Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

Since 1989, the Lao government is implementing a policy on better use of forest
resources. In order to get more accurate data for strategic decisions and planning of a
sustainable forest management, the government is conducting a national forest
inventory (NFI) and a nationwide mapping of land use and forest cover. Both
activities provide important information but any of the two sources is not sufficient
for calculating growing stock for production forest areas which is an important base
for estimating allowable cut.
The objective of this study is to investigate the possibility of combining two different
types of data, firstly sampling data from the NFI and secondly land use maps based on
SPOT satellite imagery, for estimating growing stock in small areas (production
areas) and estimating allowable cut on province level.
In the study an approach (CNL) has been developed. The CNL approach provides the
opportunity of combining the different types of data and it is also tested and evaluated
in two production forest areas. In the study, management inventory data has been used
as a reference, and government guide-lines for determining, in which area logging can
take place.
For each area, the CNL provided such information as the average volume per hectare
for different land use groups and forest types and the average number of trees per
hectare. For current forest the information on crown density and stand structure has
been used to improve the estimates. The precision of the estimates has also been
calculated.
The CNL approach gave slightly higher figures than the reference data (average
volume per hectare of Natural High Forest), but the differences can be explained by
the time factor (different year of survey) and classification standards.
It is concluded that the CNL is feasible for estimating growing stock for areas similar
to the two study areas. The areas were about 10,000 hectares each and located in
accessible areas (covered by NFI sample plots).
Through the CNL approach, it is possible to make use of NFI and map data in
combination to calculate the growing stock for areas defined by the data user. This
information is one important piece of information needed for estimating the Annual
Allowable Cut on, for example, province level.