Within the framework of IWRM, a major concern in the humid tropics is the effects of ‘global warming' on the storm rainfall-runoff hydrology of both forests and converted forest lands. Further how such effects need to be incorporated within adaptive, forest-water-land management. But since the mid- 20th century, dramatic changes in land- use (LU) and land cover (LC) have also occurred which have led to rapid rates of deforestation and an expansion of land--forest degradation.

The Belgian climate policy is formulated at the federal level, requiring cooperation between regional and federal administrations. Around a fifth of the total area of Belgium is covered by forests. Around 80/ of the productive forests are in the Walloon region. Reported values for land use change and forestry categories give a potential of 2,057 kt eq. CO2 per year. Given the existing regional forest inventories (RFI): RFI1 for 1984 and RFI2 for 1999, an estimate has been made to consolidate reported data.

A large portion of the Occidental Region of Paraguay consists of a semi-arid territory with vegetation adapted to the features of this region. For just over a decade, a process of intense deforestation has resulted from the expansion of mechanized farming, carried out without any form of land management or planning; this has led to the fragmentation of the forests in this region.

Chongqing Municipality, located on the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, is one of China’s four largest megacities, comparable with Shanghai, Beijing, and Tianjin. In recent years, Chongqing and its surroundings have been experiencing severe environmental problems, such as urbanization, pollution, and deforestation, due to the rapid economic development of China’s inland region.

The frequency and extent of human‐induced land‐cover changes is escalating worldwide. Recurrent turnover of land‐cover types will affect ecosystems over and above major, one‐time changes (eg deforestation). Here, we show how a deeper appreciation of the temporal dynamics of land‐cover change is needed to understand its effects on ecosystems.

An unprecedented increase in oil palm developments may be underway in Papua New Guinea (PNG) through controversial “special agricultural and business leases” (SABLs) covering over two million hectares. Oil palm development can create societal benefits, but doubt has been raised about whether the SABL developers intend establishing plantations. Here, we examine the development objectives of these proposals through an assessment of their land suitability, developer experience and capacity, and sociolegal constraints.

We studied the ecological characteristics of 45-50-yr-old subtropical dry forest stands in Puerto Rico that were growing on sites that had been deforested and used intensively for up to 128 yr. The study took place in the Guánica Commonwealth Forest. Our objective was to assess the long-term effects of previous land use on this forest--i.e., its species composition, structure, and functioning. Previous land-use types included houses, farmlands, and charcoal pits. Stands with these land uses were compared with a nearby mature forest stand.

Mountain ecosystems are, however, fragile and particularly vulnerable to the adverse impacts of climate change, deforestation and forest degradation, land-use change, land degradation and natural disasters.

During the last decade, the use of the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) for drought monitoring applications has drawn many criticisms, mainly because a number of drivers such as land-cover/land-use change, pest infestation, and flooding may depress the NDVI, further causing false drought identification. In this study, the impacts of land-cover change on the NDVI-derived satellite drought indicator, the vegetation condition index (VCI), are presented.

Human‐induced land use and land cover (LUC) changes threaten the ecosystem services of the vulnerable tropical afro‐alpine vegetation. Several LUC change studies are available for the Ethiopian highlands, but relatively little is known about LUC change in the afro‐alpine zones. In this study, LUC changes between 1964 and 2012 were mapped for the afro‐alpine zone of Lib Amba Mountain, part of the Abune Yosef Mountains in North Ethiopia. Historical LUC was derived from georeferenced aerial photographs of 1964 and 1982, and the present LUC (2012) from Bing Map satellite imagery.

The Baekdudaegan Mountain Range is a backbone of the Korean Peninsula which has special spiritual and sentimental significance for Koreans and significant ecological value to diverse organisms. Despite the importance of this region, however, the natural environment of Baekdudaegan has been severely threatened by a variety of human activity and tremendous forest fires. To make management and restoration plans for the deforested areas, it is necessary to investigate quantitatively such natural and human-induced physical changes.