Rubber agroforests in a changing landscape : analysis of land use/cover trajectories in Bungo district, Indonesia

ABSTRACT Land cover has changed dramatically in Sumatra Island, Indonesia over the last decades. Rampant deforestation has drawn a lot of attention due to the potential global impact of the associated carbon stock loss on climate warming and the erosion of biodiversity. The various land uses which replace natural forest are not equally benign to the environment. Rubber agroforests (jungle rubber) are extensive traditional cropping systems. They have been singled out by previous studies as the best land use option for biodiversity conservation once forest is cleared, while allowing farmers to make a living from the deforested land. But how sustainable are complex agroforestry systems themselves? Are they not just a transient stage in the overall process of land use intensification? We studied land cover change in the Bungo district, in Jambi, Sumatra (Indonesia), a 4,550 km2 area. Large forest tracks have been cleared since the early seventies and replaced by rubber plantations, oil palm plantations and ot...