ICRAF Publication Detail Page

Publication Details

Journal Article
JA0585-14
Article TitleTree cover transitions in tropical landscapes: hypotheses and cross-continental synthesis
AuthorMeine van Noordwijk and Grace B.Villamor
Year2014
Journal TitleGLPnews
InstitutionGLP International Project
Volume10
Pages33-37
Call NumberJA0585-14
Abstract:
Forest transition theory was primarily developed to explain the process of decline (deforestation) and recovery (regeneration) of forest area in both temperate and tropical areas. Most forest transition theory literature use national statistics on forest cover, which refer to a diverse range of tree cover types. As qualitative change between tree cover types is a prominent aspect of the regeneration process, the term ‘tree cover transition’ may be a more appropriate and useful identification.
It seems that ‘trees’ were relegated when the world moved its focus to ‘forests’ as part of the climate debate. The term ‘forest’ is first of all an institutional marker; there are forests without trees and trees outside forests. Moreover, debates about forest transition have often tried to replace time as the primary X-axis with macroeconomic variables that indicate the changing roles of forest areas once economies develop. However, in the context of tropical countries, the existing hypotheses lack agency- and context-specific explanations. While the logarithm of human population density accounts for 70-80% of variation in the national forest cover fraction, forest transition points can occur at almost any population density and forest cover fraction (Figure 1). They seem to be more likely, however, in countries that already had above-average forest cover in relation to their population density. The identified limitations of forest transition theory include the loose definition of forests (combining primary, secondary and planted forest types), a lack of detail about the forest cover dynamics involved, including its spatial and (multi-)temporal scales, and few explanations of context-specific transitions (Perz, 2008).
Download file(s): Click icon to download/open file.
  File Size Description
download file 1,153 KB Softcopy
Viewed in 929 times. Downloaded in 204 times.