Spatial risk assessment of opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan: integrating environmental and socio-economic drivers

Recently the cultivation of opium poppy in Afghanistan reached unprecedented levels.It is agreed that the complex and coupled interactions of social,economic and environmental drivers are crucial for understanding the spatial and temporal dynamics of opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan.In this context,we present an integrated risk concept,which considers environmental and socio-economic drivers of opium poppy cultivation.A set of spatially explicit indicators for the environmental suitability and socio-economic vulnerability was established and populated from a variety of databases.Subsequently,novel methods of modelling homogeneous and spatially explicit regions of opium poppy cultivation suitability,socio-economic vulnerability and risk are developed and applied.The risk assessment results demonstrate the complex nature of the illicit crops production in Afghanistan and prompt a more profound examination of the drivers of opium poppy cultivation in a spatial context.The study also confirms what has already been widely discussed in literature:that reasons for cultivation are spatially diverse and often distinct,meaning that any formulation of generalized explanations cannot be drawn without ignoring a more complex reality.Thus,an integrative spatial view of risk,which integrates the social dimension as well as environmental parameters,is required to better identify context-specific intervention measures.

The Genome of Opium Poppy Reveals Evolutionary History of Morphinan Pathway

Plants, as primary producers, have been playing an indispensable role in other organisms’ survival and the balance of whole ecosystem on Earth. Especially, they provide the main source of energy, food, and medicine for human beings, some of which are derived from the primary or secondary metabolites

Rubber plantation and its relationship with topographical factors in the border region of China, Laos and Myanmar

Rubber plantation is the major land use type in Southeast Asia. Monitoring the spa- tial-temporal pattern of rubber plantation is significant for regional land resource development, eco-environmental protection, and maintaining border security. With remote sensing tech- nologies, we analyzed the rubber distribution pattern and spatial-temporal dynamic; with GIS and a newly proposed index of Planted Intensity （PI）, we further quantified the impacts and limits of topographical factors on rubber plantation in the border region of China, Laos and Myanmar （BRCLM） between 1980 and 2010. The results showed that： （1） As the dominant land use type in this border region, the acreage of rubber plantation was 6014 km2 in 2010, accounting for 8.17% of the total area. Viewing from the rubber plantation structure, the ratio of mature- （〉10 year） and young rubber plantation （〈 10 year） was 5：7. （2） From 1980 to 2010, rubber plantation expanded significantly in BRCLM, from 705 km2 to 6014 km2, nearly nine times. The distribution characteristics of rubber plantation varied from concentrated toward dispersed, from border inside to outside, and expanded further in all directions with Jinghong City as the center. （3） Restricted by the topographical factors, more than 4/5 proportion of rubber plantation concentrated in the appropriate elevation gradients between 600 and 1000 m, rarely occurred in elevations beyond 1200 m in BRCLM. Nearly 2/3 of rubber plantation concentrated on slopes of 8^-25~, rarely distributed on slopes above 35~. Rubber plantation was primarily distributed in south and east aspects, relatively few in north and west aspects. Rubber planted intensity displayed the similar distribution trend. （4） Comparative studies of rubber plantation in different countries showed that there was a remarkable increase in area at higher elevations and steeper slopes in China, while there were large appropriate topog- raphical gradients for rubber plantation in Laos and Myanmar which benefited China for rubber trans-boundary expansion. （5） Rubber plantation in BRCLM will definitely expend cross borders of China to the territories of Laos and Myanmar, and the continuous expansion in the border region of China will be inevitable.

Forest land use change at Trans-Boundary Laos-China Biodiversity Conservation Area

This paper analyzed forest land use change in Trans-Boundary Laos-China Biodiversity Conservation Area which is called Namha National Biodiversity Conservation Areas （Namha NBCAs）, with 1992 and 2002 TM （ETM）. Based on GIS and statistical methods, the intensity, state index of land use change and transfer matrix were used to study spatio-temporal land use change in the region. The results showed that the area of forest land decreased greatly, also the area of bamboo and grassland decreased. The other way round, the area of unstocked forest, slash and burn and rice paddy land increased. As a whole, the intensity of forest land change was higher, but others were lower. From the transfer matrix, most of the forest land changed into unstocked forest and urban area, some to slash and burn The grassland and bamboo were mainly transferred to forest and unstocked forest. The unstocked forest land mostly came from forest land and grassland. It was showed there were three main causes of the land use change namely： opium poppy cultivation, rubber plantation and also ecotourism activities and finally some policies were developed in order to address the land use change in the study areas.