Land-use-transitions：-Socio-ecological-feedback-ve

LandUsePolicy27(2010)108–118ContentslistsavailableatScienceDirectLandUsePolicyjournalhomepage::Socio-ecologicalfeedbackversussocio-economicchangeEricF.Lambin∗,PatrickMeyfroidtDepartmentofGeography,UniversityofLouvain,3PlacePasteur,B-1348Louvain-la-Neuve,BelgiumarticleinfoArticlehistory:Received11August2008Receivedinrevisedform29July2009Accepted8September2009Keywords:LanduseLandcoverTransitionForesttransitionReforestationVietnamabstractTheconceptoflandusetransitionhighlightsthatlandusechangeisnon-linearandisassociatedwithothersocietalandbiophysicalsystemchanges.Atransitioninlanduseisnotafixedpattern,norisitdeterministic.Landusetransitionscanbecausedbynegativesocio-ecologicalfeedbacksthatarisefromadepletionofkeyresourcesorfromsocio-economicchangeandinnovationthattakeplaceratherindepen-dentlyfromtheecologicalsystem.Here,weexplorewhetherthesourcesoflandusetransitionsaremostlyendogenoussocio-ecologicalforcesorexogenoussocio-economicfactors.Wefirstreviewafewgenericpathwaysofforesttransitionasidentifiedinnationalcasestudies,andevaluatethevaryingecologicalqualityofexpandingforestsassociatedwiththesepathways.Wethendiscusspossibleexplanatoryframe-worksoflandusetransitions.WeusethecaseoftherecentforesttransitioninVietnamasanillustration.Socio-ecologicalfeedbacksseemtobetterexplainaslowingdownofdeforestationandstabilizationofforestcover,whileexogenoussocio-economicfactorsbetteraccountforreforestation.Weconcludebydiscussingtheprospectsofacceleratinglandusetransitionsintropicalforestcountries.©2009ElsevierLtd.Allrightsreserved.IntroductionHumansocietiesconstantlycoevolvewiththeirenvironmentthroughchange,instability,andmutualadaptation.Asaresult,landusechangeisnon-linearandisassociatedwithothersoci-etalandbiophysicalchangesthroughaseriesoftransitions.Theconceptofforesttransitionreferstoachangeatanationalorregionalscalefromdecreasingtoexpandingnationalforestareas–i.e.,fromnetdeforestationtonetreforestation–thathastakenplaceinseveralEuropeancountries,inNorthAmericaand,morerecently,inChina,India,Vietnam,CostaRica,PuertoRicoamongothers(MatherandNeedle,1998;Matheretal.,1999).Thispartic-ularformoflandusetransitionhasbeenwellstudiedempirically.Whiletheinitialfocusofforesttransitionstudieswasthehistor-icalexperiencesofindustrialcountriesinEurope(Mather,1992;Walker,1993;Matheretal.,1999)andNorthAmerica(Fosteretal.,1998),severalrecentstudieshavedemonstratedthatasimilarpatternofforest-coverchangeistakingplaceinsometrop-icalcountrieswithdevelopingeconomies(Rudeletal.,2002a;Grauetal.,2003;Klooster,2003;Hechtetal.,2006;Mather,2007;Nagendra,2007;MeyfroidtandLambin,2008a,b).Thissim-ilarityinpatterndoesnotimplythatthecausesoftheforesttransitionarethesame.Apredominantlynationalfocusinfor-esttransitionstudieshasbeenincreasinglycomplementedby∗Correspondingauthor.Tel.:[phone];fax:[phone].E-mailaddress:[e-mail](E.F.Lambin).subnational-scalestudies(e.g.,BaptistaandRudel,2006;Sloan,2008).Itisimportanttobetterunderstandunderwhatconditionslandusetransitionsdotakeplace.Thecausalmechanismsbehindlandusetransitionscaninvoketwoforcesofadifferentnature.Ononehand,landusetransitionscouldbeassociatedwithnegativefeed-backsthatarisefromadepletionofkeyresourcesoradeclineintheprovisionofimportantecosystemgoodsandservices.Suchexpla-nationstransposetosocio-ecologicalsystemsthedynamicsthataretypicalofecologicalsystems—i.e.,growthunderresourcecon-straints.Inthiscontext,by“socio-ecologicalfeedback”,wemeanchangesinlandusedecisionsthatresultfromaseveredegradationinecosystemservicesthatwascausedbypastlandusepractices,theimportantpointbeingthatthisprocessisendogenoustothecoupledsocio-ecologicalsystem.Ontheotherhand,landusetran-sitionscouldbecausedbysocio-economicchangeandinnovationthattakeplaceratherindependentlyfromtheecologicalsystemandfollowtheirowndynamics.Thesechangesareexogenous:theycanbedrivenbyurbanization,economicdevelopmentorglobaliza-tionandyethaveanimpactonlandmanagementandthusleadtoalandusetransition.Thesetwolinesofexplanationoflandusetransitionsraisethefollowingquestions:Arethesourcesoflandusetransitionsmostlyecologicalorsocio-economic;endogenousorexogenous;localorglobal?ItwasonceclaimedthathumanitydidnotmoveoutoftheStoneAgeduealackofstones.Simi-larly,dosocietiesprofoundlymodifytheirlandusepracticesinresponsetoadepletionofnaturalresourcesorecosystemservicesthatfollowfromtheirpreviouslanduse?Or,rather,arelanduse0264-8377/$–seefrontmatter©2009ElsevierLtd.Allrightsreserved.doi:10.1016/j.landusepol.2009.09.003E.F.Lambin,P.Meyfroidt/LandUsePolicy27(2010)108–118109transitionsanunintendedsideeffectofinnovationsinothersectorsofsocieties—technologicalinnovations,economicmodernization,changesinsocialorganizationandpreferences?Theobjectiveofthispaperistoadvanceourtheoreticalunder-standingofthecausesoflandusetransitionsbyreviewingpossiblegenericcausalmechanismsassociatedwithsuchtransitions.Westartwithadefinitionofwhatismeantbylandusetransition.Asmostoftheempiricalstudiesonthisissuehavefocusedsofa