Relationship between forest fragmentation and management of nature reserves in Flanders

摘要

Gaining a better understanding of the relation between patterns of ownership and forest cover is critical to nature resource policy. Although the importance of this link is accepted by many scientists, only a few studies analyze the interaction between nature reserves and the surrounding landscape in a spatial manner. This paper focuses on forest fragmentation in Flanders, a highly urbanized region in Europe. Pattern metrics are used to establish the relationship between the spatial forest cover pattern in a 1 km radius around the protected area, and the deforestation in this area in the period 1940-2000. The reserves are categorized based on their owners, both public authorities and nonprofit organizations. The results indicate that governmental administrations manage reserves in areas that have a dense forest cover. Nonprofit nature conservation organizations tend to manage reserves with less forest cover. When focusing on the change between 1940 and 2000, an increase in forest cover is ascertained. This trend is stronger in forest poorer, but clumped forest landscapes, and near reserves, managed by the regional Nature and Forest Administration.