THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE AND FORESTRY DO THI HIEN TOPIC TITLE: RESEARCH ON CORRELATION BETWEEN FOREST MANAGEMENT AND CLIMATE CHANGE IN BAO THANG DISTRICT, LAO CAI PROVINCE: LOCAL PEOPLE'S PERCEPTION AND POTENTIAL USES OF GIS TECHNOLOGY BACHELOR THESIS Study Mode: Full-time Major: Environmental Science and Management Faculty: International Training and Development Center Batch: K42-AEP Thai Nguyen, 20 January 2015 I n Thai Nguyen University of Agriculture and Forestry Degree program Bachelor of Environmental Science and Management Full name DO THI HIEN Student ID DTN1053040044 Research on the correlation between forest management and climate change in Bao Thang district, Lao Cai Thesis title province: local people's perception and potential uses of GIS technology. Hoang Van Hung Abstract Bao Thang, located in the central of Lao Cai province and having Red river flowed through, is a typical industrial district which is essential to the socio-economic development of the province. As a result of industrial zone expansion, Bao Thang environment and biodiversity are declined both in quality and quantity, especially forest communities. Bao Thang forests recover from past clearing or heavy harvest, and forest carbon stores are growing larger over time.
However, the industrial emissions from burning fossil fuels in the this district is captured only about 10% by forests. Although private forest use in Bao Thang has been regulated, illegal deforestation still takes place. This study seeks to assess current status of forest management practices and effects of climate change by observing local people's perception on these fields as well as to find out potential uses of GIS technology at local level. The results showed that Bao Thang residents are highly aware of the climate change impacts and willingly to take actions though some constraints still exist.
Moreover, GIS is also applying in Lao Cai as a whole, which promisingly will come to local level (Bao Thang in specific) in the near future. In addition, the study suggested some recommendations specifically suitable for study areas in order to improve sustainable forest management practice for forest owners and managers. Bao Thang, GIS, Lao Cai, perception, sustainable forest Keywords management Number of pages 50 Date of submission January 20, 2015 1 n ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The author thanks Mr. Do Van Hai for making this report accomplished.
A special appreciation to the local people who provided information, and to many K42 classmates, teachers from AEP office and lecturers including MSc. Nguyen Huu Tho, Dr. Nguyen Manh Ha and Dr. Ho Ngoc Son, who provided guidance, critics and encouragement.
And finally, thanks to Assoc. Hoang Van Hung, who enthusiastically reviewed and corrected this report into its final form. Student DO THI HIEN 2 n TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES.5 LIST OF TABLES .6 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. Researches in the world.
Researches in Vietnam. General description of the study area. Current status and climate change impacts. Roles of forest in climate change.
Importance of climate change. Impact of climate change. Adaptation and mitigation. Support for climate change.
Potential uses of GIS technology. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS. Survey result summary (in percentage). 52 4 n LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Bao Thang map Figure 2: Lao Cai map Figure 3: Land surface temperature map Figure 4: Land cover map Figure 5: Aspect map Figure 6: Contour map Figure 7: Digital Elevation Map 5 n LIST OF TABLES Table I: Forest status quo of study areas in Bao Thang district, 2013 (ha) Table II: Temperature and precipitation changes in 21st century Table 1: Gender Table 2: Time living and working in this Bao Thang Table 3: Residents' awareness of climate change over the last few decades Table 4: The trends of changes, driven by climate change and/or other forces Table 5: The importance of climate change compared to the other challenges Table 6: Effects of climate change Table 7: Aspects affected by climate change in the next decade Table 8: Awareness of national policies, strategies or legislation aimed at climate change that have a direct or indirect impact on the forest sector Table 9: Respondent percentage implemented modifications to forest management plans or practices due to the impacts of climate change Table 10: Awareness of effects of climate change on forests and the options for climate change adaptation and mitigation Table 11: Willingness to undertake climate change adaptation and mitigation actions Table 12: The greatest constraints limiting forest managers' ability to undertake climate change adaptation and mitigation actions in Bao Thang Table 13: Necessary assistance to address climate change in your area? Table 14: Support acquisition to forest management and climate change issues 6 n LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS UNEP: United Nations Environment Program RS: Remote Sensing GIS: Geographic Information System LULC: Land Use and Land Cover AR4: The fourth Assessment Report IPCC: the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change UNDP: United Nations Development Program REDD+: Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation GHGs: Greenhouse Gases RECOFTC: Regional Community Forestry Training Center for Asia and the Pacific NGOs: Non-governmental Organizations 7 n PART I.
Research rationale Almost every nation has been addressing the threat of severe climate change, mostly through policies aimed at reducing the buildup of greenhouse gases. Natural ecosystems, counting forests - a critical link in the global carbon cycle, play a vital role in the mitigation of global warming. Forests are crucial both for their large existing reservoirs of carbon (called “pools” or “sinks”) and because of the ongoing net flow of carbon from the atmosphere into that forest reservoir called “flux”. As consensus grows about the accumulative, grave impacts of climate change, the role of forests in carbon storage is increasingly recognized as one of the easiest options to deal with these effects.
Better or sustainable forest management is thus one of the foremost strategies to mitigate global climate change. Forest is a precious resource needed to maintain current conditions of environment as well as to meet the needs of human beings by supplying multiform of resources. It is a part several cycles on Earth such as water and carbon ones. However, since human population increases with considerable growing rate and high density particularly in urban areas, people tend to exploit more and more to ensure food security, firewood and raw material for the socio-economic development, putting pressure on natural resources in general and forests in specific.
Thus, the decline of forest resources has become a common and pressing issue of the world, especially for developing countries including Vietnam which is well-known with high hills and mountains and 14th place in population. Recently, overexploitation and natural disasters such as landslides and fires are causing forest resources deteriorated 8 n substantially in both quantity and quality, leading to air, water and soil problems due to the loss of CO2 storages, soil erosion, land use change, and unbalanced natural cycles, which results in the influence on economic, public health, and social benefits that these ecosystems provide. The challenge for humans and modern science is to understand and regulate the effects of these changes, and the complex interaction between human and biotic systems at various scales, typically at local level to acquire more accuracy. Improving local people's understanding and knowledge of the consequences of land use and land cover change is a critically important to address the current major science issues relating to climate change.
Contemporary, Vietnam is facing with many environmental problems that have impacts on socio-economic development at local and national levels. The increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere exaggerates climate change process, thus more extreme weather events, such as tropical storms, floods and droughts take place. Those natural disasters have become a pressing issue for Vietnam government who is in charge of the people’s prosperity as well as for future development of the country. Lao Cai, one of the provinces situated on the Sino-Vietnamese borderline in the northwestern part of the country, is home to some vast expanse of primal forests with several kinds of rare timber plants such as Po Mu ( Fukiena), Lat Hoa (Chukrasia Tabularis), and Cho Chi.
The province is also the habitat of many kinds of medicinal herbs and rare animals including deer, wild boar, tigers and others. However, the rate of forest degradation in the area is exacerbated by human activities. Topography of Lao Cai is very diversified with rivers, high mountain peaks, steep and high mountain passes, deep streams and wide valleys but it is also one of the obstacles to apply modern technology in environmental monitoring. Bao Thang, located in the central of 9 n the province and having Red river flowed through, is a typical industrial district which is essential to the socio-economic development of Lao Cai.
As a result of industrial zone expansion, Bao Thang environment and living organisms are put in danger, especially forest communities. Bao Thang forests recover from past clearing or heavy harvest, and forest carbon stores are growing larger over time. However, the industrial emissions from burning fossil fuels in the this district is captured only about 10% by forests. Until now, much of the climate warming research has been on a global and regional level.
It is necessary to conduct more researches at local level. However, our understanding of historical changes in Bao Thang forests is inadequate. Thus, improving future understanding status quo of the environment typically through local people's perception is needed for further researches and sustainable natural ecosystem management. The study not only will be beneficial for local people by providing them foundation on forest management and climate change, but also act as a primary source of data for further study, research and management in the future.
Research's objectives The research focused mainly on surveying and interviewing local people in Bao Thang district with the following objectives: - Identifying current status of forest management and climate change impacts in Bao Thang district, Lao Cai province - Identifying local people's perception on forest management and climate change adaptation and mitigation actions - Identifying the potential uses of GIS technology in the study area 10 n - Recommending possible intervention actions and suggestions for further research and better management practices in the study area. Research questions The research was conducted in Bao Thang district - located at 22°22'56"N and 104°10'38"E, Lao Cai province from September to December. It focused on age- varying indigenous people, immigrants, and those who are working in the district and the feasibility to apply GIS and technology at the local scale. Local people play an important role in forest protection but it is often neglected.
Their perspectives on climate change and forest conditions and management practices should be considered as a crucial factor in order to seek for the optimally suitable solutions for the district environment. Moreover, modern technologies are available such as GIS and remote sensing. A study with the involvement of local people and application of GIS technology is important to address relevant issues on forest management and climate change in Bao Thang to answer the question: what trends can we expect in our forests if the climate becomes drastically warmer in 2050? 1. Limitations Inadequate data is one of the limitations that the thesis only covered the general problems rather than intensive studies.
Moreover, the mountainous and sloping topographic structure of the region and negative climate conditions caused difficulties to find usable (not cloudy) satellite images. These problems were tried to be eliminated by independently applying supervised classification change detection technique to the images. Theoretical background Climate is the long-term weather pattern (for at least 30 years) in an area, including general patterns and extremes of drought, rains, storms, and freezing temperatures (Waskey, 2008). Or in other words, climate is the interaction of all of the components of the Earth’s system and it includes the solar and infrared radiation and sensible and latent heat fluxes that are all impacted by changes in the Earth’s surface (Pielke 2002).
A greenhouse gas is a gas in an atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiation within the thermal infrared range.