Land Cover Change and Fragmentation Analysis in Sintang Regency, West Kalimantan, Indonesia

Abstract

The increasing number of human populations and their needs have driven changes in forest cover to become infrastructure, agricultural land, and plantations. Sintang Regency has a natural forest structure upstream of the Kapuas River and the Kayan River, which the local community uses for transportation and sources of livelihood. In this study, we wanted to analyze the level of fragmentation in Sintang Regency. We used landcover data in the mapping periods of 2010, 2015, and 2020, with MoEF classification—fragmentation analysis using ArcGIS 10.6 and FRAGSTATS v4.2.1 software at class and patch levels analysis. The result showed decreased natural forest while estate crop and mining increased. As an impact of decreasing forest area, it also reduced the total core area and connectivity; the intact forest > 50,000 ha was isolated in 2020. The fragmentation of forests will impact reduced habitat for wildlife and loss of ecological function of the landscape.