TY - JOUR
T1 - Land-use decision-making after large-scale forest fires
T2 - Analyzing fires as a driver of deforestation in Laguna del Tigre National Park, Guatemala
AU - Monzón-Alvarado, Claudia
AU - Cortina-Villar, Sergio
AU - Schmook, Birgit
AU - Flamenco-Sandoval, Alejandro
AU - Christman, Zachary
AU - Arriola, Luis
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors gratefully acknowledge all the farmers from Paso Caballos who shared their experiences, time and energy, especially to the Xolom family, who hosted the first author during her time in the community. Additional thanks to ProPeten, WCS-Peten and CONAP-Peten for their support during the field work. Special thanks to Victor Hugo Ramos, of Guatemala's Center for Monitoring and Evaluation of the National Council of Protected Areas (CEMEC) for providing the geographic data of the Park, and to Heinrich Böll Foundation and El Colegio de la Frontera Sur (ECOSUR) for funding the degree studies and field work. The authors gratefully acknowledge Karen Kainer, Marianne Schmink, Eric Keys, Mary Santello and the two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments on earlier drafts of this manuscript.
PY - 2012
Y1 - 2012
N2 - Tropical forests are increasingly subject to large-scale forest fires, which have become one of the greatest anthropogenic disturbances of these ecosystems. This study examines the relationship between forest fires and deforestation through an analysis of the impact of fires upon land-use decision-making at the household level and the impacts and patterns of these processes at the landscape level. Patterns of forest fires and deforestation in Laguna del Tigre National Park, in Guatemala's Maya Biosphere Reserve, were analyzed from 1997 to 2005, using remote sensing and logistic regression analysis. During this period, two major fires affected the region-one in 1998 and the other in 2003. Complementarily, in-depth interviews and field observations were conducted in one community to evaluate land-use decisions following a fire disturbance. Results indicate that only 9% of the burned forest was cleared for other land uses after the 1998 fire, but more than half of the burned forest was converted to agriculture following the 2003 fire. Our research reveals that a complex and variable process of land-use decisions takes place locally and is influenced not only by the presence of forest fires but more so by other variables like accessibility, topography, soils depth and presence of valuable timber and non-timber species. These findings also indicate the importance of adopting a multi-scale approach and the integration of remote sensing and social surveys to improve the understanding of landscape changes following disturbances.
AB - Tropical forests are increasingly subject to large-scale forest fires, which have become one of the greatest anthropogenic disturbances of these ecosystems. This study examines the relationship between forest fires and deforestation through an analysis of the impact of fires upon land-use decision-making at the household level and the impacts and patterns of these processes at the landscape level. Patterns of forest fires and deforestation in Laguna del Tigre National Park, in Guatemala's Maya Biosphere Reserve, were analyzed from 1997 to 2005, using remote sensing and logistic regression analysis. During this period, two major fires affected the region-one in 1998 and the other in 2003. Complementarily, in-depth interviews and field observations were conducted in one community to evaluate land-use decisions following a fire disturbance. Results indicate that only 9% of the burned forest was cleared for other land uses after the 1998 fire, but more than half of the burned forest was converted to agriculture following the 2003 fire. Our research reveals that a complex and variable process of land-use decisions takes place locally and is influenced not only by the presence of forest fires but more so by other variables like accessibility, topography, soils depth and presence of valuable timber and non-timber species. These findings also indicate the importance of adopting a multi-scale approach and the integration of remote sensing and social surveys to improve the understanding of landscape changes following disturbances.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.apgeog.2012.04.008
DO - 10.1016/j.apgeog.2012.04.008
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84862203440
SN - 0143-6228
VL - 35
SP - 43
EP - 52
JO - Applied Geography
JF - Applied Geography
IS - 1-2
ER -