Direct Measurement of Forest Degradation Rates in Malawi: Toward a National Forest Monitoring System to Support REDD+

Abstract

Spatial time-series measurements of forest degradation rates are important for estimating national greenhouse gas emissions but have been challenging for open forests and woodlands. This lack of quantitative data on forest degradation rates, location and biomass is an important constraint to developing national REDD+ policy. In Malawi, and in most countries in Africa, most assessments of forest cover change for carbon emissions monitoring tend to report only deforestation in the public forest estate managed by the government, even when important forest degradation also occurs in agricultural areas, such as customary forests and other tree-based systems. This study has resulted in: (a) a new robust forest map for Malawi, (b) spatial and quantitative measurements of both forest degradation and deforestation, and (c) a demonstration of the approach through the introduction of a tool that maps across the broad landscape of forests and trees outside of forests. The results can be used to support REDD+ National Forest Monitoring Systems. This analysis produces new estimates of landscape-wide deforestation rates between 2000–2009 (22,410 ha yr−1) and 2009–2015 (38,937 ha yr−1). We further produce new estimates of the rate of forest degradation between 2000–2009 (42,961 ha yr−1) and 2009–2015 (71,878 ha yr−1). The contribution of these new tools and estimates to capacities for calculating carbon emissions are important, increasing prospects for full REDD+ readiness across semi-arid Africa.

Assessment of land use change in the Thuma forest reserve region of Malawi, Africa

“…Such approaches will provide time for the recovery of the deforested forest reserves. Skole et al (2021), estimated that forest deforestation in Malawi ranges from 22,410 to 38,937 ha y −1 .…”

“…Detection of land cover changes as a result of land use modification especially those changes caused by humans is paramount in policy decision making for sustainable management of natural resources (Estoque and Murayama 2015). Current studies in most sub-Saharan countries show that there is a general reduction in forest cover in most protected forest reserves due to expansion of agricultural land or mere tree removal for other amenities (Damnyag et al 2013, Kayombo et al 2020, Skole et al 2021 grasslands with patches of clearing for agriculture while the upper rugged levels are covered in Brachystegia (Miombo) woodland (Worldlife Action Group 2018, Nyirenda et al 2019). The area was physically delineated to include Thuma Forest Reserve and its surrounding area based on the hydrology network of the area, especially focusing on the small tributaries around the forest (figure 1).…”

Strategies to achieve a carbon neutral society: a review

“…Then, the authors built a 1 km gridded spatial mapping system and used the Kaya equation for decomposition (Cai et al 2018 ) Forests Malawi The data were sourced from 30 m Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM), Enhanced Thematic Mapper (ETM +), and Operational Land Imager of 2000, 2009, and 2015. Then, the authors used the fC Tool to map deforestation and forest degradation (Skole et al 2021 ) Ecosystem Romania Authors created Geographic Information System maps from satellite and aero-photographs. Then biom categories associated with fauna were selected, and light detection and ranging (LiDAR) technology was used for analysis (Mihut et al 2019 ) City Melbourne-Australia Authors made city maps based on environmental input–output analysis and Leontief-inverse demand-pull Input–Output calculus (Wiedmann et al 2016 ) Forests Venezuelan Amazon 50 Landsat 4, 5, 7, and 8-time series were used from US Geological Survey.…”

“…The rates revealed in this study were higher than those obtained by global forest watch since the study carried out by global forest watch considered deforestation only in government forests, excluding agricultural lands and community forests. The updated estimates are critical for developing a national policy for forest resource management (Skole et al 2021 ).…”

Regeneration of Pinus sibirica Du Tour in the Mountain Tundra of the Northern Urals against the Background of Climate Warming

“…Climate change can also exacerbate the effect of other factors on vegetation, as is the case with man-made pollution [4,5]. In this regard, the climate-vegetation problem is recognized as one of the most urgent in ecology and biogeography [1,2,[6][7][8][9][10][11].…”