The road to deforestation: Edge effects in an endemic ecosystem in Sumatra, Indonesia

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dc.contributor.authorPoor, Erin E.en
dc.contributor.authorJati, Virta I. M.en
dc.contributor.authorImron, Muhammad Alien
dc.contributor.authorKelly, Marcella J.en
dc.contributor.departmentFish and Wildlife Conservationen
dc.date.accessioned2019-11-15T17:30:22Zen
dc.date.available2019-11-15T17:30:22Zen
dc.date.issued2019-07-01en
dc.description.abstractWorldwide, roads are a main driver of deforestation and degradation as they increase forest access along the forest edge. In many tropical areas, unofficial roads go unreported and unrecorded, resulting in inaccurate estimates of intact forested areas. This is the case in central Sumatra, which boasts populations of critically endangered Sumatran elephants (Elephas maximus sumatrensis), tigers (Panthera tigris sumatrae) and other endemic flora and fauna that make the area globally unique. However, maps do not reflect the reality of forest loss in the area. Here we present new maps from 2002 and 2016 of digitized and ground-truthed roads in one of Sumatra's unique lowland tropical protected areas, Tesso Nilo National Park. Using our newly created roads dataset, we examine the distribution of forest with respect to distance to roads. Our data show >2,400 km of roads within the national park in 2016 -nearly a 10-fold increase from roads known in 2002. Most forest (82-99%) within Tesso Nilo falls within 100 m, 500 m, and 1000 m of road edges. Length of road increased 157% and road density increased from 1.06 km/km(2) to 2.63 km/km(2) from 2002-2016. Our results suggest that this endemic ecosystem is facing substantial threat from roads and their associated impacts. Without swift management action, such as road closures and increased enforcements by park management, this ecosystem, and its endemic wildlife, could be lost. It is imperative that protected areas worldwide more rigorously consider roads and road effects on ecosystem fragmentation in their conservation plans.en
dc.description.notesThis work was supported through grants from the National Science Foundation (nsf.gov), Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant, number 1536323, the Cleveland Zoo, the Philadelphia Zoo, the Riverbanks Zoo, the US Student Fulbright Program, Ideawild, Virginia Tech and the World Wildlife Fund. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.; We would like to thank the Indonesian Ministry of Research, Technology and Higher Education and the Ministry of Forestry and Environment, FA Widodo and Sunarto for their support and advice, and Zulfahmi and Jerry Irawan for their critical help in the field. We also thank the anonymous reviewers that helped improve our manuscript. This work was completed with the support of the World Wildlife Fund, the Philadelphia Zoo, the National Science Foundation [Grant Number 1536323], the Cleveland Zoo, the Riverbanks Zoo, Ideawild, the US Student Fulbright Program and Virginia Tech.en
dc.description.sponsorshipNational Science FoundationNational Science Foundation (NSF) [1536323]; Cleveland Zoo; Philadelphia Zoo; Riverbanks Zoo; US Student Fulbright Program; Ideawild; Virginia Tech; World Wildlife Fund; Indonesian Ministry of Research, Technology and Higher Education; Ministry of Forestry and Environmenten
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0217540en
dc.identifier.eissn1932-6203en
dc.identifier.issue7en
dc.identifier.othere0217540en
dc.identifier.pmid31260478en
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10919/95560en
dc.identifier.volume14en
dc.language.isoenen
dc.publisherPLOSen
dc.rightsCreative Commons Attribution 4.0 Internationalen
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/en
dc.titleThe road to deforestation: Edge effects in an endemic ecosystem in Sumatra, Indonesiaen
dc.title.serialPLOS ONEen
dc.typeArticle - Refereeden
dc.type.dcmitypeTexten
dc.type.dcmitypeStillImageen

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