East Rennell of Solomon Island is the first natural site under customary law to be inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List.Potential threats due to logging,mining and agriculture led to the site being declared a Wo...East Rennell of Solomon Island is the first natural site under customary law to be inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List.Potential threats due to logging,mining and agriculture led to the site being declared a World Heritage in Danger in 2013.For East Rennell World Heritage Site(ERWHS)to‘shed’its‘Danger’status the management must monitor forest cover both within and outside of ERWHS.We used satellite data from multiple sources to track forest cover changes for the entire East Rennell island since 1998.95%of the island is still covered by undisturbed forests;annual average normalized difference vegetation index(NDVI)for the whole island was above 0.91 in 2015.However,vegetation cover in the island has been slowly decreasing,at a rate of–0.0011 NDVI per year between 2000 and 2015.This decrease less pronounced inside ERWHS compared to areas outside.While potential threats due to forest clearing outside ERWHS remain the forest cover change from 2000 to 2015 has been below 15%.We suggest ways in which the Government of Solomon Islands could use our data as well as unmanned air vehicles and field surveys to monitor forest cover change and ensure the future conservation of ERWHS.展开更多
基金supported by the National Key Research and Development Programs of China(Grant No.2016YFA0600302 and 2016YFB0501502)the Hainan Provincial key technology research and demonstration programs of farmland improvement(HNGDhs2015)+1 种基金the programs of the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant No.61801443 and 61401461)the Hainan Provincial Department of Science and Technology under the Grant No.ZDKJ2016021 and ZDKJ2016015-1.
文摘East Rennell of Solomon Island is the first natural site under customary law to be inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List.Potential threats due to logging,mining and agriculture led to the site being declared a World Heritage in Danger in 2013.For East Rennell World Heritage Site(ERWHS)to‘shed’its‘Danger’status the management must monitor forest cover both within and outside of ERWHS.We used satellite data from multiple sources to track forest cover changes for the entire East Rennell island since 1998.95%of the island is still covered by undisturbed forests;annual average normalized difference vegetation index(NDVI)for the whole island was above 0.91 in 2015.However,vegetation cover in the island has been slowly decreasing,at a rate of–0.0011 NDVI per year between 2000 and 2015.This decrease less pronounced inside ERWHS compared to areas outside.While potential threats due to forest clearing outside ERWHS remain the forest cover change from 2000 to 2015 has been below 15%.We suggest ways in which the Government of Solomon Islands could use our data as well as unmanned air vehicles and field surveys to monitor forest cover change and ensure the future conservation of ERWHS.
