Assessing forest changes in Sa Pa, Lao Cai province, in the period 2005 - 2015

Abstract

This article focuses on analyzing and evaluating forest changes in the town of Sa Pa during the years 2005-2015. By overlapping the forest status maps of 2005 and 2015 using the Intersect
tool in Arcgis 10.2, the forest change map is established. The result shows that in Sa Pa the forested area increased 11040.34 hectares, and the percent of forest cover increased from
49.81% to 66.02% in the period 2005 - 2015. However, forest quality has decreased: the rich and medium forest area has shrunk dramatically (4,251.86 ha and 2,004.41 ha respectively)
while the area of restored forest, bamboo, mixed wood and bamboo forest increased significantly (10781.73 ha and 5090.27 ha). The study also analyzes the main causes of forest
quality degradation to enable managers to issue reasonable policies that will result in sustainable usage of forest resources.