IN S.E. ASIA

OBJECTIVES

The main objectives are:

• To achieve a holistic approach to the impacts of tropical forest harvesting in S.E. Asia with special reference to land degradation, forest recovery and sustainable soil and water resource use.
• To develop relationships between remotely sensed response and forest productivity variables that may be used to monitor sustainable use.
• To develop remotely sensed indicators of forest disturbance of relevance to hydrological/erosion components of the project.
• To achieve better forecasts, including operationalising remote sensing, of the impacts of change in response to alternative strategies for sustainable land management in productive forests and adjacent agricultural systems.
• To adapt research and operationalise new technology to the local socio-economic conditions for four S.E.Asian countries and increase its dissemination through local universities and research institutions.

ACTIVITIES

The key activities envisaged are:

• Development of land degradation monitoring in key study sites in each partner S.E. Asian country with erosion and forest inventory measurements on different terrain types and under different forest management strategies, using small catchment, erosion bridge and sample plot enumeration.
• Preparation of digital terrain models for linking ground truthed and remotely sensed information and development of appropriate techniques for dealing with mixed pixel problems in forested terrain of different stages of post-logging recovery.
• Acquisition of new knowledge of the spectral, spatial and temporal characteristics of primary and secondary forest under different management regimes, with special reference to different timber harvesting practices.
• Training of personnel in the new methods and development of protocols to be tested by local institutions.

EXPECTED OUTCOME

The work should lead to a methodology for evaluating alternative strategies for timber harvesting and forest land use from remotely sensed data. It will provide a scheme, tested by detailed ground truth investigations, for analysing the potential consequences for soil and water resources of land use change on particular types of terrain. Ultimately it will lead to more sustainable timber harvesting and better use of forest land. By actively involving local institutions, it will improve national capacity for inventory, evaluation and development of natural resources.