The PROBA-V SR time series 300 m spatial resolution cover of land datasets from the “Climate Change Initiative of the European Space Agency (ESA)” were used to measure the values of ecosystem activities and the changes in those values caused by land use. A value transfer method was used to evaluate the value of ecosystem services to land use changes on Madagascar island. The findings show that from 2000 to 2019, at the annual rate of 2.17 percent, Madagascar island’s ecosystem service value (ESV) grew to 6.99 billion US dollars. The components that greatly contributed to the total change of ESV were waste treatment, genetic resources, food production, and habitat/refugia. These components in 2000 contributed 21.27%, 20.20%, 17.38%, and 13.80% of the total ESV, and 22.55%, 19.76%, 17.29%, and 13.78% of the total ESV in 2019, respectively. Furthermore, it was found that there was a great change in LULCC. From 2000 to 2019, bare land, built-up land, cultivated land, savannah, and wetland increased while other LULCC types decreased. The sensitivity coefficient ranged from 0.649 to 1.000, <1, with forestland registering the highest values. Wetland is in the second position for the most important land cover category in Madagascar, considering the total value of the ecosystem. The value of ecosystem benefits per unit of the land area was higher on cultivated land, despite the relatively low fraction of cultivated land area across these eras. The sensitivity indices of seven land types from 2000 to 2019 were mapped to understand better the geographical distribution patterns of ESV’s “equivalent value coefficient” (VC) across various land uses. It is suggested that the ESV should be included in Madagascar’s government land-use plan to manage it effectively and efficiently with fewer negative effects on the ecosystem.

Keywords: ecosystem service value; benefits transfer; sensitive analysis; Madagascar island; agricultural expansion; land use and land cover change (LULCC) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/4/3060/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/4/3060/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:20:y:2023:i:4:p:3060-:d:1063350

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().