Post-Socialist Forest Disturbance in The Carpathian Border Region of Poland, Slovakia, and Ukraine

Ecological Applications, 17(5), 2007, pp.
1279–1295
Ó 2007 by the Ecological Society of America
POST-SOCIALIST FOREST DISTURBANCE IN THE CARPATHIAN BORDER

REGION OF POLAND, SLOVAKIA, AND UKRAINE
TOBIAS KUEMMERLE,1,5 PATRICK HOSTERT,1 VOLKER C. RADELOFF,2 KAJETAN PERZANOWSKI,3 AND IVAN KRUHLOV4
1
Geomatics Department, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Unter den Linden 6, 10099 Berlin, Germany
2
Department of Forest Ecology and Management, University of Wisconsin, 1630 Linden Drive, Madison, Wisconsin 53706-1598 USA
3
Carpathian Wildlife Research Station, Museum and Institute of Zoology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Ogrodowa 10,
38-700 Ustrzyki Dolne, Poland
4
Geography Department, Ivan-Franko University, str. Doroshenka, 41, 79000 Lviv, Ukraine
Abstract. Forests provide important ecosystem services, and protected areas around the
world are intended to reduce human disturbance on forests. The question is how forest cover is
changing in different parts of the world, why some areas are more frequently disturbed, and if
protected areas are effective in limiting anthropogenic forest disturbance. The Carpathians are
Eastern Europe’s largest contiguous forest ecosystem and are a hotspot of biodiversity.
Eastern Europe has undergone dramatic changes in political and socioeconomic structures
since 1990, when socialistic state economies transitioned toward market economies. However,
the effects of the political and economic transition on Carpathian forests remain largely
unknown. Our goals were to compare post-socialist forest disturbance and to assess the
effectiveness of protected areas in the border triangle of Poland, Slovakia, and Ukraine, to
better understand the role of broadscale political and socioeconomic factors. Forest
disturbances were assessed using the forest disturbance index derived from Landsat
MSS/TM/ETMþ images from 1978 to 2000. Our results showed increased harvesting in all
three countries (up to 1.8 times) in 1988–1994, right after the system change. Forest
disturbance rates differed markedly among countries (disturbance rates in Ukraine were 4.5
times higher than in Poland, and those in Slovakia were 4.3 times higher than in Poland), and
in Ukraine, harvests tended to occur at higher elevations. Forest fragmentation increased in all
three countries but experienced a stronger increase in Slovakia and Ukraine (;5% decrease in
core forest) than in Poland. Protected areas were most effective in Poland and in Slovakia,
where harvesting rates dropped markedly (by nearly an order of magnitude in Slovakia) after
protected areas were designated. In Ukraine, harvesting rates inside and outside protected
areas did not differ appreciably, and harvests were widespread immediately before the
designation of protected areas. In summary, the socioeconomic changes in Eastern Europe
that occurred since 1990 had strong effects on forest disturbance. Differences in disturbance
rates among countries appear to be most closely related to broadscale socioeconomic
conditions, forest management practices, forest policies, and the strength of institutions. We
suggest that such factors may be equally important in other regions of the world.
Key words: Central and Eastern Europe; forest disturbance index; forest fragmentation; illegal logging;
Landsat; land use and land cover change; post-socialist transition; protected areas, effectiveness; remote
sensing.
INTRODUCTION (Goldewijk 2001), and continues to diminish, particu-

Anthropogenic land use is a major driver of change in larly in the tropics (Lepers et al. 2005). The extent (Skole
terrestrial ecosystems and has modified more than half and Tucker 1993, Achard et al. 2002) and underlying
of the Earth’s land surface (Vitousek et al. 1997, Foley causes (Pfaff 1999, Geist and Lambin 2002) of tropical
et al. 2005). Forest ecosystems provide many structures deforestation have received much attention. However, in
and services that are essential for humanity, including other regions forests are increasing (Rudel et al. 2005),
the protection of biodiversity and carbon sequestration or forest cover trends are unknown, and a better under-
(Goodale et al. 2002, Randolph et al. 2005). Assessing standing of forest cover change across the globe is
changes in forest ecosystems and understanding their needed.
underlying causes is therefore of great concern. Global Central and Eastern Europe still have large and
forest cover has been greatly reduced in the last centuries relatively wild forests (Mikusinski and Angelstam 1998,
Badea et al. 2004, Wesolowski 2005). The Carpathian
mountain range presents Europe’s largest continuous
Manuscript received 3 October 2006; revised 19 December
mountain forest ecosystem and is an important carbon
2006; accepted 6 February 2007. Corresponding Editor (ad
hoc): C. Wirth. pool, due to the high proportions of stands in higher age
5 E-mail: [email protected] classes and the high productivity of Carpathian forests
1279
Ecological Applications
1280 TOBIAS KUEMMERLE ET AL.
Vol. 17, No. 5
(Nijnik and Van Kooten 2006). Being a bridge between allow relating differences in land dynamics to differences
Europe’s southwestern and southeastern forests, the in socioeconomics and policies (Kuemmerle et al. 2006).
Carpathians also serve as an important refuge and The Carpathian Mountains are well suited for trans-
corridor for plants and animals (Perzanowski and border comparisons because the region is environmen-
Szwagrzyk 2001, Webster et al. 2001). The Carpathians tally relatively homogeneous (UNESCO 2003), yet
harbor high levels of biodiversity with a large number of heavily dissected by country borders. The region was
endemic species; over one-third of all European plant part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire for a period of
species (Perzanowski and Szwagrzyk 2001); and habitat ;150 years prior to 1918 (Turnock 2002), during which
for Europe’s largest populations of brown bear (Ursus land management policies and land use were fairly
arctos), wolf (Canis lupus), lynx (Lynx lynx), wildcat homogeneous. However, in post-World War II socialist
(Felis sylvestris), and European bison (Bison bonasus) times, the Soviet Union and other Eastern European
(Webster et al. 2001, Badea et al. 2004). Yet, relatively countries were distinctly different in politics and socio-
little is known about recent landscape changes in the economics (Lerman 2001). After 1990, countries chose
Carpathians, and spatially explicit information on different approaches and rates in their transition to
changes in habitat conditions is scarce. market-oriented economies (Lerman 2001). Comparison
Eastern Europe has experienced drastic changes in of post-socialist change in forest ecosystems (e.g.,
political, societal, and economic structures following the measured through disturbance rates) for border regions
fall of the Iron Curtain in 1990. The transition from in the Carpathians thus offers unique opportunities to
command economies to market-oriented economies had relate socioeconomic and political differences among
powerful impacts on land management and land use countries to differences in land cover change.
(GLP 2005), and resulted in forest cover change in many Protected areas are important for conserving biodi-
areas across Eastern Europe, for example in the Czech versity (Myers et al. 2000), and several protected areas
Republic (Bicik et al. 2001) or in Poland (Augustyn were established in the Carpathians to protect the
2004). In areas where socialist forest management region’s unique forest ecosystems (e.g., UNESCO 2003).
overexploited forests (Turnock 2002), forest cover has
Protected areas face threats from human activities both
partially increased since 1990 (Peterson and Aunap 1998,
within their boundaries and in their surrounding areas
Bicik et al. 2001). Conversely, privatization of forests
(Chape et al. 2005). Although protected areas stop
may have increased harvesting rates (Eronen 1996,
habitat loss in most cases (Bruner et al. 2001), land use
Turnock 2002) and illegal clear-cutting has occurred in
and land cover change in their neighborhood often
some areas (Nijnik and Van Kooten 2000). We were
reduces adjacent habitat (DeFries et al. 2005, Naugh-
particularly interested in assessing forest disturbance,
ton-Treves et al. 2005), which is problematic for area
which is the removal of forest cover by way of natural
sensitive species (Woodroffe and Ginsberg 1998). It is
events (e.g., insect outbreaks, windfall) or anthropogenic
therefore crucial to quantify the effectiveness of
activities (e.g., logging, infrastructure development).
Little quantitative information on the rate and spatial protected areas and their management (Chape et al.
pattern of disturbances in Eastern Europe’s forest 2005). This is commonly measured by comparing forest
ecosystems is available for the post-socialist period. disturbance rates within protected areas and their
The question of how the political and economic neighborhoods (Bruner et al. 2001, Naughton-Treves
transition affected forests remains, especially in the et al. 2005). Transboundary protected areas are partic-
Carpathian Mountains where biodiversity is potentially ularly interesting because forest disturbance rates inside
threatened due to logging activities, which may lead to and outside protected areas can be compared among
the fragmentation and degradation of forests. countries. Differences between neighboring countries
Beyond the urgent need to assess forest disturbances are likely due to differences in protected area manage-
in Eastern Europe, the region offers unique opportuni- ment, institutions, and socioeconomic factors such as
ties to better understand the role of socioeconomics for population density, rural income, or attitude toward
land dynamics (GLP 2005, Kuemmerle et al. 2006). protected areas. Cross-border comparison thus allows
Laws, policies, and institutions exert strong influence on for a better understanding of the relative importance of
land users and land management (Lambin et al. 2001, broadscale determinants for the effectiveness of protect-
Dietz et al. 2003), and changes in broadscale socioeco- ed areas.
nomic and political determinants can trigger land Comparing rates and spatial pattern of forest
change. However, the relative importance of broadscale disturbances among countries in the Carpathians is not
factors on land cover dynamics is not well understood an easy task because conventional data sets such as
(GLP 2005). Land management policies and institutions forest inventory maps and statistical data are either
in Eastern Europe changed dramatically after 1990. missing or differ in scale and accuracy (Nijnik and Van
Assessing post-socialist land changes may thus reveal Kooten 2000, Filer and Hanousek 2002). Moreover,
important insight into the effects of changing institu- illegal forest harvesting may be common (Nijnik and
tions on land cover (GLP 2005). Van Kooten 2000), but is not included in official forestry
Cross-national studies in environmentally homoge- statistics, thus limiting the use of such statistics. An
neous regions are particularly interesting because they alternative is to map forest disturbances using satellite
July 2007 POST-SOCIALIST FOREST DISTURBANCE 1281
FIG. 1. Location of the study region in the Carpathian Mountain range, Eastern Europe. The study region harbors two
protected areas, the trilateral East Carpathians Biosphere Reserve (ECBR) and the Skole Beskydy National Park (NP) in Ukraine
(elevations range from ;100 to 1700 m; data sources: SRTM digital elevation model, ESRI Data and Maps Kit).
images (Coppin and Bauer 1996, Radeloff et al. 2000, to recent changes in the post-socialist period vs. pre-
Broadbent et al. 2006) because it provides current and 1990 socialist forest management. In other words, have
retrospective land cover information, independent from the three countries converged since 1990 in terms of their
country borders and in an efficient manner for large forest cover and patterns due to the fundamental shift
areas. The forest disturbance index (Healey et al. 2005) from a planning economy to a market-oriented system,
has recently been developed, but was so far only tested or have they diverged?
in the northwestern United States and in northern The overarching goal of our study was to monitor
Russia. Landsat satellite data is particularly well suited post-socialist forest disturbance for the border triangle
for forest disturbance detection because of its relatively of Poland, Slovakia, and Ukraine in the Carpathians,
high resolution (80 m for Landsat Multispectral Scanner because of the region’s value for nature conservation
[MSS], and 30 m for Landsat Thematic Mapper [TM] and its high biodiversity, and because cross-border
and Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus [ETMþ]), and comparison of forest disturbance may also provide
continuous data record since 1972, making it the most unique insights about the role of broadscale socioeco-
important data source for land cover change analyses nomic factors, policies, and institutions on land change.
(Cohen and Goward 2004). Our specific objectives were thus to: (1) quantify post-
Our study area was the border triangle of Poland, socialist forest disturbance and make a cross-border
Slovakia, and Ukraine (Fig. 1). These three countries comparison for parts of the countries Poland, Slovakia,
exhibited strong differences in socioeconomic and and Ukraine in the Carpathians; (2) assess the effective-
political determinants both before and after 1990, and ness of protected areas in each country by comparing
this has affected forest ecosystems in our study area and forest disturbance inside and outside protected areas;
resulted in differences in forest cover and forest and (3) test the newly developed forest disturbance index
composition among the countries. For example, the in temperate mixed forests in order to measure forest
Ukrainian region of the study area has abundant disturbance between 1988 and 2000.
coniferous forest whereas mixed and broad-leaved
forests dominate in the Polish and Slovakian region of STUDY REGION
the study area (Kuemmerle et al. 2006). The question The study area covers 17 700 km2. Study region
remains however, how much of such differences are due boundaries were based on administrative borders, the
Vol. 17, No. 5
extent of one Landsat TM scene, and landscape features UNESCO 2003). Another protected area, the 40 000-ha
such as rivers. Altitudes vary from 100 to .1300 m Skole Beskydy National Park, was established in 1999 in
above sea level. The bedrock is largely dominated by the Ukrainian region of the study area.
sandstone and shale (Denisiuk and Stoyko 2000, Although some of Europe’s last remaining primeval
Augustyn 2004), but some andesite-basalts occur in the forests are found in the study area, forest management
southwest of the study area (Herenchuk 1968). With has a long tradition in the region (Novotny and Fillo
average annual precipitation of ;1200 mm and an 1994, Augustyn 2004), and intensive land use has
annual mean temperature of 5.98C (at 300 m), the substantially affected most forests, creating a complex
climate is moderately cool and humid with marked pattern of forests, arable land, and pastures (Grodzinska
continental influence (Augustyn 2004). and Szarek-Lukaszewska 1997, Denisiuk and Stoyko
Our study area represents one ecoregion, but contains 2000, Kuemmerle et al. 2006). Forest cover decreased
three altitudinal zones of potential natural vegetation markedly in the 18th and the first half of the 19th
(Perzanowski and Szwagrzyk 2001). The foothills (,600 century due to population growth and land use
m) are mostly covered by broad-leaved forests, consist- intensification (Augustyn 2004). Since the 19th century,
ing of European beech (Fagus sylvatica), pedunculate forest cover has generally increased (Kozak 2003).
oak (Quercus robur), sessile oak (Quercus petraea), lime However, after World War II socialist forest manage-
(Tilia cordata), and hornbeam (Carpinus betulus). The ment overexploited forest resources and logging rates
montane zone (600–1100 m) is dominated by European again became unsustainably high in many areas (Turn-
beech (Fagus sylvatica), mixed with silver fir (Abies ock 2002). Some areas in the Polish region of the study
alba), Norway spruce (Picea abies), sycamore (Acer area were depopulated after 1947 following border
pseudoplatanus), and white alder (Alnus incana) (No- changes between the Soviet Union and Poland (Turnock
votny and Fillo 1994, Grodzinska and Szarek-Lukas- 2002), and large areas were converted to forests
zewska 1997, Perzanowski and Szwagrzyk 2001). The (Augustyn 2004).
timberline of dwarfed beech (1100–1200 m) directly Forestry is an important factor for the local economy
borders alpine meadows on hilltops (Denisiuk and of the area (Antoni et al. 2000, Turnock 2002), and the
Stoyko 2000). The study area is environmentally majority of the forests in all three countries are used
relatively homogeneous (UNESCO 2003); however, commercially. Most of the harvested timber is used to
local climate variations and topography result in a meet the demand of wood products in the respective
natural variability of forest types and forest composition countries and is not exported (Eronen 1996, MASR
(Denisiuk and Stoyko 2000). For instance mixed 2003). In Poland and Ukraine, harvested timber is
beech/fir forests are the natural vegetation on north- mainly processed to sawnwood, particle board, used for
facing slopes, whereas pure beech forests would domi- paper and cardboard production, and to manufacture
nate south-facing slopes without anthropogenic influ- furniture (Andousypine 1994, Buksha et al. 2003, FAO
ence. Forests in the study region are characterized by 2005). In Slovakia, most timber is used for producing
their high productivity, with annual increments in pulp for the paper and cardboard industry and for
standing volume reaching up to 6 m3/ha (Nijnik and sawnwood (MASR 2003). Forest management has
Van Kooten 2000, MASR 2003). changed the forest composition in many areas and led
The study region harbors several protected areas to widespread replacement of natural forest ecosystems
(Fig. 1). The 29 000-ha Bieszczady National Park in with Norway spruce and Scots pine monocultures (Pinus
Poland was founded in 1973 and enlarged several times sylvestris) (Perzanowski and Szwagrzyk 2001, Augustyn
until 1999. In 1992, the Polish–Slovakian biosphere 2004, Kruhlov 2005). The age compositions of forests in
reserve was designated consisting of Bieszczady Nation- Poland and Slovakia are relatively close to an even
al Park, two newly founded Polish landscape parks (San distribution and most trees are found in mature age
Valley and Cisniansko-Wetlinski), and the 46 000-ha classes (Röhring 1999, MASR 2003). However, in
Poloniny National Park in Slovakia. The biosphere Ukraine the age distribution is severely skewed toward
reserve was transformed into the trilateral East Carpa- young age classes, and ,30% of all forests are mature
thians Biosphere Reserve when the Ukrainian Nadsan- (Strochinskii et al. 2001). The rotation age in commer-
ski Landscape Park (founded in 1997) and the Uzhanski cially used forests varies depending on the species
National Park were joined in 1999 (Denisiuk and Stoyko composition, but is on average around 80–120 years in
2000). The 39 000-ha Uzhankski National Park was also Ukraine and 100–120 years in Poland and Slovakia
designated in 1999. Altogether, the East Carpathian (MASR 2003). Forest disturbance in the study region is
Biosphere Reserve covers an area of ;213 000 ha (53% largely anthropogenic, consisting mainly of logging and
in Poland, 19% in Slovakia, and 28% in Ukraine). The infrastructure development (Schelhaas et al. 2003).
biosphere reserve (Fig. 1) consists of a strictly protected Natural disturbance events (e.g., insect defoliation,
core zone, a buffer zone (where conservation is empha- avalanches, and windthrow) are largely confined to
sized, but sustainable land use and tourism are allowed), plantations (Nilsson and Shvidenko 1999).
and a transition zone (where sustainable land use and The transition from command to market oriented
development is promoted) (Denisiuk and Stoyko 2000, economies has affected the forestry sector and led to
changes in forest ownership, management policies, and 201/25, 2 July 1979). Thermal bands were not retained.
institutions. In socialist times, nearly all forests in the The Space Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM,
study area were state owned (Turnock 2002), but forest Slater et al. 2006) digital elevation model (DEM) was
management differed among countries. For example, resampled to 30 m using bilinear interpolation to match
clear-cuts were common in Ukraine and Slovakia, the Landsat TM data. The borders of the protected
whereas selective logging dominated in the Polish region areas were provided by the Geography Department of
of the study area. After 1990, each country adopted a the Ivan-Franko University (Lviv, Ukraine).
different transition strategy (Kissling-Naf and Bisang To validate the accuracy of our forest disturbance
2001), changing forest management and ownership map, ground-truth points were gathered in the field,
patterns. Forests remained largely state owned in from ancillary data sets, and from the Landsat images.
Ukraine and Poland, whereas Slovakia restituted forest Field work was carried out in summer of 2004, spring of
to former owners (MASR 2003, FAO 2005). New forest 2005, and spring of 2006, using non-differential Global
management policies committed to multifunctional Positioning System (GPS) receivers. To cover broad
forestry were adopted in many Eastern European areas and to avoid deterioration of the GPS signal under
countries to comply with international agreements such closed canopies, some areas were photo-documented
as the Rio Protocol and the Helsinki Initiative (Kissling- from view points (e.g., mountain ridges). The view
Naf and Bisang 2001). In addition, Poland and Slovakia points were georeferenced using GPS receivers, and the
strived to meet European Union (EU) environmental view angle and distance of the area depicted in the photo
standards in preparation for their accession to the EU were noted. This allowed digitizing ground-truth points
(Eronen 1996). The demand for forestry products on screen using the Landsat images and topographic
increased in Poland after 1992 and remained relatively maps as geometric references (Kuemmerle et al. 2006).
stable in Slovakia, but has decreased considerably in Sixteen Quickbird and three IKONOS images (acquired
Ukraine throughout the 1990s (Eronen 1996, MASR between 2002 and 2005), and forest inventory maps and
2003). stand statistics from 1995 to 1999 for parts of Poland
Little quantitative information is available on how (obtained from the Polish Forest Administration) were
changes in forest ownership and forest legislation used to collect additional ground-truth points. Clear-
affected forest cover in the Carpathians. Official statistics cuts frequently occurred in remote areas, for example
are spatially coarse and overlook illegal forest activities. away from roads or at higher altitudes, where mapping
Remote sensing is the most feasible way to derive in the field was not feasible. To include these areas in our
spatially explicit change information for large areas accuracy assessment, we digitized ground-truth points
and across country borders. A few studies used remote for bigger clear-cuts directly on the Landsat images. We
sensing images to assess forest cover change in the included ground-truth points only where land cover was
Carpathians, but they were either restricted to small locally homogenous (i.e., 3 3 3 Landsat TM pixels) to
areas or relied on coarse resolution data (Kozak et al. minimize positional uncertainty and collected ;450
1999, Otahel and Feranec 2001, Kruhlov 2005). Coor- ground-truth points each in three categories: unchanged
dination of Information on the Environment of the forest, non-forested, and forest disturbances. In total,
European Union (CORINE) 1:100 000 land cover data 1347 control points were gathered (587 based on ground
and Landsat MSS images showed an intensification of visits, 430 from ancillary data sets, and 330 from the
agriculture in Slovakian mountain valleys and a 9% loss Landsat data).
in forest cover for the period 1976–1990 (Feranec et al.
2003). Historical maps and contemporary satellite Preprocessing of Landsat TM and ETMþ data
images show increasing forest cover during the 20th Change detection requires precise geometric correc-
century for several areas in the Carpathians (Angelstam tion of images because misregistration and relief
et al. 2003, Kozak 2003, Augustyn 2004). Comparison of displacement decrease change detection accuracy (Cop-
global land cover maps (at 1-km spatial resolution) for pin et al. 2004). We first referenced the June 2000
sub-catchments of the Tisza River in Ukraine showed a Landsat image to the Universal Transverse Mercator
mean forest loss of 5% from 1992 to 2001 (Dezso et al. (UTM) coordinate system (World Geodetic System 1984
2005). To our knowledge, no study has quantified datum and ellipsoid), using the SRTM digital elevation
Carpathian forest cover change for the post-socialist model as a base map. To better match the June 2000
period at sufficient spatial detail and across borders. Landsat image, the SRTM DEM was shaded using sun
DATA AND METHODS azimuth and elevation from the Landsat acquisition date
and time. Ground control points were collected semi-
Data sets used automatically using correlation windows (Itten and
We acquired five Landsat TM and ETMþ images Meyer 1993, Kuemmerle et al. 2006). Once the June
(path/row 186/26, 10 June 2000, 4 July 1994, 2 June 2000 image was georeferenced, we co-registered all other
1994, 27 July 1988, and 2 October 1986), and four satellite images to that image. Remaining positional
Landsat MSS images (path/row 200/26, 30 July 1977; errors were low (root mean square errors 0.16–0.26
200/25, 16 May 1979; 201/25, 2 September 1979; and pixels).
Vol. 17, No. 5
Removing atmospheric influence and differences in for some forest classes when using single-date imagery.
illumination due to topography can improve change For instance, young broad-leaved forests and meadows
detection accuracy (Song et al. 2001). We applied can be spectrally similar in summer images. Phenology
calibration coefficients to estimate at-satellite radiance information inherent in multitemporal imagery allows
(Chander et al. 2004) and a modified 5S radiative us to distinguish such classes (Dymond et al. 2002,
transfer model that incorporates a terrain-dependent Zhang et al. 2003). We used unsupervised iterative self-
illumination correction (Radeloff et al. 1997) to calcu- organizing data analysis (ISODATA) to cluster the
late surface reflectance. To prevent overcorrection in autumn image (2 October 1986) into 40 classes (Fig. 2).
areas of low illumination, the Minnaert constant (Itten Clusters were labeled as forest, non-forest, or tempo-
and Meyer 1993) was set to 0.75 for the October image. rarily assigned to a mixed class if they were ambiguous.
Comparison of neighboring spectra from shaded and Mixed classes were further subdivided with ISODATA
unshaded hillsides and visual assessments confirmed (using 10–20 classes) based on the summer image (27
successful atmospheric and topographic correction. July 1988), to assign all subclusters to the classes forest
or non-forest. Water pixels were masked out using
Forest disturbance detection thresholds for the near and mid-infrared bands of the
Mapping forest disturbance digitally provides quan- 1988 image. To exclude small areas that are functionally
titative change information and is more repeatable than not forest (e.g., hedges, gardens, riparian buffers), we
visual image interpretation (Coppin and Bauer 1996, labeled all patches below a threshold of 30 pixels as non-
Coppin et al. 2004). Tasseled cap indices (Crist and forest. This threshold was derived based on high-
Cicone 1984) are commonly used for change analysis resolution images and field visits.
(Collins and Woodcock 1996, Franklin et al. 2001, Four Landsat MSS images from 1977 and 1979
Wulder et al. 2006). This transformation reduces the together covered the entire study area and were used to
data dimension while emphasizing forest related features check whether openings in 1988 represented forest
(Dymond et al. 2002, Healey et al. 2005) and leads to disturbances or permanent clearings (Fig. 2). First, we
identified all non-forest patches that were within larger
higher change detection accuracies (Collins and Wood-
forest patches in the TM-based forest/non-forest map as
cock 1996, Healey et al. 2005). Based on tasseled cap
potentially disturbed areas. Ground-truth and visual
transformation, the disturbance index (Healey et al.
assessment showed that all potential disturbances
2005) provides a single index identifying areas where
smaller than 21 TM-pixels were indeed disturbed areas,
forest cover declined. The index assumes that forests are
and no disturbances exceeded 1000 TM-pixels (90 ha).
characterized by high greeness and wetness components,
The remaining patches (.21 pixels and ,1000 pixels)
whereas disturbances will display low greeness and
were subset from the MSS imagery while retaining the
wetness, but high brightness. The index requires
spatial resolution of the TM images. Second, this subset
masking out all non-forest areas. After normalizing the
was subdivided into forest and non-forest pixels using
individual tasseled cap components to a mean of zero
ISODATA clustering for each MSS image. Because the
and a standard deviation of one, the disturbance index is overall number of pixels in each subset was low (between
calculated as brightness minus the sum of greeness and 0.03% and 0.71% of the study area), 10–20 classes were
wetness. Categorical change maps result from multi- sufficient to accurately identify disturbed areas in 1988
temporal classifications of the disturbance index images and these disturbances were included in the forest class.
(Healey et al. 2005). Detecting forest disturbances for the period 1988–
We applied the forest disturbance index in our study 2000.—The disturbance index (Healey et al. 2005) was
area. The 1986–1988 imagery was used to separate forest calculated for each year (Fig. 2). Individual bands were
from non-forest. The MSS data from 1977 to 1979 were stacked into a composite image, and a combination of
only used to determine if forest openings in the 1986– unsupervised and supervised classifications was used to
1988 imagery were clear-cuts (and forested in 1977– identify ‘‘unchanged forest,’’ ‘‘disturbance 2000–1995,’’
1979) or permanent openings. Post-socialist forest ‘‘disturbance 1994–1989,’’ and ‘‘disturbance before
disturbances were assessed by calculating disturbance 1988.’’ We digitized 60 circular training areas (7 ha
index images for 1988, 1994, and 2000, and conducting a each) for unchanged forest based on the Landsat images,
maximum likelihood classification for the combined forest inventory maps, and expert knowledge. For each
data (Fig. 2). Our satellite analysis can not distinguish of the disturbance classes, between 22 and 27 of the
between anthropogenic and natural disturbance, and we larger disturbances were digitized on screen. All training
thus labeled all changed areas generically as disturbance, data were independent from accuracy assessment data.
but it is important to note that the vast majority of these Training polygons were clustered using ISODATA, and
disturbances are due to forest harvesting because large- unambiguous clusters were used as training signatures
scale natural disturbances are rare (Schelhaas et al. for a maximum likelihood classification (guided cluster-
2003). ing, Bauer et al. 1994) Additional training signatures
Separating forested and non-forested areas for 1988.— were gathered interactively for areas where misclassifi-
Separation of forest and non-forest can be challenging cations occurred.
FIG. 2. Processing scheme for detecting forest disturbance in the study region (for details see Data and methods: Preprocessing
of Landsat TM and ETMþ data). Abbreviations: DI, disturbance index; mMLH, multitemporal maximum likelihood; MSS,
Landsat Multispectral Scanner; TM, Landsat Thematic Mapper; ETMþ, Enhanced Thematic Mapper; BGW, tasseled cap
brightness, greenness, and wetness; DEM, digital elevation model. Key to symbols: , non-forest patches within bigger forest
patches?; à, forest in 1977–1979; §, eliminate small patches and mask out water; }, eliminate small patches and misclassifications at
higher elevations and on the forest fringe.
The TM images from 1994 and 1988 contained a few their geometry and neighborhood characteristics and
clouds (0.9% and 2.2% of the study area, respectively). assigned to either forest or non-forest based on the
For those areas, disturbance index images were calcu- disturbance image of 2000.
lated from additional images. The 1988 image was Disturbance data was summarized for the three
substituted with an image from 1986, whereas for 1994 periods covered by the Landsat TM/ETMþ data (before
two images were available. Because the area affected by 1988, 1988–1994, and 1994–2000). We calculated annual
clouds was very small for 1994 and 1988, thresholds disturbance rates by dividing the disturbed area for a
proved to be sufficient to separate changed from given time period by six, thereby assuming disturbances
unchanged areas. Some errors of commissions of detected in 1988 also had occurred in a six-year period.
disturbances occurred at elevation higher than 1050 m, To compare forest disturbances inside and outside
due to phenological differences between the images, and protected areas, disturbance rates were calculated
these areas were labeled as unchanged. To remove noise separately for each of the protected areas and outside
due to misclassifications, patches smaller than seven protected areas for each country.
pixels were eliminated (treating all forest disturbances as Forest type stratification for changed areas.—To assess
a single class to retain heterogeneity among disturbance the type of forest affected by disturbances, we stratified
classes) and assigned to the dominant surrounding land 1994 and 2000 disturbed areas into broad-leaved forest,
cover of either non-forest or unchanged forest. The mixed forest, and coniferous forest based on the tasseled
threshold was determined based on visual assessment of cap transformed 1988 Landsat image. To evaluate the
very-high resolution images and ground truth. Some accuracy of the forest type classification, we also
misclassifications occurred at the forest fringe (typically included some areas of unchanged, mature forest where
1–2 pixels wide). Such patches were selected based on ground truth had been mapped (Kuemmerle et al. 2006),
Vol. 17, No. 5
and we used a stratified random sample of 250 such forest cover was much higher, increasing to almost 100%
plots. We clustered the combined data set using cover above 800 m. Below 800 m, forest cover was much
ISODATA into 30 classes, which were labeled using lower in Ukraine compared to Poland and Slovakia,
expert knowledge and independent field data. Clouded particularly at altitudes between 400 and 800 m.
areas in the 1988 image were classified using the same In total, 510 km2 of forest were disturbed (2.89% of
approach, but based on the 2 October 1986 image. the total forest area), and 353 km2 (2.00% of the total
Statistics were calculated based on the disturbed areas forest area) of the disturbances occurred after 1988.
only. Disturbances in 1988 were not stratified into forest Disturbance rates were generally moderate and similar
types due to the lack of ground-truth data for the MSS trends occurred in all three countries. Disturbance rates
images. increased in 1988–1994 compared to the last years of
socialist management (by a factor of 1.3–1.8). Between
Forest fragmentation 1994 and 2000, yearly disturbance rates declined
Forest fragmentation may introduce edge effects, lead markedly below pre-1990 values in all three countries
to habitat loss, and result in a loss of forest biodiversity (Fig. 4).
(Gascon and Lovejoy 1998, Debinski and Holt 2000, While the general disturbance trends of the three
Riitters et al. 2002). Traditional landscape indices countries were comparable, we found distinct differences
(O’Neill et al. 1988) and spatially explicit fragmentation in the extent and the rate of disturbances. Annual
measures (Riitters et al. 2002) can quantify forest disturbance rates were lowest in Poland (e.g., annual
fragmentation. We calculated the mean patch size and disturbance rates from 1994 to 2000 of only 0.05%). In
the area-weighted mean patch size of all disturbance Slovakia and Ukraine annual disturbance rates were
patches for the three countries to examine forest higher by a factor of 2.3–4.5 (Fig. 4) and highest in
disturbance sizes. The area-weighted mean patch size Ukraine (up to 0.58%). In total, only 2.2% (55.5 km2) of
equals patch area (square meters) divided by the sum of the forested area was affected in Poland compared to
patch areas (McGarigal 1994). To exclude micro-patches 6.2% (144.2 km2) and 6.7% (310.6 km2) in Slovakia and
from the analysis, the forest disturbance map was Ukraine, respectively (Fig. 4).
majority filtered using a kernel size of 3 3 3. To quantify Most disturbances in Poland and Slovakia occurred in
changes in forest fragmentation, we used Riitters et al. the foothill zone (below 600 m), but the majority of
(2002) indices. Riitters indices compare the proportion disturbed forests in Ukraine occurred in the montane
of forest (Pf) and forest connectivity (Pff) in a window zone (between 600 m and 1100 m) (Fig. 5). The
around each pixel. Pff is an approximation of the distributions of disturbed forests differed markedly from
probability that a forest pixel is located next to another the distribution of total forest (unchanged and disturbed
forest pixel (Riitters et al. 2002). Each pixel was forests), and elevational distributions remained constant
categorized as either ‘‘core’’ (Pf ¼ 1), ‘‘perforated’’ over time. In Poland disturbance was relatively more
(1 . Pf 0.6 and Pf . Pff), ‘‘edge’’ (1 . Pf 0.6 and Pf common between 300 and 500 m and less common
Pff), or ‘‘patch’’ (Pf , 0.6). We chose a neighborhood above 600 m. In contrast, in Ukraine the disturbances
size of 9 3 9 pixels based on prior research (Kuemmerle were relatively more common at higher elevations. Only
et al. 2006). in Slovakia were the elevational distributions of forests
and disturbances similar (Fig. 5).
RESULTS Ukraine had by far the most extensive disturbance in
The forest disturbance analysis revealed major chang- all time periods with area-weighted mean patch sizes of
es in post-socialist times in all three countries (Fig. 3), but 4.8–9.3 ha, which was 1.5–3 times bigger than in Poland
the nature and extent of changes differed markedly or Slovakia (Fig. 3). Poland had the smallest distur-
among countries and time periods. In Poland, disturbances, but area-weighted mean patch size increased
bances were overall rare. Slovakia showed a heteroge- from 1.7 to 4.0 ha in the 1990s. In Slovakia and Ukraine
neous pattern of disturbances stemming from both on the other hand, disturbances were larger in the 1988–
socialist times and the post-1990 transition period, 1994 period (5.7 and 9.3 ha in area-weighted mean patch
particularly along the border to Poland. In Ukraine, size, respectively) than in 1994–2000 (3.0 and 4.9 ha,
disturbances were frequent and mainly clustered in the respectively). Average disturbance size was always
center and the northern slope of the Carpathians (Fig. 3). smaller than the area-weighted mean patch size due to
Our classification of the forest disturbance index many small disturbances.
resulted in a precise forest disturbance map with an The stratification of disturbances into forest types had
overall accuracy of 94.8% and an overall kappa (Foody an overall accuracy of 82.4% and user’s accuracies of
2002) of 0.93, and conditional kappa values above 0.95 88%, 67%, and 88% for broad-leaved, mixed, and
for all three periods. Producer’s accuracy was equally coniferous forest, respectively. In Poland and Slovakia,
high, with the exception of 1988 where accuracy was the majority of disturbances occurred in broad-leaved
81%, mainly due to confusion with unchanged forest forest (up to 74% and 95%, respectively). In Ukraine, the
(Table 1). Forest was the dominating land cover type in proportion of disturbed coniferous forests was much
the region covering 51% in 1988. At higher altitudes, higher (up to 40% in 2000). Comparing the distributions
FIG. 3. Forest disturbance map of the study region. The insets provide examples of disturbance patterns of the countries (1)
Poland, (2) Slovakia, (3) Ukraine, and (4) the Polish–Slovakian border region.
of disturbed forests over time, Poland and Slovakia Poland (2.9%) compared to Slovakia (4.8%) and
showed little variation, whereas the Ukrainian share of Ukraine (5.2%), where losses in core forest were
coniferous forests increased from 28% to 40% (Fig. 6). connected to an increase in edge forest (3.0% in Slovakia
Higher disturbance rates in post-socialist times led to and 3.6% in Ukraine). Generally, Poland had much
an increase in forest fragmentation in all three countries higher shares of core forest and low levels of perforated
(Fig. 6). Core forest area decreased relatively little in forest (,5%), while Slovakia showed the lowest rates of
TABLE 1. Error matrix for the forest disturbance detection.
Reference data
P
Classified data NF F D2000 D1994 D1988 UAC
Non-forest (NF) 440 10 5 3 7 465 94.6
Unchanged forest (F) 7 431 12 2 13 465 92.7
Disturbances in 1994–2000 (D2000) 0 1 194 3 0 198 98.0
Disturbances in 1988–1994 (D1994) 0 1 2 120 1 124 96.8
Disturbances
P before 1988 (D1988) 0 1 0 2 92 95 96.8
447 444 213 130 113 1347
Producers accuracy (PAC) 98.4 97.1 91.1 92.3 81.4
Conditional kappa 0.92 0.89 0.98 0.96 0.97
Note: Values represent absolute numbers of ground-truth plots; UAC, user’s accuracy (%); PAC, producer’s accuracy (%).
Vol. 17, No. 5
buffer and transition zone were most frequent in 1988–

1994, and it was surprising that annual disturbance rates
in the buffer zone exceeded those outside protected areas
(Fig. 7). In Slovakia, the core zone experienced much
lower annual disturbance rates (up to nine times lower)
than all other zones. Forest disturbance rates in the
buffer and transition zones were higher than those
outside protected areas before 1988 (annual rates
.0.4%), but did not increase from 1988 to 1994 (unlike
disturbance rates outside protected areas). From 1994 to
2000, rates dropped markedly, well below the annual
rate of disturbances outside parks (Fig. 7).
In Ukraine, all zones of the protected areas experi-
enced relatively high disturbance rates and annual rates
inside protected areas were not substantially lower than
those outside parks (Fig. 7). Unlike Poland and
FIG. 4. Yearly disturbance rates for the Polish, Slovakian, Slovakia, disturbances in the core zone in Ukraine
and Ukrainian region of the study area. increased, particularly in 1994–2000. In the transition
Note: disturbance rates before 1988 were referenced to a six-
year interval. zone and in the Skole Beskydy National Park, annual
rates roughly doubled in 1988–1994 and exceeded
disturbance rates outside protected areas (reaching
core forest and the highest shares of perforated and annual disturbance rates of 0.86% and 0.65%, respec-
patch forest (Fig. 6). tively), but rates decreased in 1994–2000 (Fig. 7).
Protected areas exhibited generally lower forest
DISCUSSION
disturbance rates than non-protected areas, but this
response varied strongly in time and among countries Comparison of post-socialist forest disturbance rates
(Fig. 7). Poland generally had less disturbance than the among countries
other two countries in all zones, and the core zone was Major changes in forest cover and forest fragmenta-
almost undisturbed in all time periods (maximum tion occurred in the border triangle of Poland, Slovakia,
annual disturbance rate of 0.02%). Disturbances in the and Ukraine. Large-scale natural disturbances are rare
FIG. 5. Altitudinal distribution of total forest area (unchanged forest and disturbances) and disturbances for 1988, 1994, and
2000 for the three countries. (Distributions are normalized; g1 ¼ skewness.)
FIG. 6. Left: distribution of disturbed forests among the forest types broad-leaved forest, mixed forest, and coniferous forest for
disturbances mapped in 2000 and in 1994. Right: forest fragmentation components for the years 1988 and 2000.
in the study area and most disturbances detected in our ownership did not change substantially after 1990.
analysis can therefore be attributed to logging. Harvest- Forest institutions were reformed relatively quickly
ing rates were relatively moderate overall and are not (Polish Forestry Act 1991/1997, Kissling-Naf and
necessarily unsustainable considering the average rota- Bisang 2001), and forest management further improved
tion age (.100 years) in the region. However, the spatial toward sustainable forestry during the 1990s (Turnock
pattern of disturbances revealed harvesting hotspots 2002), which is reflected in an almost even age class
(e.g., the Skole region in Ukraine), where overexploita- distribution of Polish forests (Röhring 1999).
tion likely occurs (Fig. 3). Trends in harvesting rates Slovakia differed markedly and showed higher
were similar in all three countries, and spiked markedly harvesting rates (Fig. 4) and the highest forest fragmen-
in the 1988–1994 period. We suggest that increasing tation (Fig. 6), likely due to forest ownership, forest
rates are at least partially due to the fundamental management policies, and harvesting practices. Forest
changes in institutions, policies, and economic condi- ownership patterns changed after 1990, when 43% of
tions during the transition from socialist to post-socialist
forests were restituted to private owners (Eronen 1996,
regimes.
FAO 2005). The reform of forest management agencies
Poland had the lowest harvesting rates among the
and policies was slow (Kissling-Naf and Bisang 2001),
three countries (Fig. 4) and low levels of forest
partly due to the complex ownership situation (Eronen
fragmentation (Fig. 6). These patterns are likely due to
1996). These factors, together with the economic
forest management practices and socioeconomic condi-
depression in the early 1990s, likely led to increased
tions. Timber harvesting is based on selective logging,
which was already carried out before 1990 (Turnock forest harvesting for rapid profit realization (Eronen
2002). Thus, although timber is being harvested, it leads 1996, Webster et al. 2001, Turnock 2002). However,
to lower disturbance rates because the canopy is only increased harvesting does not necessarily lead to
partly removed. Some areas in Poland were depopulated unsustainable use of forest resources. Forest composi-
after World War II, resulting in a very low population tion of much of Slovakia’s forests is relatively natural
density, lower local demand for forestry products, and (Oszlanyi 1997), and the age class distribution of
lower anthropogenic pressure on forest resources Slovakia’s forests is near normal with a high proportion
(Augustyn 2004). After the system change (i.e., in of mature forests (MASR 2003). Moreover, disturbance
1988–1994), harvesting rates increased only moderately rates were overall relatively moderate, particularly when
(Fig. 4). This is likely due to the stable ownership considering the high annual increment of up to 6 m3/ha.
situation, the policy framework, and the strength of Timber harvesting in Slovakia is largely based on clear-
institutions in Poland. Forests in the study region were cutting, which led to higher levels of forest fragmenta-
almost entirely owned by the state in socialist times and tion and disturbance rates compared to Poland (Fig. 4).
Vol. 17, No. 5
the wood processing industry was still active, altogether

explaining higher harvesting rates. However, the general
economic situation grew increasingly worse, and many
forest enterprises did not modernize and became poorly
equipped and funded (Turnock 2002). The demand for
timber and the output of the wood processing industry
fell dramatically (for example, 60% in sawnwood,
70% in particle board; Buksha et al. 2003) and both
afforestation of farmland and reforestation after forest
harvesting practically ceased (Nijnik and Van Kooten
2000, Buksha 2004). The age class distribution was
already skewed toward younger ages due to heavy
exploitation in socialist times, and mature forest became
increasingly scarce (Nijnik and Van Kooten 2000, FAO
2005), which may explain decreases in harvesting
between 1994 and 2000. The shortage of mature forest
(,12% of total forests; Strochinskii et al. 2001) is also an
explanation for harvesting of coniferous stands and at
higher altitudes. Timber harvesting in Ukraine is
generally based on clear-cuts using heavy machinery,
thus explaining the bigger harvesting patches found
there (Strochinskii et al. 2001).
Corruption and illegal forest harvesting in Ukraine
increased during the transition phase, and this trend
may continue in the future (Nijnik and Van Kooten
2000, Buksha 2004, Nijnik and Van Kooten 2006).
Poverty is a driver of illegal logging (e.g., fuel wood
harvesting; Turnock 2002), but there is also a substantial
underground business in forestry (Nijnik and Van
Kooten 2006) with largely unsustainable forest manage-
ment practices. This is particularly apparent in the large
volumes of so-called sanitary felling (i.e., clear-cuts of
‘‘unhealthy’’ stands), which reached 51% of all harvests
in the Skole forestry district (Fig. 3, inset 3) between
1999 and 2005 (O. Chaskovskyy, personal communica-
tion). New forest policies place limits on clear-cuts of fir
and beech forest on steep slopes, at higher altitudes, or
in water protection zones, and envisage the increase of
protected areas (Verkhovna Rada 2000a, b). It would be
interesting to assess how these policy changes affected
harvesting rates in Ukraine after 2000; however, this
FIG. 7. Annual forest disturbance rates inside and outside
legislation does not effectively control sanitary felling
protected areas per country and time period. Disturbance rates
are given for the core zone (CZ), buffer zone (BZ), and practices.
transition zone (TZ) of the East Carpathian Biosphere Reserve, Forest ownership pattern is important to understand
for the Skole Beskydy National Park (SB NP), and for areas forest cover change (Turner et al. 1996), but in our study
outside of protected areas (outside). area neither state forestry nor private forestry was
clearly better in lowering harvest rates. Forests in both
In Ukraine, forest harvesting experienced the stron- Poland and Ukraine are state owned, yet disturbance
gest increase in 1988–1994, but decreased below pre- rates differed by a factor of 2.3–4.5. On the other hand,
1988 levels in 1994–2000 (Fig. 4). Forest ownership did harvest rates in largely privately owned Slovakian
not change after 1990 and all forests remained state forests were almost as high as in Ukraine. We found
owned (Turnock 2002). A new forest code toward more the highest harvest rates in the transition phase (1988–
sustainable forestry was issued in 1994, but inadequate 1994), and rates decreased where economies stabilized
legislation and corruption resulted in a gap between and after sustainable forest policies were launched.
policy and practice (Nijnik and Van Kooten 2000). After Thus, our results rather support the assumption that the
Ukraine became independent in 1991, administrative strength of institutions is important and that good
control decreased, but forest enterprises were still well institutions result in stable or even increasing forest
equipped from Soviet times, funds were available, and cover (Dietz et al. 2003, Tucker and Ostrom 2005).
Forest disturbances inside and outside protected areas Ukraine and Slovakia were heavily exploited immedi-
The marked differences in protected area effectiveness ately prior to the designation of protected areas, likely at
are likely related to socioeconomic conditions and the expense of biodiversity-rich older and near-natural
strength of institutions. Protected area effectiveness forest in remote areas (Perzanowski and Szwagrzyk
was highest in Poland and Slovakia, whereas the 2001). These fragmented large continuous forest patches
establishment of protected areas in Ukraine lowered and resulting edges effects may negatively affect forest
forest disturbance rates, yet, often not below harvest biodiversity. Particularly in the Skole Beskydy National
levels outside protected areas (Fig. 7). Park, where forest harvesting was concentrated (Fig. 3,
Population density and poverty are drivers of inset 3), field visits in 2006 confirmed that logging is
anthropogenic forest disturbance (Lambin et al. 2001) ongoing.
and challenges for the effectiveness of protected areas Comparison of forest disturbance rates
(Naughton-Treves et al. 2005). In Poland, anthropogen- and official statistics
ic pressure on forest ecosystems is much lower compared
to Slovakia and Ukraine, due to the depopulation of Comparing our forest disturbance trends to official
some areas in 1947. Harvest rates and forest fragmen- forestry statistics reveals agreement in some cases, and
tation were very low (particularly in the core zone), and clear differences in others. In Poland, the amount of
Poland had large continuous forest patches (Fig. 3). As a timber harvested was relatively stable according to
consequence, the highest densities of top carnivores and statistical records in the last socialist years (Strykowski
herbivores (e.g., wolf, brown bear, and European bison) et al. 1993), and increased markedly throughout the
are found in the Polish region of the study area 1990s (FAO 2005). Timber harvest statistics in Slovakia
(Perzanowski and Gula 2002). In Slovakia and Ukraine, indicate a decline in the late 1980s from around 5.8 3
population density is much higher and we found higher 106 m3 to ,5 3 106 m3 between 1991 and 1993, but a
harvest rates inside protected areas (Fig. 7). However, considerable increase after 1993 to .6 3 106 m3 in 2000
the economic depression that occurred after 1990 (Kolenka 1992, MASR 2003, FAO 2005). In Ukraine,
lowered the effectiveness of protected areas in all three harvesting trends are less clear. Some sources indicate
countries and forest harvesting increased from 1988 to decreasing harvesting in the 1990s (Nilsson and Shvi-
1994 within protected areas. denko 1999, FAO 2005), yet, others show increased
The designation of protected areas stops forest cover harvesting between 1986 and 1996 (Nijnik and Van
change in most cases (Bruner et al. 2001), even when Kooten 2000).
institutions are weak (Naughton-Treves et al. 2005). Several factors possibly explain differences between
This is supported by our results because harvest rates the statistics and the disturbance rates we derived from
dropped markedly in all countries after protected areas the remote sensing data. First, comparing harvested
had been established (i.e., in 1994–2000). Yet, the timber volumes (in cubic meters) and disturbed area is
strength of institutions is another important factor for not easy because these parameters are not necessarily
the effectiveness of protected areas. Poland and Slovakia connected. For instance, increasing average stand age
have strong institutions and were on the eve of EU results in higher annual increments and standing
accession in the late 1990s. After parks were designated, volumes, thus allowing for increased timber harvests
harvest rates dropped well below rates outside protected without automatically increasing the logged area. This
areas, especially in Slovakia (Fig. 7). In Ukraine, where may particularly be the case where the age class
governance is not transparent and corruption is a distribution of forest stands shows a high percentage
problem (Nijnik and Van Kooten 2006), harvesting of premature and mature stands such as for example in
rates inside protected areas did not decrease below those Slovakia (MASR 2003), and where sustainable forestry
outside protected areas, and were sometimes even is in place (thus leading to a steady increase in standing
higher. The weakness of institutions and park manage- volume). Conversely, if average stand age gradually
ment is also apparent in the enforcement of park decreases due to premature logging, a decline in timber
regulations (Bruner et al. 2001, Webster et al. 2001). volume harvested may still lead to an increase in
Forest harvesting has caused increasing fragmentation disturbed area. Premature logging may be especially
inside and around protected areas in the Carpathians, common where the age class distribution is skewed
similar to other regions in the world (Chape et al. 2005, toward younger stands (e.g., in Ukraine; Strochinskii
DeFries et al. 2005, Naughton-Treves et al. 2005), which et al. 2001) and where new forest owners decided to
is especially problematic for top carnivores and herbi- realize returns quickly (Turnock 2002).
vores (Woodroffe and Ginsberg 1998). Second, selective logging is not detected with our
The age of protected areas can be an important methodology, yet, is the dominant harvesting practice in
determinant of park effectiveness because capacity Poland. This inhibits the comparison of harvested
building takes time. Protected areas in Slovakia, and timber volumes to our disturbance map because we
particularly in Ukraine may be too young to draw final defined disturbances as the complete removal of forest
conclusions about the effectiveness of their park cover. Moreover, where forest management changes and
management. It is noteworthy though that forests in selective logging becomes more common, for instance
Vol. 17, No. 5
due to policies that emphasize sustainable forestry the Landsat images and additional high-resolution data
(Kissling-Naf and Bisang 2001), the comparison of showed that disturbances on the forest fringe were very
disturbance rates and timber volumes is difficult. Third, rare, such that the effect seemed to be negligible. Fourth,
official statistics do not account for illegal logging, phenological differences among the images may have
which is a particular problem in Ukraine (Nijnik and affected disturbance detection. To accommodate for
Van Kooten 2000, Buksha 2004), thereby underestimat- this, we did not apply uniform thresholds to determine
ing actual disturbance rates. And last, the disturbance changed areas, but used a composite classification,
index may overlook some types of forest harvesting where phenological differences can be incorporated
(e.g., very small clear-cuts). Although we cannot through appropriate training data for changed and
completely rule this out, our extensive accuracy assess- unchanged areas. Nevertheless, phenology was a prob-
ment and field visits suggest a reliable forest disturbance lem for some disturbances in 1988 that were spectrally
map (see Discussion: Accuracy of the forest disturbance similar to broad-leaved forest due to the late-summer
detection for details). image, and may have contributed to an underestimation
of pre-1988 disturbance rates. Although differences in
Accuracy of the forest disturbance detection leaf onset in spring and defoliation in autumn may pose
The disturbance index was so far only tested for three serious limitations when mapping forest disturbance of
boreal study regions dominated by coniferous species broad-leaved forests in mountain areas, this was not a
(Healey et al. 2005). Our study was the first to apply the problem in our case because we did not rely on leaf-off
disturbance index to temperate forest ecosystems with images. Last, the exclusion of forest disturbances smaller
mainly broad-leaved and mixed forest types. Overall, the than seven pixels may have led to an omission of some
disturbance index performed very well and the accuracy very small clear-cuts, but we found that removing noise
assessment confirmed an accurate change map. due to misclassifications had a much greater effect on
The time interval between the images proved to be the overall accuracy of the change map.
crucial for the successful mapping of forest disturbances. The disturbance index was unable to detect selective
Due to the high productivity of Carpathian forests, logging, where only a fraction of the canopy is removed;
vegetation regenerates quickly (particularly where refor- yet we were not interested in mapping such disturbances.
estation is carried out) after a disturbance event. Thus, Mapping selective logging sites may be important in
the disturbance index is most sensitive to relatively other studies, and future research is needed to quantify
young disturbances, whereas the detection of older the sensitivity of the disturbance index to detect selective
disturbances is difficult. The 1994 image was crucial in logging.
this respect because many post-socialist disturbances To avoid an overly optimistic accuracy assessment, we
could not have been detected using 1988 and 2000 data used an equal sample for all classes (a random sample
alone. would place most control plots in stable forests, which
Although our accuracy assessment confirmed the are easiest to classify). Nevertheless, our accuracy
reliability of our change map, a few factors were assessment may be positively biased due to two factors.
identified that may have contributed uncertainty. First, First, ground-truth plots were only established in locally
reforestation of clear-cuts in Ukraine decreased dramat- homogeneous areas (3 3 3 pixels) to minimize misreg-
ically after the system change (Buksha 2004). Later istration error and to facilitate ground labeling (Foody
disturbances thus became easier to detect, because 2002). This avoids class boundaries and mixed pixels,
natural regeneration is slower. Disturbance rates from which can cause misclassifications (Foody 2002). Sec-
before 1988 may in such cases be underestimated. ond, some disturbance plots were directly digitized from
Second, the coarser spatial and spectral resolution of the Landsat data. Such an approach is common (e.g.,
the MSS images compared to the TM/ETMþ data may Healey et al. 2005) because large disturbances can easily
have introduced uncertainty. However, it is important to be identified. However, very small disturbances that are
note that the coarser-resolution data was only used to fill also harder to classify may be missed. We suggest that
non-forest gaps in the initial TM-based forest/non-forest such errors were distributed evenly throughout the study
map. We included all non-forest patches smaller than 21 area and among time periods, and did not affect the
pixels (;1.9 ha) in our change analysis, to avoid an general differences among countries and disturbance
underestimation of pre-1988 disturbance rates in areas trends that we observed.
where clear-cuts were very small (e.g., in Slovakia). The
change analysis was carried out using TM images only. CONCLUSIONS
The accuracy assessment, high-resolution images, and Forest disturbances were frequent in the border
field visits did not suggest a systematic bias in our region of Poland, Slovakia, and Ukraine in post-socialist
change map. times, and most disturbances represent forest harvesting
Third, the assumption that disturbances occur within because large-scale natural disturbance events are rare in
forest patches may exclude disturbances at the forest the study region. Harvesting rates were generally
fringe. Although we can not completely rule out that relatively moderate; however rates increased in all three
some disturbances were omitted, visual examination of countries after the system change in 1990, leading to
higher levels of forest fragmentation. The increase in Andousypine, V. S. 1994. Forest and forest products country
forest harvesting likely occurred due to ownership profile Ukraine. UN-ECE/FAO Timber and Forest Study
Paper, UN-ECE/FAO, Geneva, Switzerland.
changes, worsening economic conditions, and the Angelstam, P., L. Boresjo-Bronge, G. Mikusinski, U. Sporrong,
weakening of institutions. Forest disturbance rates and A. Wastfelt. 2003. Assessing village authenticity with
differed markedly among countries, with much lower satellite images: a method to identify intact cultural
rates in Poland compared to Slovakia and Ukraine. We landscapes in Europe. Ambio 32:594–604.
Antoni, J., L. Somsak, and L. Jansky. 2000. Reversing the
suggest that these differences can be explained by decline of secondary spruce forests in Slovakia’s Western
differences in forest management practices, forest Carpathians. Mountain Research and Development 20:
policies, and the strength of institutions. 130–131.
Protected areas generally exhibited less forest har- Augustyn, M. 2004. Anthropogenic changes in the environ-
mental parameters of the Bieszczady Mountains. Biosphere
vesting, but protection was far from complete, and the Conservation 6:43–53.
effectiveness of protected areas differed among coun- Badea, O., K. Grodzinska, J. Oszlanyi, and Y. Shparyk. 2004.
tries. Protected area management was most effective in Nature conservation in Central and Eastern Europe with a
Poland, where population density is low and protected special emphasis on the Carpathian Mountains. Environ-
mental Pollution 130:127–134.
areas are relatively old, and in Slovakia, where Bauer, M. E., T. E. Burk, A. R. Ek, P. R. Coppin, S. D. Lime,
harvesting rates dropped markedly below background T. A. Walsh, D. K. Walters, W. Befort, and D. F. Heinzen.
levels after protected areas were designated. In Ukraine, 1994. Satellite inventory of Minnesota forest resources.
harvesting rates inside protected areas were practically Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing 60:
287–298.
equal to those outside, and harvests were widespread Bicik, I., L. Jelecek, and V. Stepanek. 2001. Land-use changes
immediately before the designation of protected areas. and their social driving forces in Czechia in the 19th and 20th
Overall, the Polish, Slovakian, and Ukrainian regions centuries. Land Use Policy 18:65–73.
of our study area have clearly diverged in terms of forest Broadbent, E. N., D. J. Zarin, G. P. Asner, M. Pena-Claros,
A. Cooper, and R. Littell. 2006. Recovery of forest structure
cover and forest fragmentation in post-socialist times. and spectral properties after selective logging in lowland
Poland, where forest cover was highest and forest Bolivia. Ecological Applications 16:1148–1163.
fragmentation lowest, had the lowest disturbance rates. Bruner, A. G., R. E. Gullison, R. E. Rice, and G. A. B.
Conversely, Slovakia and Ukraine, with lower forest da Fonseca. 2001. Effectiveness of parks in protecting
tropical biodiversity. Science 291:125–128.
cover and higher forest fragmentation, had higher Buksha, I. 2004. Forestry sector of Ukraine in transition
disturbance rates. While the stand age distributions of to market economy. hhttp://www.unece.org/trade/timber/h3/
Poland and Slovakia do not necessarily suggest unsus- Warsaw%20doc/Documents/Ukraine.doci
tainable use of forest resources, increased harvesting is Buksha, I., V. Pasternak, and V. Romanovsky. 2003. Forest
and forest products country profile Ukraine. UN-ECE/FAO
of particular concern in Ukraine, where mature forests Timber and Forest Discussion Papers, UN-ECE/FAO,
have become scarce. Geneva, Switzerland.
The strong differences in harvesting rates that we Chander, G., D. L. Helder, B. L. Markham, J. D. Dewald,
found among the countries Poland, Slovakia, and E. Kaita, K. J. Thome, E. Micijevic, and T. A. Ruggles. 2004.
Landsat-5 TM reflective-band absolute radiornetric calibra-
Ukraine were determined by broadscale socioeconomic tion. IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing
factors, past and present forest management practices, 42:2747–2760.
forest policies, and the strength of institutions. Cross- Chape, S., J. Harrison, M. Spalding, and I. Lysenko. 2005.
border comparisons can reveal important insights into Measuring the extent and effectiveness of protected areas as
an indicator for meeting global biodiversity targets. Philo-
the role of broadscale factors of human–environment sophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological
interactions in forest ecosystems, and these factors may Sciences 360:443–455.
be equally important in other regions of the world. Cohen, W. B., and S. N. Goward. 2004. Landsat’s role in
ecological applications of remote sensing. BioScience 54:
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 535–545.
The authors are grateful to T. Bucha, O. Chaskovskyy, and Collins, J. B., and C. E. Woodcock. 1996. An assessment of
J. Kozak for valuable discussions and for sharing the statistical several linear change detection techniques for mapping forest
data on forest harvesting. We thank F. Grumm for helping in mortality using multitemporal landsat TM data. Remote
Sensing of Environment 56:66–77.
the ground-truth collection, J. Hill and W. Mehl for providing
Coppin, P., and M. E. Bauer. 1996. Digital change detection in
the software for preprocessing the Landsat data, the Polish
forest ecosystems with remote sensing imagery. Remote
Forest Service for making the forest inventory information
Sensing Reviews 13:207–234.
available, and two anonymous reviewers for constructive
Coppin, P., I. Jonckheere, K. Nackaerts, B. Muys, and
comments on the manuscript. We gratefully acknowledge the E. Lambin. 2004. Digital change detection methods in
support for this research by the Land Cover Land Use Change ecosystem monitoring: a review. International Journal of
(LCLUC) Program of the National Aeronautics and Space Remote Sensing 25:1565–1596.
Administration (NASA). Crist, E. P., and R. C. Cicone. 1984. A physically-based
transformation of Thematic Mapper data—the TM tasseled
LITERATURE CITED
cap. IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing
Achard, F., H. D. Eva, H. J. Stibig, P. Mayaux, J. Gallego, 22:256–263.
T. Richards, and J. P. Malingreau. 2002. Determination of Debinski, D. M., and R. D. Holt. 2000. A survey and overview
deforestation rates of the world’s humid tropical forests. of habitat fragmentation experiments. Conservation Biology
Science 297:999–1002. 14:342–355.
Vol. 17, No. 5
DeFries, R., A. Hansen, A. C. Newton, and M. C. Hansen. Kissling-Naf, I., and K. Bisang. 2001. Rethinking recent
2005. Increasing isolation of protected areas in tropical changes of forest regimes in Europe through property-rights
forests over the past twenty years. Ecological Applications theory and policy analysis. Forest Policy and Economics 3:
15:19–26. 99–111.
Denisiuk, Z., and S. M. Stoyko. 2000. The East Carpathian Kolenka, I. 1992. Forest and forest products country profile
biosphere reserve (Poland, Slovakia, Ukraine). Pages 79–93 Czech and Slovak Federal Republik. UN-ECE/FAO Timber
in A. Breymeyer and P. Dabrowski, editors. Biosphere and Forest Discussion Papers, UN-ECE/FAO, Geneva,
reserves on borders. UNESCO, Warsaw, Poland. Switzerland.
Dezso, Z., J. Bartholy, R. Pongracz, and Z. Barcza. 2005. Kozak, J. 2003. Forest cover change in the Western Carpa-
Analysis of land-use/land-cover change in the Carpathian thians in the past 180 years: a case study in the Orawa
region based on remote sensing techniques. Physics and Region in Poland. Mountain Research and Development 23:
Chemistry of the Earth 30:109–115. 369–375.
Dietz, T., E. Ostrom, and P. C. Stern. 2003. The struggle to Kozak, J., M. Troll, and W. Widacki. 1999. Semi-natural
govern the commons. Science 302:1907–1912. landscapes of the Western Beskidy Mts. Ekologia-Bratislava
Dymond, C. C., D. J. Mladenoff, and V. C. Radeloff. 2002. 18:53–62.
Phenological differences in tasseled cap indices improve Kruhlov, I. 2005. Geoekologichnyi analiz lisivnychoho potent-
deciduous forest classification. Remote Sensing of Environ- sialu Skolivskykh Beskydiv zasobamy geomatyky. [In Ukrai-
ment 80:460–472. nian.] Sersya Geografiya 32:43–55.
Eronen, J. 1996. Forest resources and consumption of forest Kuemmerle, T., P. Hostert, K. Perzanowski, and V. C.
products in countries in transition, 1990–2020. UN-ECE/- Radeloff. 2006. Cross-border comparison of land cover and
FAO Timber and Forest Discussion Papers, UN-ECE/FAO, landscape pattern in Eastern Europe using a hybrid
Geneva, Switzerland. classification technique. Remote Sensing of Environment
FAO. 2005. Global forest resources assessment 2005. Progress 103:449–464.
towards sustainable forest management. Forestry Papers, Lambin, E. F., et al. 2001. The causes of land-use and land-
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, cover change: moving beyond the myths. Global Environ-
Rome, Italy. mental Change-Human and Policy Dimensions 11:261–269.
Feranec, J., T. Cebecauer, J. Otahel, and M. Suri. 2003. Lepers, E., E. F. Lambin, A. C. Janetos, R. DeFries, F. Achard,
Assessment of the selected landscape change types of N. Ramankutty, and R. J. Scholes. 2005. A synthesis of
Slovakia in the 1970’s and 1990’s. Ekologia-Bratislava 22: information on rapid land-cover change for the period 1981–
161–167. 2000. BioScience 55:115–124.
Filer, R. K., and J. Hanousek. 2002. Data watch: research data Lerman, Z. 2001. Agriculture in transition economies: from
from transition economies. Journal of Economic Perspectives
common heritage to divergence. Agricultural Economics 26:
16:225–240.
95–114.
Foley, J. A., et al. 2005. Global consequences of land use.
MASR (Ministry of Agriculture of the Slovak Republic). 2003.
Science 309:570–574.
Report on forestry in the Slovak Republik 2003 (Green
Foody, G. M. 2002. Status of land cover classification accuracy
Report). Ministry of Agriculture of the Slovak Republic,
assessment. Remote Sensing of Environment 80:185–201.
Bratislava, Slovakia.
Franklin, S. E., M. B. Lavigne, L. M. Moskal, M. A. Wulder,
McGarigal, K. M. B. J. 1994. FRAGSTATS: spatial pattern
and T. M. McCaffrey. 2001. Interpretation of forest harvest
analysis program for quantifying landscape structure. Pro-
conditions in New Brunswick using Landsat TM enhanced
gram documentation. Oregon State University, Corvallis,
wetness difference imagery (EWDI). Canadian Journal of
Remote Sensing 27:118–128. USA.
Gascon, C., and T. E. Lovejoy. 1998. Ecological impacts of Mikusinski, G., and P. Angelstam. 1998. Economic geography,
forest fragmentation in central Amazonia. Zoology-Analysis forest distribution, and woodpecker diversity in central
of Complex Systems 101:273–280. Europe. Conservation Biology 12:200–208.
Geist, H. J., and E. F. Lambin. 2002. Proximate causes and Myers, N., R. A. Mittermeier, C. G. Mittermeier, G. A. B. da
underlying driving forces of tropical deforestation. BioSci- Fonseca, and J. Kent. 2000. Biodiversity hotspots for
ence 52:143–150. conservation priorities. Nature 403:853–858.
GLP (Global Land Project). 2005. Science plan and implemen- Naughton-Treves, L., M. B. Holland, and K. Brandon. 2005.
tation strategy. IGBP Report Number 53/IHDP Report The role of protected areas in conserving biodiversity and
Number 1.19. International Geosphere-Biosphere Pro- sustaining local livelihoods. Annual Review of Environment
gramme, Stockholm, Sweden. and Resources 30:219–252.
Goldewijk, K. K. 2001. Estimating global land use change over Nijnik, M., and G. C. Van Kooten. 2000. Forestry in the
the past 300 years: the HYDE database. Global Biogeo- Ukraine: the road ahead? Forest Policy and Economics 1:
chemical Cycles 15:417–433. 139–151.
Goodale, C. L., et al. 2002. Forest carbon sinks in the Northern Nijnik, M., and G. C. Van Kooten. 2006. Forestry in the
Hemisphere. Ecological Applications 12:891–899. Ukraine: the road ahead? Reply. Forest Policy and Econom-
Grodzinska, K., and G. Szarek-Lukaszewska. 1997. Polish ics 8:6–9.
mountain forests: past, present and future. Environmental Nilsson, S., and A. Shvidenko. 1999. The Ukrainian forest
Pollution 98:369–374. sector in a global perspective. International Institute for
Healey, S. P., W. B. Cohen, Z. Q. Yang, and O. N. Krankina. Applied Systems Analysis, Laxenburg, Austria.
2005. Comparison of tasseled cap-based Landsat data Novotny, J., and J. Fillo, editors. 1994. Lesy Slovenska [Forests
structures for use in forest disturbance detection. Remote of Slovakia]. [In Slovak.] Poly-Kontakt, Bratislava, Slovakia.
Sensing of Environment 97:301–310. O’Neill, R. V., J. R. Krummel, R. H. Gardner, G. Sugihara,
Herenchuk, K. I. 1968. Pryroda Ukrayinskykh Karpat [Nature B. Jackson, D. L. DeAngelis, B. T. Milne, M. G. Turner,
of the Ukrainian Carpathians]. [In Ukrainian.] Vydavnytstvo B. Zygmunt, S. W. Christensen, V. H. Dale, and R. L.
Lvivskoho Universytetu, Lviv, Ukraine. Graham. 1988. Indices of landscape pattern. Landscape
Itten, K. I., and P. Meyer. 1993. Geometric and radiometric Ecology 1:153–162.
correction of TM data of mountainous forested areas. IEEE Oszlanyi, J. 1997. Forest health and environmental pollution in
Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing 31:764–770. Slovakia. Environmental Pollution 98:389–392.
Otahel, J., and J. Feranec. 2001. Landscape structure of Landsat TM data: when and how to correct atmospheric
Slovakia in the context of sustainability. Ekologia-Bratislava effects? Remote Sensing of Environment 75:230–244.
20:88–99. Strochinskii, A. A., Y. M. Pozyvailo, and S. E. Jungst. 2001.
Perzanowski, K., and R. Gula. 2002. Initiation of the trans- Forests and forestry in Ukraine: standing on the brink of a
boundary network for monitoring the population status of market economy. Journal of Forestry 99:34–38.
ungulates along the Polish-Slovak-Ukrainian Carpathians. Strykowski, W., E. Ratajczak, and W. Przyborski. 1993. Forest
Carpathian Wildlife Research Station, Museum and Institute and forest products country profile Poland. UN-ECE/FAO
of Zoology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Ustrzyki Dolne, Timber and Forest Discussion Papers, UN-ECE/FAO,
Poland. Geneva, Switzerland.
Perzanowski, K., and J. Szwagrzyk. 2001. Carpathian montane Tucker, C. M., and E. Ostrom. 2005. Multidisciplinary research
conifer forest. hhttp://www.worldwildlife.org/wildworld/ relating institutions and forest transformations. Pages 81–103
profiles/terrestrial/pa/pa0504_full.htmli in E. F. Moran and E. Ostrom, editors. Seeing the forest and
Peterson, U., and R. Aunap. 1998. Changes in agricultural land the trees. Human–environment interactions in forest ecosys-
use in Estonia in the 1990s detected with multitemporal
tems. MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
Landsat MSS imagery. Landscape and Urban Planning 41:
Turner, M. G., D. N. Wear, and R. O. Flamm. 1996. Land
193–201.
ownership and land-cover change in the southern Appala-
Pfaff, A. S. P. 1999. What drives deforestation in the Brazilian
Amazon? Evidence from satellite and socioeconomic data. chian highlands and the Olympic peninsula. Ecological
Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 37: Applications 6:1150–1172.
26–43. Turnock, D. 2002. Ecoregion-based conservation in the
Radeloff, V. C., J. Hill, and W. Mehl. 1997. Forest mapping Carpathians and the land-use implications. Land Use Policy
from space. Enhanced satellite data processing by spectral 19:47–63.
mixture analysis and topographic corrections. Joint Research UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Centre European Commission, Luxembourg, Luxembourg. Organization). 2003. Five transboundary biosphere reserves
Radeloff, V. C., D. J. Mladenoff, and M. S. Boyce. 2000. in Europe. UNESCO, Paris, France.
Effects of interacting disturbances on landscape patterns: Verkhovna Rada. 2000a. Zakon Ukrayiny pro Moratoriy na
budworm defoliation and salvage logging. Ecological Appli- provedennya sutsilnykh rubok na hirskykh skhylakh v
cations 10:233–247. yalytsevo-bukovykh lisakh Karpatskoho Rehionu [Ukraini-
Randolph, J. C., G. M. Green, J. Belmont, T. Burcsu, and an law on the moratorium of clear cutting in spruce–beech
D. Welch. 2005. Forest ecosystems and the human dimen- mountain forest in the Carpathian region]. [In Ukrainian.]
sion. Pages 81–103 in E. F. Moran and E. Ostrom, editors. Vidomosti Verkhovnoyi Rad 13:99.
Seeing the forest and the trees. Human–environment Verkhovna Rada. 2000b. Zakon Ukrayiny pro Zahalnoderz-
interactions in forest ecosystems. MIT Press, Cambridge, havnu prohramu formuvannya natsionalnoyi ekolohichnoyi
Massachusetts, USA. merezhi Ukrayiny na 2000–2015 roky [Ukrainain law on the
Riitters, K. H., J. D. Wickham, R. V. O’Neill, K. B. Jones, state program for the formation of a national ecological
E. R. Smith, J. W. Coulston, T. G. Wade, and J. H. Smith. network in Ukraine for the years 2000–2015]. [In Ukrainian.]
2002. Fragmentation of continental United States forests. Vidomosti Verkhovnoyi Rad 47:405.
Ecosystems 5:815–822. Vitousek, P. M., H. A. Mooney, J. Lubchenco, and J. M.
Röhring, H. W. 1999. Die Holzwirtschaft Polens [Forestry in Melillo. 1997. Human domination of Earth’s ecosystems.
Poland]. [In German.] Bundesforschungsanstalt für Holz- Science 277:494–499.
und Forstwirtschaft, Hamburg, Germany. Webster, R., S. Holt, and C. Avis, editors. 2001. The status of
Rudel, T. K., O. T. Coomes, E. Moran, F. Achard,
the Carpathians. A report developed as a part of The
A. Angelsen, J. C. Xu, and E. Lambin. 2005. Forest
Carpathian Ecoregion Initiative. WWF, Vienna, Austria.
transitions: towards a global understanding of land use
Wesolowski, T. 2005. Virtual conservation: how the European
change. Global Environmental Change-Human and Policy
Dimensions 15:23–31. Union is turning a blind eye to its vanishing primeval forests.
Schelhaas, M. J., G. J. Nabuurs, and A. Schuck. 2003. Natural Conservation Biology 19:1349–1358.
disturbances in the European forests in the 19th and 20th Woodroffe, R., and J. R. Ginsberg. 1998. Edge effects and the
centuries. Global Change Biology 9:1620–1633. extinction of populations inside protected areas. Science 280:
Skole, D., and C. Tucker. 1993. Tropical deforestation and 2126–2128.
habitat fragmentation in the Amazon: satellite data from Wulder, M. A., J. C. White, B. Bentz, M. F. Alvarez, and N. C.
1978 to 1988. Science 260:1905–1910. Coops. 2006. Estimating the probability of mountain pine
Slater, J. A., G. Garvey, C. Johnston, J. Haase, B. Heady, beetle red-attack damage. Remote Sensing of Environment
G. Kroenung, and J. Little. 2006. The SRTM data 101:150–166.
‘‘finishing’’ process and products. Photogrammetric Engi- Zhang, X. Y., M. A. Friedl, C. B. Schaaf, A. H. Strahler,
neering and Remote Sensing 72:237–247. J. C. F. Hodges, F. Gao, B. C. Reed, and A. Huete. 2003.
Song, C., C. E. Woodcock, K. C. Seto, M. P. Lenney, and S. A. Monitoring vegetation phenology using MODIS. Remote
Macomber. 2001. Classification and change detection using Sensing of Environment 84:471–475.

Post-Socialist Forest Disturbance in The Carpathian Border Region of Poland, Slovakia, and Ukraine

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Post-Socialist Forest Disturbance in The Carpathian Border Region of Poland, Slovakia, and Ukraine

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Post-Socialist Forest Disturbance in The Carpathian Border Region of Poland, Slovakia, and Ukraine

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Ecological Applications, 17(5), 2007, pp.

POST-SOCIALIST FOREST DISTURBANCE IN THE CARPATHIAN BORDER

INTRODUCTION (Goldewijk 2001), and continues to diminish, particu-

TABLE 1. Error matrix for the forest disturbance detection.

buffer and transition zone were most frequent in 1988–

the wood processing industry was still active, altogether

You might also like