REGROWTH AND DEGRADATION -
SUSTAINABLE MANAGEMENT OF MIOMBO WOODLAND
Miombo woodland is one of the largest ecoregions in Africa.
Miombo is a very resilient woodland type, however, continuous mismanagement will
break the resilience of the ecosystem (the regrowth ability) and general land
degradation will take place.
Multi-temporal analysis of deforestation pattern in miombo woodland
provided an understanding of the resilience of ecosystem. It was established
that five yr of continuous agricultural use had a traumatic effect on regrowth -
which was documented and mapped by the use of Landsat data.
Monitoring of large scale deforestation in miombo woodland
is possible with Landsat data. It is possible to assess conversion of miombo
woodland into cleared and regrowth areas after first year of fallow.
The study suggested that regrowth from deforested woodland
will take place rapidly if areas only was used a few years, however, it also
showed that land use of more than 5 years on the same piece of land have
traumatic effect on regrowth ability of miombo woodland. This result adds to the
understanding of the deforestation versus regrowth rate, as well as degradation
of virgin miombo woodland when exposed to intensive agricultural use.
This change detection method can be used for assessment of
degradation in miombo woodland and can as such be used as a tool in REDD for
assessment of the state of miombo woodland.
Danida ENRECA program 1991-94
PRINS, E. and KIKULA, I.S. (1996): Assessment of deforestation and regrowth in
SW. Tanzania using
Landsat MSS data. Forest, Ecology and Management Vol. 84.
263-266.
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