Land use dynamics and landscape change pattern in a typical watershed in the hillside region of central Honduras

While tropical forest loss is recognized as a global problem, little is known on a local scale about the complex relationships between environmental, economic, social and policy factors that induce changes in land use patterns. This study analyzes the process of human-induced landscape transformation in a small watershed in the central region of Honduras in 1955, 1975 and 1995. The watershed comprises a small mountainous valley with steep slopes and a small plain, typical of the landscape pattern in Central America. The spatial and temporal change patterns of land use were quantified by interpreting aerial photographs and using a Geographic Information System. During the last 40 years, forest cover has been reduced drastically with increasing population pressure and agricultural activities. The traditional expansive shifting cultivation system has passed through a process of agricultural intensification and crop diversification which removed the restraints in territorial needs for the increasing local population. Limiting physical and ecological factors were assessed, as well as the socio-economic and policy forces that caused these changes in natural resource management practices and the resulting land use patterns. The study showed that monitoring systems are a necessary instrument required to assess and evaluate local impacts of national policies. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.