The objectives for the study were as follows:
1. to verify the satellite image interpretation on the ground;
2. to make a comprehensive documentation of the site, related both to the state and management of the forest and other land, and to the socio-economic situation affecting the management of the land;
3. to investigate the causes of recent changes and outlook for the future;
4. to provide an in-depth case study section to the report from the remote sensing survey
Deliberately three different approaches for the fieldwork with different time consumption and consequently also different degrees of detail were employed.
Re. 1. Verifying the satelite image interpretations of the vegetation changes that had occurred proved to be possible within the allocated time, at the 3 specified sites. The verifications were only done at the sites studied, and not for the entire Landsat TM sample unit.
Re. 2. Providing a documentation of the site including the land management proved possible, partly through the aerial photographs and images and partly through the description arising from the interviews of stakeholders on the site. However due to the time factor this point was not covered satisfactorily at the 3rd site.
Re. 3. The cause mechanisms behind the observed changes at the sites could also be explored and discussed, and a future outlook suggested.
To describe the supply and demand of forest products and services at the three study areas was also attempted. A tentative methodology was used since this is partly a new approach in forest inventory. To assess the supply more or less standard-surveying methods can be applied, although assessment methods of non-wood forest products are less put into practise.
To assess the demand was the more difficult task. The result from the study showed that to ask quantitative questions can bring very vague answers. To improve data collection more advanced socio-economic methods are recommended, including aspects of how to measure household consumption and marketing of different products.
The most complicating circumstance is that for the demand side to be comparable with the supply side, the collected data must refer to the same physical forest area. For example, the needs for forest products were easily covered in the village of study area 2, but the actual study area was almost deforested and contributed only slightly to this supply. The extraction was rather made in adjacent more dense forest.
If the study area would have been an administrative unit or somehow physically demarcated, it would have been easier. With a randomly located square kilometre survey area, even the most advanced methods of today will face problems. Measuring household consumption of mushrooms or fuelwood might be realistic, but measuring mushroom picking or collection of fuelwood in a specific forest area is difficult.
If the supply and demand is too complex to describe, other approaches for studying causes of forest change might be more feasible. This study indicated that a good description of stakeholders, stakeholders’ interest and historic development can be achieved. This provides an understanding of important processes, and makes it possible to give a future perspective.
