Rubber and pulp plantations represent a double threat to Hainan's natural tropical forests

Zhai, De‐Li; Cannon, Charles H.; Slik, J. W. Ferry; Cui-ping, Zhang; Dai, Zhi‐Cong

doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2011.10.011

Cited by 68 publications

(57 citation statements)

References 59 publications

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“…2). The recovery of natural forests in 1988-1995 and the losses of natural forests were caused by changes in forest management policies (Zhai et al 2012(Zhai et al , 2014. Natural forests losses and the expansion of rubber and pulp plantations were two main features of the land cover in this area.…”

Section: Conversion Between Natural Forests and Plantations And Its Imentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This result does not agree with Zhou (1995), where swidden agriculture was found to 1988 1995 2005 1988-1995 1995-2005 1988-2005 1988-1995 1995-2005 1988-2005 AA=(Aye-Ayb)/T, CR=(Aye-Ayb)/Ayb×1/T×100 %, Ayb is the area of a land cover in the beginning year of a study period; Aye is the area of a land cover in the end of a study period., T is the time length be a main reason for deforestation and forest degradation in Hainan. The primary difference between these two periods of time was the large-scale introduction of pulp plantations and a greater demand of rubber after 1995 (Li et al 2007;Zhai et al 2012). Deforestation will strongly impact both floral and faunal diversity in this area, especially for rare and endangered species, and also will greatly threaten the habitat restricted and habitat alteration sensitive species, most of which are endemic to the island.…”

Section: Conversion Between Natural Forests and Plantations And Its Imentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recently, the Hainan government has passed the Hainan Noncommercial Forest Development Program (2010-2020, aiming to increase the area of non-commercial natural forest (Zhai et al 2014). Despite these efforts and without effective enforcement, the natural forest may still face further reductions as rubber and pulp plantations continue to encroach on these protected areas in the future (Zhai et al 2012(Zhai et al , 2014. The decrease of natural forests habitat at a rate of ∼1.3 % (∼1270 ha/ year) and expansion of pulp and rubber plantation in the region should be of major conservation concern.…”

Section: Conversion Between Natural Forests and Plantations And Its Imentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Deforestation and fragmentation of natural forests in the upper Changhua watershed, Hainan, China: implications for biodiversity conservation

Zhai

Cannon

Dai

et al. 2014

Environ Monit Assess

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Hainan, the largest tropical island in China, belongs to the Indo-Burma biodiversity hotspot. The Changhua watershed is a center of endemism for plants and birds and the cradle of Hainan's main rivers. However, this area has experienced recent and ongoing deforestation and habitat fragmentation. To quantify habitat loss and fragmentation of natural forests, as well as the land-cover changes in the Changhua watershed, we analyzed Landsat images obtained in 1988, 1995, and 2005. Land-cover dynamics analysis showed that natural forests increased in area (97,909 to 104,023 ha) from 1988 to 1995 but decreased rapidly to 76,306 ha over the next decade. Rubber plantations increased steadily throughout the study period while pulp plantations rapidly expanded after 1995. Similar patterns of land cover change were observed in protected areas, indicating a lack of enforcement. Natural forests conversion to rubber and pulp plantations has a general negative effect on biodiversity, primarily through habitat fragmentation. The fragmentation analysis showed that natural forests area was reduced and patch number increased, while patch size and connectivity decreased. These land-cover changes threatened local biodiversity, especially island endemic species. Both natural forests losses and fragmentation should be stopped by strict enforcement to prevent further damage. Preserving the remaining natural forests and enforcing the status of protected areas should be a management priority to maximize the watershed's biodiversity conservation value.

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Section: Conversion Between Natural Forests and Plantations And Its Imentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Conversion Between Natural Forests and Plantations And Its Imentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Conversion Between Natural Forests and Plantations And Its Imentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Deforestation and fragmentation of natural forests in the upper Changhua watershed, Hainan, China: implications for biodiversity conservation

Zhai

Cannon

Dai

et al. 2014

Environ Monit Assess

Self Cite

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show abstract

“…A number of studies have used optical satellite images (Landsat, Spot, and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS)) to identify and map industrial forest plantations [3], specifically rubber [4,5], oil palm [6,7], eucalyptus [8,9], teak [10], acacia [11,12], and bamboo [13,14]. The main difficulty in mapping industrial forest plantations is the similar spectral characteristics between natural forests and forest plantations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Regional Mapping of Plantation Extent Using Multisensor Imagery

et al. 2016

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Industrial forest plantations are expanding rapidly across Monsoon Asia and monitoring extent is critical for understanding environmental and socioeconomic impacts. In this study, new, multisensor imagery were evaluated and integrated to extract the strengths of each sensor for mapping plantation extent at regional scales. Two distinctly different landscapes with multiple plantation types were chosen to consider scalability and transferability. These were Tanintharyi, Myanmar and West Kalimantan, Indonesia. Landsat-8 Operational Land Imager (OLI), Phased Array L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar-2 (PALSAR-2), and Sentinel-1A images were fused within a Classification and Regression Tree (CART) framework using random forest and high-resolution surveys. Multi-criteria evaluations showed both L-and C-band gamma nought γ˝backscatter decibel (dB), Landsat reflectance ρ λ , and texture indices were useful for distinguishing oil palm and rubber plantations from other land types. The classification approach identified 750,822 ha or 23% of the Taninathryi, Myanmar, and 216,086 ha or 25% of western West Kalimantan as plantation with very high cross validation accuracy. The mapping approach was scalable and transferred well across the different geographies and plantation types. As archives for Sentinel-1, Landsat-8, and PALSAR-2 continue to grow, mapping plantation extent and dynamics at moderate resolution over large regions should be feasible.

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“…The tropical cash crops, such as rubber, cassava, eucalyptus, sugarcane, anti-season vegetables, and tropical fruits (coconut, banana, areca, pineapple, and papaya), have been cultivated widely nowadays. For example, there are about 491 000 km 2 rubber estate on Hainan Island [36], making Hainan the second largest natural rubber plantation base of China. The large-scale rubber estate was implanted at the cost of deforestation, which has lead to the loss of natural habitat and traditional agricultural ecosystems.…”

Section: Possible Factors Accounting For a Decrease In The Use Of LI mentioning

confidence: 99%

Ethnobotanical study on medicinal plants used by Li people in Ledong, Hainan Island, China

Huang

Liu

et al. 2016

Acta Soc Bot Pol

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The paper documents on the uses of traditional medicinal plants used for treating human ailments in three villages of Ledong, a county inhabited by Li ethnic group in the southwest of Hainan Province, China. Semi-structured interviews, key informant interviews and participatory observations were used to collect ethnobotanical data from February to March 2012 and in July 2013. The data collected was analyzed using descriptive statistics. Thirty native knowledgeable people were interviewed. The Li community uses 50 plant species in 36 families for medicinal purposes. The most common medicinal plant families were Leguminosae (14%), Compositae (6%), and Euphorbiaceae (6%), and the most common preparations methods were decoction (84%), crushing (38%), and poultice (34%). The traditional medicinal plants were mainly used for hemostasis (12.9%), body pains (11.4%), gastrointestinal disorders (11.4%), and trauma (10%). Twenty-four species of medicinal plants (48%) have never been reported in the literature of Li medicines. In addition, 22 species (44%) have already been studied by researchers and their extracts or compounds were good bio-actives. However, the rapid socioeconomic development in the county is the main threat to the conservation of Li medicine and has resulted in the decrease in the abundance and use of medicinal plants and associated traditional knowledge. Other factors accounting for a decrease in the use of Li medicinal plants like loss of plant diversity, change of land use, and threatened traditional knowledge were equally discussed.

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Rubber and pulp plantations represent a double threat to Hainan's natural tropical forests

Cited by 68 publications

References 59 publications

Deforestation and fragmentation of natural forests in the upper Changhua watershed, Hainan, China: implications for biodiversity conservation

Deforestation and fragmentation of natural forests in the upper Changhua watershed, Hainan, China: implications for biodiversity conservation

Regional Mapping of Plantation Extent Using Multisensor Imagery

Ethnobotanical study on medicinal plants used by Li people in Ledong, Hainan Island, China

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