Space Technology for Policy-Making and Management of Protected Mountain Range in Southern Philippines

Abstract

This paper was aimed to assist the management of a protected densely forested mountain range in the perspective of forest and land degradation brought about by natural and human-induced fire occurrences. Historical fire events in the area over the last 15 years were acquired from two space-borne sensors. From 2003 to 2013, the number of fire occurrence was low and much of these were in the buffer zone (average of 1.1 per year). However, an increasing trend was found starting in 2014 then peaked at 2016 when El Niño phenomenon happened. Two forest fires were identified between March and April 2016 that largely occurred inside the protected area. High resolution Sentinel-2A images before and after the forest fires were also processed to accurately delineate and calculate the actual area destroyed. These findings are expected to help policy-makers to review the existing rules and regulations in improving the protection and conservation of the area.