Going down in flames: what proportion of reforested peat swamp forests burn in Southeast Asia?

Tropical peat swamp forests (TPSF) act as significant carbon sinks and provide important ecological and socioeconomic benefits. However, TPSF in Southeast Asia have been facing substantial deforestation and degradation from human activities. Although reforestation of degraded TPSF has been widely pr...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Zeng, Fan Yi
Other Authors: Lee Ser Huay Janice Teresa
Format: Final Year Project
Language:English
Published: Nanyang Technological University 2022
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10356/156962
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Institution: Nanyang Technological University
Language: English
id sg-ntu-dr.10356-156962
record_format dspace
spelling sg-ntu-dr.10356-1569622023-02-28T16:47:03Z Going down in flames: what proportion of reforested peat swamp forests burn in Southeast Asia? Zeng, Fan Yi Lee Ser Huay Janice Teresa Asian School of the Environment janicelee@ntu.edu.sg Social sciences::Geography::Environmental sciences Tropical peat swamp forests (TPSF) act as significant carbon sinks and provide important ecological and socioeconomic benefits. However, TPSF in Southeast Asia have been facing substantial deforestation and degradation from human activities. Although reforestation of degraded TPSF has been widely promoted, reforestation efforts are greatly hindered by the occurrence of fires. Knowledge on the proportion of reforestation sites lost to fire constitutes a crucial evidence gap, which when addressed can better guide future reforestation efforts. In this paper, locations of reforestation sites across Southeast Asia were combined with remotely-sensed burn data to obtain the proportion of reforestation sites burned from 2001 to 2019, with multiple buffer sizes used in burn detection to account for uncertainties in site area. Burn occurrence, timing, and severity were also analysed for active reforestation versus natural regeneration sites, sites of different LULC types, and drained versus rewetted sites. One-fifth to half of all reforestation sites were found to have burned, and open degraded sites faced a significantly higher probability of burning. 70% to 80% of burned sites experienced fire within the first four years of reforestation, but only 20% of sites had monitoring periods of at least four years to capture potential burns. Results highlight the need for more attention to be placed on post-reforestation monitoring and fire prevention, especially for open degraded sites, to ensure the longevity of peatland restoration efforts. Bachelor of Science in Environmental Earth Systems Science and Public Policy and Global Affairs 2022-05-05T03:33:01Z 2022-05-05T03:33:01Z 2022 Final Year Project (FYP) Zeng, F. Y. (2022). Going down in flames: what proportion of reforested peat swamp forests burn in Southeast Asia?. Final Year Project (FYP), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. https://hdl.handle.net/10356/156962 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/156962 en application/pdf Nanyang Technological University
institution Nanyang Technological University
building NTU Library
continent Asia
country Singapore
Singapore
content_provider NTU Library
collection DR-NTU
language English
topic Social sciences::Geography::Environmental sciences
spellingShingle Social sciences::Geography::Environmental sciences
Zeng, Fan Yi
Going down in flames: what proportion of reforested peat swamp forests burn in Southeast Asia?
description Tropical peat swamp forests (TPSF) act as significant carbon sinks and provide important ecological and socioeconomic benefits. However, TPSF in Southeast Asia have been facing substantial deforestation and degradation from human activities. Although reforestation of degraded TPSF has been widely promoted, reforestation efforts are greatly hindered by the occurrence of fires. Knowledge on the proportion of reforestation sites lost to fire constitutes a crucial evidence gap, which when addressed can better guide future reforestation efforts. In this paper, locations of reforestation sites across Southeast Asia were combined with remotely-sensed burn data to obtain the proportion of reforestation sites burned from 2001 to 2019, with multiple buffer sizes used in burn detection to account for uncertainties in site area. Burn occurrence, timing, and severity were also analysed for active reforestation versus natural regeneration sites, sites of different LULC types, and drained versus rewetted sites. One-fifth to half of all reforestation sites were found to have burned, and open degraded sites faced a significantly higher probability of burning. 70% to 80% of burned sites experienced fire within the first four years of reforestation, but only 20% of sites had monitoring periods of at least four years to capture potential burns. Results highlight the need for more attention to be placed on post-reforestation monitoring and fire prevention, especially for open degraded sites, to ensure the longevity of peatland restoration efforts.
author2 Lee Ser Huay Janice Teresa
author_facet Lee Ser Huay Janice Teresa
Zeng, Fan Yi
format Final Year Project
author Zeng, Fan Yi
author_sort Zeng, Fan Yi
title Going down in flames: what proportion of reforested peat swamp forests burn in Southeast Asia?
title_short Going down in flames: what proportion of reforested peat swamp forests burn in Southeast Asia?
title_full Going down in flames: what proportion of reforested peat swamp forests burn in Southeast Asia?
title_fullStr Going down in flames: what proportion of reforested peat swamp forests burn in Southeast Asia?
title_full_unstemmed Going down in flames: what proportion of reforested peat swamp forests burn in Southeast Asia?
title_sort going down in flames: what proportion of reforested peat swamp forests burn in southeast asia?
publisher Nanyang Technological University
publishDate 2022
url https://hdl.handle.net/10356/156962
_version_ 1759854097854365696