MAPPING LAND USE IN CONCESSIONS AND LINKS WITH FIRE AND NO-DEFORESTATION POLICIES

David Gaveau

Maps showing boundaries and ownership of land parcels (concessions),with the distribution of deforestation or fire events (using satellites),are increasingly combined in online mapping services as a way to improve transparency of the corporate sector.

In October 2012, “ASEAN countries agreed to explore the sharing of concessionmaps and leverage on satellite and mapping technologies to enhancehotspot monitoring. This was in recognition that the root cause of the fires is commercially driven and there is a need to hold plantation companies and land owners responsible for the haze” (NEA)

One of the items on the agenda is the ASEAN Haze Monitoring System(AHMS), developed by Singapore in 2012 to enhance hotspot monitoring. It is a system that combines hot-spot data, satellite pictures and landconcession maps. This is to help identify and hold plantation companiesand land owners accountable for their land clearing activities and firesin their areas.

Concessions in Indonesia face problems over the control of their boundaries, as other land users clear land inside concessions for their own purposes.

Therefore, simple assessments of deforestation or fire events in concessions can easily be subject to misinterpretations that can undermine policy efforts.

HTI concession

Mapping land use in concessions

Fire propagation maps

Fire in concessions can start outside

Time seriesDid companies use fire during the transition from forest to plantations