Development of landscape forest performance index to assess forest quality of managed forests

Abstract

Abstract Besides timber and economic benefits, forest ecosystems provide other ecosystem services related to biological diversity and environmental functions of forests. Assessing some of the ecosystem services, which can be an indicator of forest quality at a landscape level requires the use of geospatial technology to achieve it. The aim of this work is to develop a forest performance index at the landscape level for mangrove forests. Several ecosystem services were identified and selected as indicators. The target value was set for each indicator and calculated into percentage value, which indicates progression to the target value, combined from field and geospatial data. The forest performance index was then produced by combining all indicators to get an overall performance of one particular forest area with respect to the target. The index was developed and tested at one of the best managed mangrove forests in the world, which is Matang Mangrove Forest Reserve (MMFR) in Perak. Based on the index that has been developed, the forest quality of MMFR, which consists of 19 forest reserves, is classified as good forest with an overall score of 72 percent. Pulau Kecil and Telok Kertang forest reserves have shown a very good forest quality with an overall score over 80 percent. Other 17 forest reserves in MMFR shown good forest quality with a ranged index of 68.8 to 78.4 percent. This work can be a tool for assessing forest quality at landscape level for decision support in sustainable landscape management and can be applied on other regions.