Agricultural Intensification, Population Growth and Forest Cover Change: Evidence from Spatially Explicit Land Use Modeling in the Central Highlands of Vietnam

Land use change, the physical change in land cover caused by human activities such as agriculture and silviculture, is a common phenomenon associated with population growth, market development, technical and institutional innovation, and related rural development policy. Changes in land use can have various consequences on economic growth, the level and distribution of income, and on natural resources such as biodiversity, ecosystems, water, and soils. Land use change leads to change in — and is influenced by — socio-economic indicators such as agricultural productivity, wealth, and human capital. A better understanding of the complex interactions of these changes over time can enable decision makers at various policy levels to design and implement regionally adapted policy interventions which stimulate benefits and counteract negative consequences of land use change by considering the trade-offs among economic, environmental, and social objectives in the process of sustainable rural development.