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Changing human landscape interactions after development of tourism in the northern Vietnamese Highlands tài liệu, giáo á...
Anthropocene (2014) 42–51 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Anthropocene journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ancene Changing human–landscape interactions after development of tourism in the northern Vietnamese Highlands Huong Thi Thu Hoang a,b,d,*, Veerle Vanacker a, Anton Van Rompaey b, Kim Chi Vu c, An Thinh Nguyen d a Earth and Life Institute, Georges Lemaıˆtre Center for Earth and Climate Research, Universite´ Catholique de Louvain, Place L Pasteur 3, Bte L4.03.08, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium Division of Geography, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, K.U Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200 E, bus 2409, B-3001 Heverlee, Belgium c Institute of Vietnamese studies and Development sciences, VNU, 336 Nguyen Trai street, Thanh Xuan district, Hanoi, Viet Nam d Faculty of Geography, Hanoi University of Sciences, VNU, 334 Nguyen Trai street, Thanh Xuan district, Hanoi, Viet Nam b A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T Article history: Received 16 January 2014 Received in revised form August 2014 Accepted 27 August 2014 Available online September 2014 In developing countries in tropical regions, the poorest segments of the rural population often rely on forests for survival The creation of off-farm jobs in the tourism sector, construction or manufacturing has been suggested as a potential way to alleviate pressure on tropical forests Using Sa Pa district as a case study, we evaluated the coupling of human and forest dynamics The district was opened for international tourism in 1993, which had a large impact on daily life in Sa Pa town and its surrounding communities Analysis of land cover change for the period 1993–2014, using high-resolution satellite images from three timeperiods and an analysis of covariance, detected possible associations between forest cover change and socio-economic, cultural and biophysical variables at the village level Between 1993 and 2006, Sa Pa district experienced a net decrease of forest in favour of arable land, while this trend was reversed in the period 2006–2014 However, trends at district level mask substantial heterogeneity at village level Results show that deforestation is considerably lower in villages that are strongly involved in tourism activities Marginal agricultural fields with low productivity are also preferentially abandoned Because of diversification in alternative economic activities, rural households may become less dependent on natural resources and agricultural products for their survival These results suggest that the creation of off-farm income sources activities can be a driver of shifts in human– environment interactions, as new livelihood strategies can offset the pressure on forested land ß 2014 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved Keywords: Coupled human–environmental changes Tourism development Ethnicity Land use pressure Forest transition Northern Vietnam Introduction Many tropical areas worldwide are characterized by high rates of deforestation According to Lambin and Geist (2003), one-third of the humid forest in Southeast Asia was cleared between the beginning of the twentieth century and World War II The decline in forest cover continued after the 1950s Presently, forests cover 46–48% of the land surface in Southeast Asia, but less than 10% of the primary tropical rainforest is preserved (FAO, 2010; Dong et al., 2012) Recent deforestation rates for this region are assessed at 1.5% per year (FAO, 2006; Grainger, 2008) Nevertheless, forest * Corresponding author at: Earth and Life Institute, Georges Lemaıˆtre Center for Earth and Climate Research, Universite´ Catholique de Louvain, Place L Pasteur 3, Bte L4.03.08, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium Tel.: +32 494694385; fax: +32 16322980 E-mail addresses: thi.th.hoang@student.uclouvain.be, huonghoangbg@yahoo.com (H.T.T Hoang) http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ancene.2014.08.003 2213-3054/ß 2014 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved dynamics are diverse In some countries, such as the Philippines or Cambodia, the deforestation rate is much higher than the Southeast Asian average; while in other countries, such as Vietnam, the start of a forest transition is reported (FAO, 2006; Meyfroidt and Lambin, 2008b) Forest transition is defined by a reversal of the trend of deforestation so that net reforestation occurs (Meyfroidt and Lambin, 2008b) Causes of tropical deforestation and forest transition are still poorly understood, and are the scope of ongoing research programmes Deforestation and reforestation patterns are linked to multiple biophysical and socio-economic variables such as ethnicity (Castella et al., 2005; Vu et al., 2013), land tenure (Mottet et al., 2006), increasing demand for food production (Zhang, 2000; Geist and Lambin, 2001; Casse et al., 2004; Meyfroidt and Lambin, 2008a), poverty (Hobbs, 2001; Adams et al., 2004; Dasgupta et al., 2005; Robinson, 2006; Zwane, 2007), soil fertility (Szillassi et al., 2010; Vanacker et al., 2014), and accessibility (Koning, 2000; Castella et al., 2005; Etter et al., 2006; Van Dessel et al., 2008) H.T.T Hoang et al / Anthropocene (2014) 42–51 In rural areas in developing countries, the poorest segments of the population often rely on forests for survival (Tugault-Lafleur, 2007; Coulibaly-Lingani et al., 2009) The use of forest products allows livelihood diversification, but may lead to forest degradation and/or net deforestation when it is not controlled (Jadin et al., 2013) The Vietnamese mountain areas are dominantly populated by ethnic minorities that speak local languages and still adopt a traditional livelihood based on self-subsistence farming (Fox et al., 2000; Tugault-Lafleur, 2007) These minorities often live in relatively isolated conditions and not fully participate in the major economic transformation of Vietnam that is taking place in the lowlands The livelihood of these local people strongly depends on the available natural resources because of a lack of infrastructure and education that would allow them to participated in market-oriented activities (Frontier Vietnam, 1997) During past decades, the scarcity of arable land coupled with population growth has led to increasing pressure on forests (Burgess and Barbier, 2001) Exploitation of forest resources by ethnic minorities, responding to socio-economic pressures, is generally thought to be the cause of rapid forest degradation and/or deforestation in Southeast Asia (Fox et al., 2000; Geist and Lambin, 2001) Studies by Jodha (1998), Ravnborg (2003), Scherr (2000) and Jadin et al (2013), however, showed that deforestation is not necessarily associated with poverty The creation of off-farm jobs has been suggested as a potential way to alleviate pressures on tropical forests (Mather, 1992; Rudel et al., 2005; Getahun et al., 2013; Teka-Belay et al., 2013) Off-farm jobs are often created by economic development of urban areas resulting in rural–urban migrations (Vanegas and Henry, 2012; Vermeiren et al., 2012) Development of tourism activities in rural areas has also been suggested as a viable means to offset pressures on forests (Garcı´a-Martı´nez et al., 2011; Nyaupane and Poudel, 2011) When rural households can generate additional income from tourism activities, abandonment of low-productive farmland and spontaneous establishment of secondary forest on former agricultural plots may result Dong et al (2008) supported this hypothesis based on a case-study in Lugu lake (China) Job and Paesler (2013) also described how the intensification of tourism in Wasini (Kenya) has led to less intensive land use for agricultural purposes, eventually resulting in a decrease of farmland and an increase of the forest area Nevertheless, this hypothesis has been challenged by other studies suggesting that tourism activities stimulate deforestation and forest degradation Research by Forsyth (1995) in northern Thailand showed that the growth of the tourism sector did not decrease agricultural pressure on forests and soil resources because households invested their income from tourism in the expansion of arable fields and increasing frequency of cultivation by hiring external labour Additionally, Gaughan et al (2009) showed that the increased number of visitors to the archaeological sites of Angkor Kwat in Cambodia accelerated deforestation in the Angkor basin The deforestation occurred due to increased charcoal production for new restaurants and hotels, which required wood products from forests In the coastal areas of Hainan Island (Southern China) and the Mediterranean (Turkey), Wang and Liu (2013) and Atik et al (2010) respectively indicated that tourism development led to a rapid increase of the built-up area These activities resulted in a decrease of agricultural land and coastal forest, causing landscape fragmentation and coastal erosion In this study, we evaluate possible changes in the human– environment interactions after the development of tourism activities Using Sa Pa district in the northern Vietnamese Highlands as a test case, we addressed the following questions: First, how has forest cover changed in the period between 1993 and 2014? Second, how does forest cover change relate to tourism development? Third, what are the likely impacts of the changing human–landscape relationships on local livelihoods? 43 Study area Sa Pa district is located in Northern Vietnam (Fig 1) and covers an area of ca 680 km2 It has a total of 55,900 inhabitants (GSO, 2010) living in 17 communes and its administrative centre, Sa Pa town The district is considered as a gateway to the northern Vietnamese Highlands The topography is rough, with an elevation of 180 m in the Muong Hoa valley and up to 3143 m at the Fansipan peak (highest elevation in Vietnam, located within Hoang Lien National Park) The major rivers are the Muong Hoa and Ta Trung Ho River that flow in the Red River nearby Lao Cai The region is characterized by a sub-tropical and temperate climate with an annual rainfall of 2763 mm (Frontier Vietnam, 1999) Sa Pa district is home to major ethnic groups: the Hmong, the Yao, the Ta`y, the Gia´y, the Xa Pho and the Kinh The Ta`y occupied the fertile valleys and middle altitudes The other ethnic groups such as the Hmong and Yao entered Northern Vietnam only in the 19th century (Michaud and Turner, 2006), and settled on steep forested slopes generally above 800 m Before 1960s, there were only a few Kinh lowlanders living in Sa Pa town as the surveillance and maintenance staffs of French military (Michaud and Turner, 2006) From 1960s onwards, Kinh migrated to Sa Pa district as this was stimulated by the New Economic Zone Policy of the national government (Michaud and Turner, 2000, 2006) The Kinh were mainly involved in administration, tourism, and education and settled in the district’s capital, while most of the other ethnic groups practiced different types of subsistence agriculture mostly in the form of shifting cultivation (Tugault-Lafleur, 2007) Apart from the shifting cultivation, ethnic minorities also used to cultivate opium and collect forest products for their survival (Michaud and Turner, 2000; Sowerwine, 2004b; Turner, 2012), which could have contributed to past forest clearance Today, the ethnic groups cultivate water rice on permanent terraced paddy fields; maize and other crops on upland fields (Leisz et al., 2004; Turner, 2011) Terraced paddy fields were first introduced by the Hmong and Yao who migrated from southern China to northern Vietnam during the late 19th and early 20th centuries (Michaud, 1997) Additionally, many households cultivate cardamom (Amomum aromaticum) under forest cover as a substitute cash crop, after the ban on opium in 1992 (Tugault-Lafleur and Turner, 2009; Turner, 2011) Because of its scenic landscape and presence of five ethnic groups with their traditional way of living, Sa Pa is considered as one of the most attractive tourism areas in Vietnam The Hoang Lien Mountains comprise probably the last remnants of native forest of the northern Vietnamese highlands It became one of the first areas recognized as a ‘special use forest’ in Vietnam, and it was converted into the Hoang Lien National Park (HLNP) in July 2002 following the Prime Minister’s Decision 90/2002/QD-TTg to protect biodiversity by preserving the subtropical and temperate forest ecosystems (Le, 2004; Jadin et al., 2013) Already under the French Regime (1887–1940), Sa Pa district was a well-known holiday and relaxation resort (Michaud and Turner, 2006) Northern Vietnam suffered a lot under the first Indochina war (1945–1954) The town sunk into oblivion, as a large part of the population of Sa Pa town fled away from the hostilities In the early 1960s, in the framework of the New Economic Zones Policy, migration schemes were designed by the new socialist regime that stimulated the Vietnamese Kinh from the lowlands to populate the northern Vietnamese Highlands (Hardy, 2005) The decision of the national government to open Sa Pa district for international tourism in 1993 had a large impact on daily life in Sa Pa town and its surrounding communities The number of domestic and international visitors increased exponentially from 16,100 in 1995 to 405,000 in 2009 (GSO, 1995, 2010) (Fig 1) Tourism is now the most important economic activity in the area, and it generated 58% of Sa Pa H.T.T Hoang et al / Anthropocene (2014) 42–51 44 Fig Location of Sa Pa district, with graph on the evolution and distribution of tourist visits district’s GDP in 2010 (GSO, 2010) The poverty rate in Sa Pa district decreased gradually from 36% in 2000 to 21% in 2009 (GSO, 2000, 2010) Local inhabitants that potentially benefit from tourism activities are hotel and restaurant owners and shopkeepers in Sa Pa town; tour guides, traditional craft sellers from the rural villages and farming households that offer rooms for homestays The tourism infrastructure is dominantly controlled by the Kinh majority, while the other minorities mainly deliver labour force to run the tourism industry Materials and methods Mapping land cover and land cover changes In order to evaluate the potential impact of tourism activities on forest cover in Sa Pa, three land cover maps were compiled based on LANDSAT images available from the U.S Geological Survey archives (http://glovis.usgs.gov) One LANDSAT-patch (path/row 128/45) covers the whole Sa Pa district with a resolution of 30 m by 30 m The Landsat images date from Feb 1, 1993 (just after the opening for international tourism), Nov 4, 2006 (midst of the evaluation period) and Jan 02, 2014 (current state) All images were taken in the post-harvest period when the arable fields are bare All Landsat images in the freely available USGS archive are orthorectified with precision terrain correction level L1T (Vanonckelen et al., 2013) All images were then corrected for atmospheric and topographic effects using the MODTRAN-4 code and the semi-empirical topographic correction implemented in ATCOR2/3 (Richter, 2011; Balthazar et al., 2012) Then, a supervised maximum likelihood classification was carried out to map the following land cover categories (Fig 2): forest, shrub, arable land, water body and urban area Spectral signatures for the different land cover types were identified by delineating training areas on the basis of field work carried out in 2010 (Fig 5) The accuracy of the land cover maps was assessed by comparing the classified land cover with visual interpretations of very high resolution remote sensing data For 1993, the comparison was done with aerial photographs (MONRE, 1993); for 2006 with a VHR-SPOT4 image (MONRE, 2006) and for 2014 with a VHR-SPOT5 image (MONRE, 2012) Random sampling of validation points was done with n = 219 for the 1993 map, n = 315 for the 2006 map, and n = 306 for the 2014 map The number of sample points per land cover class varied from to 111, depending on the areal cover of the classes For all randomly selected points, the land cover was compared with the classified land cover This comparison allowed to assess the overall accuracy, quantity disagreement and allocation disagreement (in %) following the procedures described by Pontius and Millones (2011) In order to analyze land cover change trajectories over timeperiods, the change trajectories were grouped in classes: (1) deforestation (change from any class of forest to non-forest), (2) reforestation (change from non-forest to forest), (3) land abandonment (change from agricultural land to shrub or forest), (4) expansion of arable land (conversion from shrub to arable land), (5) H.T.T Hoang et al / Anthropocene (2014) 42–51 45 Fig Land cover maps derived from Landsat images for(A) 1993, (B) 2006, (C) 2014 and (D) proportions of the main land cover classes in 1993, 2006, 2014 other changes, and (6) no change (Table 1) The original classes ‘water body’ and ‘urban area’ that only occupy a minor fraction of the land were not taken into consideration A major challenge in mapping land cover change is the detection of permanent land abandonment in shifting cultivation systems in which fields are regularly taken out of production for a short time span only Therefore in this study we defined land abandonment as a transition from agricultural land (observed in 1993) to natural regrowth of shrub (observed in 2006) on condition that the parcel was not taken again in production in 2014 Pixels with observed transitions such as A-A-S and A-A-F (Table 1) of which it is not sure that they are permanently abandoned were classified into the group ‘Other change’ Analysis of the controls on land cover change patterns In order to understand the observed land cover change patterns, socio-economic and biophysical data were collected at the level of villages In Sa Pa district, the majority of the ethnic groups lives in ethnically homogeneous villages (ba:n or thoˆn in Vietnamese) Only of the 85 villages are inhabited by multiple ethnic groups, and they are typically located in the commune (xa˜) centres Therefore, the village level is considered as the most detailed and relevant scale level for the analysis of human–environment interactions Table Land cover change trajectories and their descriptions for period 1993–2014 Order Land cover change Category Change trajectory 1993 2006 2014 Forest Forest Arable land Arable land Shrubs Shrubs Arable land Shrubs Arable land Shrubs Arable land Shrubs Deforestation F-F-A F-F-S F-A-A F-A-S F-S-A F-S-S Forest Forest Forest Forest Forest Forest Reforestation A-F-F S-F-F S-S-F Arable land Forest Shrubs Forest Shrubs Shrubs Forest Forest Forest Land abandonment A-S-S A-S-F Arable land Shrubs Arable land Shrubs Shrubs Forest Arable land expansion S-S-A S-A-A S-F-A Other change A-A-S, A-F-S, A-F-A, S-A-S, A-S-A, S-F-S, F-A-F, F-S-F, S-A-F, A-A-F No change F-F-F, A-A-A, S-S-S Shrubs Shrubs Shrubs F is forest, S is shrubs and A is arable land Shrubs Arable land Arable land Arable land Forest Arable land H.T.T Hoang et al / Anthropocene (2014) 42–51 46 Table Dependent variables used for the ANCOVA analysis All variables were averaged at the village level Variable Acronym Description Type Unit Source Deforestation DEFOREST Numerical % Landsat images 1993, 2006, 2014 Reforestation REFOREST Land abandonment ABANLAND Expansion of arable land EXPLAND Total area of deforestation of each village divided by the surface area of the village and multiply by 100 Total area of reforestation of each village divided by the surface area of the village and multiply by 100 Total area of land abandonment of each village divided by the surface area of the village and multiply by 100 Total area of arable land expansion of each village divided by the surface area of the village and multiply by 100 Table Independent variables used for the ANCOVA analysis All variables were collected or averaged at the village level Variable Acronym Description Type Unit Source Engagement in tourism Ethnic group % Vietnam Rural, Agricultural, and Fishery Census conducted in 2006 with the support of the World Bank (GSO, 2006b) Numerical % Cardamom cultivation CC The percentage of households engaged in tourism in 2006 Hmong Yao Ta`y Gia´y Xa Pho Mixed ethnic groups The percentage of households under the poverty level of Vietnam in 2006 Surface area of cardamom cultivation per household Numerical Categorical Poverty Rate TOUR H Y T G XP MIX PR Numerical ha/hh Population growth POPGR Population growth rate in the period 1989–2006 Numerical %/year Effect of preservation policy InsideNP Outside NP EL SL DROAD DRIVER DTOWN DMARKET The villages are located inside the National park The villages are located outside the National park Average elevation calculated at pixel-level Average slope calculated at pixel-level Average of the distance to main roads calculated at pixel-level Average of the distance to rivers calculated at pixel-level Average of the distance to Sa Pa town calculated at pixel level Average of the distance to markets calculated at pixel level Categorical Elevation Slope Distance to Distance to Distance to Distance to roads rivers Sa Pa town market (Castella et al., 2002) In Vietnam, however, village boundaries are not officially delineated because the commune is the lowest administrative unit (Castella et al., 2005) Therefore, the village boundaries (n = 85) in Sa Pa district were delineated by means of participatory mapping following the procedure described by Castella et al (2005) and Meyfroidt (2009) Cadastral officers were offered a 1/10.000 scale colour print of the 2006 VHR-SPOT image (printed in true colours, m resolution) and were asked to draw the village borders on a transparent sheet on top Tables and show all the variables that were collected at the village level Socio-economic variables were derived from the yearbook of 1989 and 2006, and from the Vietnam Rural, Agricultural, and Fishery Census conducted in 2006 under the leadership of the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fishery Statistics and the General Statistics Office with support from the World Bank The original census data available at household level were aggregated to village level, and the following variables were calculated: the percentage of households involved in tourism (%), the ethnic group (categorical), the population growth rate (%/year), the poverty rate expressed as percentage of households under the national poverty threshold of 2400,000 VND/person/year and the involvement in cardamom cultivation (ha/household) (Table 3) In order to evaluate the potential effect of the land use policy inside and outside the National park, one more categorical variable (inside/outside the park) was taken into account to examine the effect of public policy Six biophysical variables were firstly collected at pixel level (30 Â 30 m): the elevation (m above sea level), the slope gradient (degree), the distance to main road (m), the distance to rivers (m), the distance to Sa Pa town (m), the distance to nearest market (m) and were then aggregated to village level to match with the scale of socio-economic variables (Table 3) Numerical Numerical Numerical Numerical Numerical Numerical m Degree m m m m Yearbook in 1989 and 2006 (GSO, 1989, 2006a) Topographic maps of 2009 published by Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment at the scale 1:50,000 (MONRE, 2009) Multiple regression analysis using ANCOVA (analysis of covariance) was performed to detect possible associations between land cover change, and socio-economic and biophysical variables at the level of individual villages which can considered as homogeneous units in terms of ethnicity, livelihood and biophysical setting ANCOVA is a widely applied technique as it allows evaluating the combined effect of a range of both categorical and numerical predictors (Maneesha and Bajpai, 2013) ANCOVA was performed for each one of the four land cover change types (deforestation, reforestation, land abandonment, and expansion of arable land) as the dependent variable A multicollinearity test was carried out to detect correlation between explanatory variables Multicollinearity diagnostics were performed by calculating the Variation Inflation Factors (VIF) and the Tolerance (TOL) In this study, variables with VIF greater than and TOL less than 0.6 are excluded from the analyses as proposed by Allison (1999) The final models included ethnicity and effect of preservation as categorical variables; engagement in tourism, cardamom cultivation, poverty rate, population growth, slope, distance to rivers, distance to main road and distance to Sa Pa town as numerical variables (Table 3) ANCOVA model parameters were estimated using XLSTAT software, and the explanatory power of the ANCOVA models was assessed by the Goodness of fit statistics, R2 Results Land cover change patterns Fig shows the land cover maps for the years 1993, 2006 and 2014 The overall accuracy of the land cover classification was assessed at 80.0%, 86.4% and 84.6% (quantity disagreement of 5.0%, H.T.T Hoang et al / Anthropocene (2014) 42–51 2.8%, 4.4% and allocation disagreement of 15.0%, 10.8%, 11.0%) for the land cover maps of 1993, 2006 and 2014, respectively The land cover pattern in Sa Pa district is strongly determined by the topography Valleys are generally cultivated Steep slopes and mountain peaks are predominantly covered by forests or shrubs Patches of forest are concentrated on the Hoang Lien mountain range in the southern part of Sa Pa district, and are also found on remote steep slopes Shrubs are widely distributed, and can be found in valleys, mountain peaks or on steep slopes Between 1993 and 2014, the overall area covered by forest and arable land increased slightly (with respectively +3% and +2%) while shrubs decreased with À5% (Fig 2D) However, land cover changes are not linear in SaPa district, and there exist substantial temporal differences During the first period (1993–2006), the study area experienced a general trend of deforestation for expansion of arable land Between 1993 and 2006 the area covered by forest decreased by À1% while arable land increased by +4%, respectively The deforestation tendency seems to be reversed after 2006 in Sa Pa district The area covered by forests increased by +4% while arable land decreased by À2% between 2006 and 2014 The area covered by shrubs decreased continuously between 1993 and 2014 A forest transition could be observed in the study area as a shift from a net deforestation to a net reforestation, and it occurred at the mid of the 2000s Fig shows the spatial pattern of land cover change between 1993 and 2014 Most of the deforestation took place in the northern and southeastern part of the district which can be explained by the fact that forests in the southwestern part are mainly situated within the Hoang Lien National Park According to the national law, farmland expansion is forbidden within national parks Nevertheless, some forest loss can be observed which is probably due to forest fires and illegal logging Description of the predictors of land cover change Fig shows the spatial pattern of the independent variables that were evaluated in this study It is clear that Kinh people are living in Sa Pa town, while Hmong and Ta`y ethnic groups occupy the rural area Hmong ethnic groups are settled on higher 47 elevations, and Ta`y are generally settled nearby the rivers in the valleys The villages of the Yao are situated in the peripheral areas in the north and south of Sa Pa district Fig 4A shows that the household involvement in tourism is highest in Sa Pa town (>50%) Involvement in tourism in the peripheral areas is restricted to a few isolated villages The poverty rate map shows that the town of Sa Pa and its surrounding villages are richer than the more peripheral areas The southern part of the district is also richer because many local households receive an additional income from cardamom cultivation under forest Cardamom is mainly grown under trees of the Hoang Lien National Park in the southern part of the district The population growth is positive in the whole district and highest in Sa Pa town and its immediate surroundings Table shows the results of the ANCOVA analysis for four land cover trajectories: deforestation, reforestation, land abandonment and expansion of arable land The explanatory power of the ANCOVA models is assessed by the R2 values (Table 4) Between 55 and 72% of the variance in land cover change is explained by the selected predictors Land cover change is controlled by a combination of biophysical and socio-economical factors Forests are typically better preserved in villages with poor accessibility (steep slopes, far from main roads, and poor market access), and a low or negative population growth The influence of environmental and demographic drivers on forest cover change has previously been described for other areas of frontier colonization (Castella et al., 2005; Hietel et al., 2005; Getahun et al., 2013; Vu et al., 2013) Table shows that household involvement in tourism is negatively associated with deforestation and positively with land abandonment When the involvement of households in tourism activities increased with 10%, deforestation is predicted to have decreased with resp 0.61% and land abandonment to have increased with 0.45% Deforestation is higher in villages in the north and southeast of Sa Pa district, that are located at greater distance from the tourism centre Land abandonment is mostly observed in Sa Pa town and in the communes of Ta Phin, San Sa Ho, Lao Chai, Ta Van and Ban Ho (Figs and 3) In some villages (Sa Pa town; Ta Chai village, belonging to Ta Phin commune; Ly Lao Chai village, belonging to Lao Chai commune and Hoang Lien village, belonging to Ban Ho commune), more than 8% of the surface area was abandoned between 1993 and 2014 Over the period 1995– 2009, the number of tourists in Sa Pa district has increased by 25 times (Fig 1) Given the current economic policy, it is expected that Table The results of ANCOVA at village level (85 villages) Only the controlling factors that are retained at a 10% significance level are listed LCC categories Controlling factors Value Standard deviation Pr > |t| Goodness of fit of model (R2) Deforestation SL TOUR POPGR CC Inside NPa À0.494 À0.061 1.543 À0.975 À4.985 0.148 0.065 0.723 1.141 1.802 0.001 0.034 0.036 0.100 0.007 0.59 Reforestation SL Inside NPa 0.356 À6.183 0.191 2.304 0.067 0.009 0.55 Land abandonment DRIVER TOUR Inside NPa Ethnic-MIXb 0.003 0.045 À1.567 2.443 0.001 0.029 0.688 0.998 0.039 0.093 0.026 0.017 0.63 Expansion of arable land DROAD SL CC Inside NPa Ethnic-Hb À0.001 À0.599 À3.444 À3.464 3.693 0.000 0.174 1.330 2.007 1.737 0.087 0.001 0.012 0.089 0.037 0.72 a Fig Land cover change map for the period 1993–2014 b Reference category is Outside NP Reference category is ethnic-Y 48 H.T.T Hoang et al / Anthropocene (2014) 42–51 Fig Spatial pattern of the independent variables: (A) percentage of households engaged in tourism, (B) surface area of cardamom cultivation per household, (C) ethnic distribution in 2006, (D) poverty rate in 2006, (E) population growth rate in the period 1989–2006, (F) distance to Sa Pa town at pixel-level, (G) slope gradient, (H) distance to the nearest road at pixel-level and (I) distance to the rivers at pixel-level the development of tourism activities will further increase in the future (Michaud and Turner, 2006) The statistical results indicate that the cultivation of cardamom is negatively associated with deforestation and expansion of arable land This means that the involvement in cardamom cultivation (under forest) slows down deforestation and expansion of cultivated land, as cardamom plantations are not classified here as agricultural land Cardamom production provides higher incomes than traditional crop farming (Sowerwine, 2004a) Recently, cardamom is emerging as an important cash crop in northern Vietnam that requires little investment and labour but may offer higher income levels (Tugault-Lafleur and Turner, 2009) Because of the requirement of a dense forest canopy for optimal production, the villagers not only protect the remaining old forest but also allow regeneration of some of the swidden lands in order to create the necessary ecological conditions to plant and harvest cardamom (Sowerwine, 2004b) Its impact on forest conservation is similar to the system of shade coffee cultivation in forest that also contributed to a preservation of the afromontane forests in, e.g., the south of Ethiopia (Getahun et al., 2013) The role of ethnicity is complex After controlling for biophysical and socio-economic settings, Hmong villages are characterized by higher expansion rates of arable land compared to Yao villages This can be explained by the fact that Hmong villages are more H.T.T Hoang et al / Anthropocene (2014) 42–51 densely populated than Yao villages (Jadin et al., 2013) so they need to expand their arable land more to supply the food demand In villages with mixed ethnicities, the land abandonment rate is higher than in Yao villages, which can be explained by the fact that mixed ethnicities only occur in the accessible commune centres that are more involved in off-farm activities The effect of preservation policy is certainly reflected in the difference in land cover changes inside and outside the National park The estimated coefficients for the explanatory variable ‘Inside NP’ are negative for all land cover change categories whereby the ‘Outside NP’ is taken as a reference value This means that land units with the same physical and socio-economic properties have lower dynamics when they are located inside the Hoang Lien National park Discussion In Vietnam, the rapid increase in forest area since the early 1990s resulted in a reversal of the national deforestation trend (Meyfroidt and Lambin, 2008b) The national-scale assessment masks a wide range of other land use dynamics that exist at the local scale, and that are not necessarily conform to the trends in forest cover change at national scale In the Sa Pa district, reforestation was observed at the mid of the 2000s, some years later than was observed at national scale This time point roughly corresponds to the strong increase in number of tourists to Sa Pa (Fig 1) There is a wide variety of human-induced change in forest cover Forest cover changes are different in villages that are strongly involved in tourism activities They are characterized by significantly higher rates of land abandonment and lower rates of deforestation This can be explained by recent changes in labour division and income in rural households In the traditional ethnic society, labour was mainly divided by gender (Duong, 2008b) Traditionally, women were primarily responsible for housework, agricultural labour and firewood collection while men were in charge of the heavy works such as logging, plowing, building houses and processing tools (Cooper, 1984; Sowerwine, 2004a; 49 Symonds, 2004) This traditional labour division was challenged by the rapid growth of the tourism industry in Sa Pa town (Duong, 2008b) As the demand for traditional handicrafts increased strongly and trade opportunities appeared, women from ethnic minorities engaged in these activities (Michaud and Turner, 2000) Today, many young female from rural villages act as trekking guides, and young and old women from ethnic minorities alike sell textile commodities to tourists (Turner, 2011) Some of them have become professional tour guides and are hired by hotels and travel agencies in town, and can gain higher incomes (Duong, 2008a) With this extra income, they can live independently, make their own money and are able to provide financial support to their families (Duong, 2008a) The development of tourism activities mainly offered new offfarm opportunities for women from ethnic minorities, having as a direct consequence that women are now less involved in agricultural activities while men are more involved into household management As there is less labour available for agricultural activities, cutting or clearing of trees, marginal agricultural fields with low productivity are preferentially abandoned (Fig 5D) and deforestation is reduced Our results suggest that the additional income from tourism is sufficiently high to exceed the added value that can be gained from steep land agriculture or from forest extraction The fallowed fields will regenerate into shrubs and secondary forests that can develop the optimal ecological conditions for cardamom cultivation Despite the fact that it may take up to a decade or longer before the households will achieve economic returns on their investment, many families expect an income from cardamom for their children (Sowerwine, 2004a) Moreover, many villagers are abandoning swidden rice cultivation because of increasing land constraints, lower yields, loss of soil fertility and lack of labour availability (Sowerwine, 2004a) Since 1991, much of this land has been declared ‘‘watershed protection land’’, and swidden rice varieties are rapidly abandoned as more time is devoted to wet rice production (Sowerwine, 2004a) Because of diversification in alternative economic activities, rural households are becoming less depen- Fig Major land cover types that were identified in Sa Pa district: (A) Forest, (B) Shrubs, (C) Arable land and (D) Abandoned steep farmland First author in 2010 50 H.T.T Hoang et al / Anthropocene (2014) 42–51 dent on natural resources for their survival, and deforestation was reduced This decrease in land pressure after tourism development is not confirmed by previous studies in Southeast Asia, where the presence of alternative income sources has increased the frequency of cultivation through hired rural labour and/or the expansion of the cultivated area through land purchase (e.g., Forsyth (1995) for northern Thailand) This suggests that local and national land use policy likely plays an important role in directing tourism development towards sustainable natural resource management In Sa Pa, conservation policy has had a positive effect on forest protection as most of the forests within the National park remained intact during last the 21 years This makes the area attractive for tourists , and tourists are further supporting biodiversity conservation by providing extra revenue for conservation Direct revenue is presently being raised by the Ham Rong project, and by the charging of fees for climbing Fansipan mountain or visiting exclusive sites within Sa Pa district (Frontier Vietnam, 1999) Conclusions This paper aimed at better understanding of the human– environment interaction in the Sa Pa district after the advent and growth of the tourism industry A land cover change analysis between 1993 and 2014 showed that the Sa Pa district as a whole experienced a forest transition, with an observed turning point around mid 2000s However, trends at district level mask substantial heterogeneity at village level The results from this paper show that forest cover changes are different in rural villages that have access to alternative income sources, either from cardamom cultivation under forest canopy or from tourism activities These rural villages are typically characterized by higher rates of land abandonment and lower rates of deforestation Because of diversification in alternative economic activities, rural households are becoming less dependent on natural resources and agricultural products for their survival Our results suggest that the creation of off-farm jobs in the tourism sector, construction or manufacturing can be a driver of shifts in coupled human–environmental changes The tourism activities in Sa Pa can therefore be considered as a special pathway towards a forest transition whereby the generation of off-farm jobs has a positive impact on forest conservation In our view, the main challenge is to find a balance between the rapid development of tourism activities and the preservation of the authentic socio-cultural elements of the ethnic minorities that make the area attractive for tourists in the first place Acknowledgements This research was part of the bilateral scientific project on ‘Land-use change under impact of socio-economic development and its implications on environmental services in Vietnam’ funded by the Belgian Science Policy (BELSPO) (Grant SPP PS BL/10/V26) and the Vietnamese Ministry of Science & Technology (MOST) (Grant 42/2009/HÐ-NÐT) Patrick Meyfroidt, Isaline Jadin, Francois Clapuyt have provided valuable suggestions for this research project We are thankful to all ministries and institutions in Vietnam which provided the necessary data to undertake this research We also thank village leaders and local people in Sa Pa district for facilitating the field data collection, and the anonymous reviewers for their valuable input References Adams, W.M., Aveling, R., Brockington, D., Dickson, B., Elliott, J., Hutton, J., Roe, D., Vira, B., Wolmer, W., 2004 Biodiversity conservation and the eradication of poverty Science 306 (5699) 1146–1149 Allison, 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Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, p 25 Zwane, A.P., 2007 Does poverty constrain deforestation? Econometric evidence from Peru J Dev Econ 84 (1) 330–349 ... changes in the human environment interactions after the development of tourism activities Using Sa Pa district in the northern Vietnamese Highlands as a test case, we addressed the following questions:... as one of the most attractive tourism areas in Vietnam The Hoang Lien Mountains comprise probably the last remnants of native forest of the northern Vietnamese highlands It became one of the first... settled nearby the rivers in the valleys The villages of the Yao are situated in the peripheral areas in the north and south of Sa Pa district Fig 4A shows that the household involvement in tourism