Using remote sensing to uncover the drivers of immigration around protected areas

Anna Estes, University of Virginia, aestes@virginia.edu (Presenter)
Tobias Kuemmerle, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, kuemmerle@pik-potsdam.de
Hadas Kushnir, University of Minnesota, kushn008@umn.edu
Volker Radeloff, University of Wisconsin-Madison, radeloff@wisc.edu
Herman Henry Shugart, University of Virginia, hhs@virginia.edu

The growth of human populations around protected areas accelerates land conversion and isolation, negatively impacting biodiversity, ecosystem function and carbon storage potential. Population growth can be exacerbated by immigration due to factors pushing people from their origins, or economic opportunities drawing them to protected areas. Counteracting isolation resulting from population growth requires conservation of buffer areas and corridors, and a better understanding of the interactions between immigration and land conversion. Our goal was to identify changes in land cover around the protected areas in the greater Serengeti ecosystem (henceforth “the park”) from 1984-2003, and to relate these to observed human population trends. We used support vector machines (SVM) to classify multi-temporal stacks of Landsat imagery and identify areas of agricultural conversion around the park. We found that conversion of natural habitats to agriculture was greatest in areas closer to the park, coinciding with the highest rates of human population growth. Agricultural conversion and population growth were inversely related to the extent of stable agriculture and human density. Lack of available arable land farther from the park, coupled with higher poverty rates near the park suggest that movement away from areas with high population densities and land scarcity was likely driving immigration near the park, where there was available land. Because ~95% of rural populations in Tanzania rely on fuel wood to meet their energy needs, the spreading front of agriculture moving toward the park has likely increased pressure on the woody biomass within the park. Our ongoing research examines trends in woody vegetation cover inside the park that may be related to human encroachment, fire and large herbivores. Our results are essential for conservation planning for one of Africa’s hallmark ecosystems, and should encourage further examination of population growth and land cover trends near protected areas throughout the developing world.

Presentation Type:  Poster

Session:  Other   (Wed 10:00 AM)

Associated Project(s): 

• Related Activity

Poster Location ID: 156