PAPFor

Bushfires

Yuzhou — 2022-10-20T09:17:09Z

In the OKKPS landscape, fires have visible negative impacts on forests and waterways. The slash-and-burn method is an ancient practice in the culture of local farmers, however, when left unchecked, fire causes damage to crops in the fields and to livestock.

The fire dynamics in the OKKPS zone are poorly studied. It is therefore essential to implement a bushfire management strategy using satellite imagery

Industrial mining operations

Yuzhou — 2022-10-20T09:14:41Z

The OKKPS Landscape area is bisected by the railway line that will be used to transport minerals for export. The railway line passes through the heart of the priority area for the conservation of threatened species.

Close collaboration with the mining operators is needed to establish an agreement of mitigation activities to reduce the negative impacts on biodiversity (deforestation, changes in watercourse regime, fragmentation of natural habitats, and disruption of corridor connectivity)

Expanding slash-and-burn agriculture

Yuzhou — 2022-10-20T09:12:44Z

Community members' fields are usually on land where almost all the trees are felled and the vegetation is burned. This slash-and-burn method of cultivation rapidly depletes the soil of nutrients, and is not guaranteed viable beyond two years.

As local communities repeatedly clear a new fields, this unfortunately leads to deforestation and the premature desiccation of rivers. Original fields are abandoned and it takes several decades of fallowing for the land to be usable again. In the OKKPS landscape, as the need for fertile land increases with population expansion, farmers make illegal incursions into the Soyah and Penselli Classified Forests, and into the Sabouyah Reserve in search of new cropland. However, these communities then settle and hunt in these forests. This accelerates the degradation of natural habitats and the decrease in wildlife.