Abstract
This study aims to assess the potential development of selected agroforestry options for three provinces in the Northwest of Vietnam. Available spatial data including Land use/land cover maps and forest inventory maps were used as the base maps in combination with supplementary data and field survey to determine the potential agroforestry areas. Soil types, soil depth, soil texture, elevation, slope, temperature and rainfall were used to evaluate the biophysical suitability of ten typical agroforestry options in the study region. For assessing the impact of climate change to agroforestry suitability in the future, temperature and precipitation data extracted from two climate changes scenarios (Representative Concentration Pathway 4.5 and 8.5 in 2046–2065) were used. The results showed that the suitable areas for agroforestry development in Dien Bien, Sơn La and Yen Bai provinces were 267.74.01 ha, 405,597.96 ha; and 297,995.55 ha, respectively. Changes in temperature and precipitation by 2 climate change scenarios affected significantly to the suitability of Docynia indica + livestock grass, Teak + plum + coffee + grass and Plum + maize + livestock grass options. The map of agroforestry suitability can be served as a useful source in developing and expanding the area of agroforestry in the target provinces, and can be applied for other provinces in the same region in Vietnam.
Author Contributions
The analyses and interpretation were done by T.D.N and Q.M.V. The abstract and presentation were written by Q.M.V.
Funding
This research was supported by ACIAR-ICRAF funded project “Developing and promoting market-based agroforestry and forest rehabilitation options for northwest Viet Nam” (FST/2016/152).
Acknowledgments
This research was carried out by Soils and Fertilizers Research Institute (SFRI), Vietnam. The authors wish to thanks GIS group, Department of Soil Genesis and Classification of SFRI for the supports.
Conflicts of Interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
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