Patterns of land system change in a Southeast Asian biodiversity hotspot

Growing demand for agricultural commodities like rubber or oil palm is causing rapid change in Southeast Asia’s
biodiversity-rich forested landscapes. This change is particularly pronounced in Myanmar, whose economy is
developing at great speed after the end of decades-long economic and political isolation and armed conflicts.
Interventions are needed to ensure that development is sustainable. Designing successful interventions requires
spatially explicit knowledge of recent landscape changes. To provide such knowledge, we applied a landscape
mosaic approach and analysed land system change in Tanintharyi Region in southern Myanmar between 2002
and 2016. Our findings show that nearly half of the study region experienced degradation of the vegetation
cover, intensification of agricultural use, or a combination of both. Although intact forest was still the prevailing
vegetation cover of land systems in Tanintharyi Region in 2016, it had suffered from degradation in wide parts of
the region. Land systems without or with only extensive agricultural use in 2002 had become dominated by
smallholders’ shifting cultivation systems and permanent betel nut gardens and paddy rice fields by 2016.
Elsewhere, smallholder dominated land systems were intensified through the expansion of oil palm and rubber
plantations, pointing to potential displacement effects. The land system maps offer a sound basis for planning
interventions to slow the degradation of biodiversity-rich forests and support smallholder farmers in coping with
the fast-paced expansion of commercial cash crop plantations and its social and environmental impacts. Sustainable
development in this global biodiversity hotspot requires careful land use planning to support nature and
people, along with continued efforts for peace-building.