Nophea Sasaki

Asian Institute of Technology · Department of Natural Resources Management (NRM)

If global policies intended to promote forest conservation continue to use the definition of “forest” adopted in 2001 by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (an area of >0.05–1 ha with >10–30% cover of plants >2–5 m tall at maturity), great quantities of carbon and other environmental values will be lost when natural forests a...

Inclusion of improved forest management as a way to enhance carbon sinks in the Copenhagen Accord of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (December 2009) suggests that forest restoration will play a role in global climate change mitigation under the post-Kyoto agreement. Although discussions about restoration strategies often p...

The 21st century has brought new challenges for forest management at a time when global climate change is becoming increasingly apparent. Additional to various goods and services being provided to human beings, forest ecosystems are a large store of terrestrial carbon and account for a major part of the carbon exchange between the atmosphere and th...

Promoting sustainable forest management as part of the reduced emissions from deforestation and degradation in developing countries (REDD)-plus mechanism in the Copenhagen Accord of December 2009 implies that tropical forests will no longer be ignored in the new climate change agreement. As new financial incentives are pledged, costs and revenues o...

Sustainable forest management (SFM) ensures the continuous flow of wood products and employment while improving the functionalities of forests as compared to conventional management. Until recently, many projects associated with the reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) scheme focused only on reducing emissions from de...

Amid urgent global climate and biodiversity crises, the strategic restoration of degraded forests stands as a vital countermeasure. This study pioneers a novel approach for the identification and prioritization of potential degraded forest areas suitable for restoration (PDFR), utilizing the advancements in Earth observation data. Utilizing Landsat...

Tourism plays a crucial role in promoting economic growth, but it can also contribute significantly to environmental degradation, particularly in urban areas where there is a high concentration of local residents and visitors. Tourism is crucial for economic development but can also harm the environment, particularly in urban areas where both local...

It is beneficial to a person’s physical and mental health to engage in regular physical activity, while public parks are a critical infrastructure for encouraging physical activity. However, little research has examined how parks’ and users’ characteristics affect activity intensity. Using primary data collected from 432 users of six public parks o...

Discrimination of mangrove stage changes is useful for the conservation of this valuable natural resource. However, present-day optical satellite imagery is not fully reliable due to its high sensitivity to weather conditions and tidal variables. Here, we used the Vertical Transmit—Vertical Receive Polarization (VV) and Vertical Transmit—Horizontal...

Assessment of forest cover changes is required to establish the forest reference emission level (FREL) at any scale. Due to civil conflict, such assessments have not yet been undertaken in Sri Lanka, especially in the conflict zone. Here, we assessed the forest cover changes in Vavuniya District, Sri Lanka, from 2001 to 2020, using a combination of...

Declining water tables and shrinking irrigation supply are two major challenges for agricultural production that increase production costs of high delta crops in Pakistan. Crop producers may tackle these threats by optimizing the use of available resources. To devise policies for improved resource use and cost reduction, assessing current efficienc...

Peatlands are recognized as the largest reservoirs of terrestrial carbon, and provide a multitude of ecosystem services if used appropriately. Here, we assessed carbon-based incentives and incentives from full ecosystem services as a means of conserving peatlands in comparison with benefits from other existing types of land use. A benefit-cost anal...

Sustainable agriculture plays an important role in achieving sustainable development goals with regard to food security and environmental conservation. Sustainable agriculture relies on sustainable farming practices that reduce greenhouse gas production, the wise use of local natural resources, and reductions in negative impacts on the environment...

To benefit from reducing deforestation under the Paris Agreement, developing countries need to establish a forest reference emission level (FREL) but no FREL study exists in Afghanistan yet. This study is aim at determining the FREL for Afghanistan between 2020 and 2030 using the retrospective and prospective approaches. Data of forest area in 1993...

Lately, the Hill Pond Rice System (HPRS) is being promoted as a form of alternative farming systems in selected northern provinces of Thailand, in which the land conversion is designed to maximize rainwater harvesting in farmland consisting of forest trees, water reservoirs, paddy fields, and high-value crop cultivation to serve environmental and l...

Humankind is digging to solve one of the world’s most complex issues at present, climate change. Many studies were conducted and initiatives were proposed as mitigation and adaptation strategies to date, such as restoration and preservation of carbon storage. Peatlands are widely recognized as the largest natural carbon storage of all terrestrial e...

While the district of Mae Moh, Thailand has been well known for its atmospheric pollution associated with coal power production, economic assessment of demand for improved air quality has not been conducted to date. This study estimated local residents’ individual and aggregate willingness to pay (WTP) for mitigation of atmospheric pollution in Mae...

Data on droughts and floods and their impacts on croplands and production are important for policy makers and the scientific community. This dataset was developed to provide data of the impacts of droughts and floods on agriculture in the Monsoon Climate Region and Equatorial Climate Region of Southeast Asia during the crop growing seasons over a 4...

Lack of understanding of the ways local subpopulations perceive various changes associated with rapid growth of the tourism industry may lead to unsustainable development. This study assessed the levels and determinants of residents’ perception regarding the changes in environmental, sociocultural, and economic conditions associated with tourism de...

Although the advent of new technologies and online platforms has revolutionized the face of marketing in agriculture sector, little study exists to assess the farmers’ willingness to adopt (WTA) such technologies for their products. Here, we assessed this WTA for a mobile app – the Bamboost for marketing bamboo products and determined the related f...

Climate change has had adverse impacts on agriculture, but only a handful of studies exist on this phenomenon in South-East Asia. To help provide better-informed policy interventions, in this study, the Google Earth Engine (GEE) cloud-computing platform was used to assess the temporal and spatial changes of drought conditions and related impacts on...

Assessment of the carbon balance due to changes in forest land uses could serve as an important benchmark for the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) scheme of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Here, we assessed the carbon gains and loss due to deforestation and plantation forestry in Southe...

The management of tropical forests can achieve multiple purposes. Here, we assessed timber production, bioenergy generation, and emission reductions through the management of production forest for timber and bioenergy production in Southeast Asia between 2000 and 2060 through a comparative study between the conventional and reduced impact logging (...

While droughts and floods have intensified in recent years, only a handful of studies have assessed their impacts on croplands and production in Southeast Asia. Here, we used the Google Earth Engine to assess the droughts and floods and their impacts on croplands and crop production over 40 years from 1980 to 2019. Using the Palmer Drought Severity...

Global efforts have been made to manage tropical forests for timber production and climate change mitigation. This study assessed carbon emission reductions through the improved forest management and the substitution of fossil fuels with wood biomasses under the conventional (CVL) and reduced impact logging (RIL) systems in Southeast Asia between 2...

Periodic assessment of the forest carbon stocks is needed as part of the global efforts to reduce deforestation and forest degradation and mitigate climate change. Here, we assessed carbon stocks, carbon emissions, removals, and reductions due to deforestation and management of the natural (NFs) and plantation forests (PFs) in Southeast Asia. We fo...

Coastal tourism development can appropriately contribute to the livelihood of the community. To date, few studies have been conducted on the impacts of tourism development on the coastal communities in Thailand. This study assessed these impacts through the analysis of local perceptions based on four criteria of tourism development—the economic, en...

Abstract Forest biomass estimation at large scale is challenging and generally entails large uncertainty in tropical regions. With their wall‐to‐wall coverage ability, passive remote sensing signals are frequently used to extrapolate field estimates of forest aboveground biomass (AGB). However, studies often use limited reference data and/or flawed...

United Nations Framework Conventions on Climate Change (UNFCC) conventions in their conference of parties (COPs) has continuously considered and agreed reducing emission level in order to minimize the impact of global climate change. Reducing emission due to deforestation and degradation (REDD) ,was considered as one of the major activities in this...

Management of teak plantation can contribute to global sustainability. The objective of this study is to assess the overall carbon storage through forest management in a teak plantation at Thong Pha Phum in Thailand from the time of planting to final felling. We collected field data from 30 quadrat sample plots of 30 m x 30 m size in teak plantatio...

Management of plantation forests for multiple purposes is critically important in the fight against climate change and loss of natural forests. This study aims to assess bioenergy generation, timber production, carbon emission reductions, carbon removals, and related carbon revenues through the management of plantation forests in Myanmar. We used t...

Development of private tube wells and groundwater markets have transformed the farming systems of smallholders in Pakistan, leading to the realization of economic incentives for higher outputs, profits, and sustainability. This chapter aimed at identifying significant factors affecting farmers’ choice of tube well ownership. The multinomial logit m...

Understanding the drivers of deforestation and forest degradation and the agents of such drivers is important for introducing appropriate policy interventions. Here, we identified drivers and agents of drivers through the analysis of local perceptions using questionnaire surveys, focus group discussions, and field observations. The Likert scale tec...

Identification of the drivers and their agents of deforestation and forest degradation is important for effective implementation of the REDD+ activities. Here, we identified the direct and indirect drivers through the analysis of local perceptions. The mixed method was used for data collection and analysis. A survey of 215 families and four focus g...

Digital and scalable technologies are increasingly important for rapid and large-scale assessment and monitoring of land cover change. Until recently, little research has existed on how these technologies can be specifically applied to the monitoring of Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) activities. Using the Googl...

Although vegetation phenology thresholds have been developed for a wide range of mapping applications, their use for assessing the distribution of natural bamboo and the related carbon stocks is still limited, especially in Southeast Asia. Here, we used Google Earth Engine (GEE) to collect time-series of Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) and...

This paper describes the importance of managing tropical forests for timber production, carbon emission reductions, and wood bioenergy in Suutheast Asia

This study focuses on the assessment of carbon stock changes, emissions and removals due to changes of natural forests and forest plantations in Southeast Asia between 2000-2030. It could provide a regional baseline emissions during the implementation period of the Paris Climate Agreement between 2020-2030.

This study uses Google Earth Engine to detect climate change in Southeast Asia and its impacts of agricultural sector.

Little study was done to understand the role of high-altitude oak forests in climate change mitigation. Here, we analyzed data from 30 sample plots collected along the four altitudinal gradients to assess species distribution and carbon stocks in the Panchase Conservation Area in Nepal. Three carbon pools were considered, namely aboveground carbon...

Long-term monitoring of vegetation is critical for understanding the dynamics of forest ecosystems, especially in Southeast Asia’s tropical forests, which play a significant role in the global carbon cycle and have continually been converted into various stages of secondary forests. In Thailand, long-term monitoring of forest dynamics during the su...

In recent years, international attention has been rendered to development of ecotourism for poverty reduction and biodiversity conservation. We assessed local livelihood assets in Kampong Phluk Community before and after the introduction of the community-based ecotourism (CBET) governance system, where it was previously under the private company ma...

Climate-change mitigation projects are expected to improve local livelihoods in targeted areas. Several REDD+ projects aimed at reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, conserving and enhancing forest carbon stocks, and sustainably managing forests have been implemented in Cambodia but few studies have examined the effects on l...

Half of Asian tropical forests were disturbed in the last century resulting in the dominance of secondary forests in Southeast Asia. However, the rate at which biomass accumulates during the recovery process in these forests is poorly understood. We studied a forest landscape located in Khao Yai National Park (Thailand) that experienced strong dist...

While development of the eco-industrial estates (EIEs) could contribute to the improvement of community livelihoods, little study was conducted to assess the performances after their implementation in Thailand. Here, we assessed the local perception on EIE performances in terms of physical, environmental, social, economic, and managerial aspects. A...

Half of Asian tropical forests were disturbed in the last century resulting in the dominance of secondary forests in Southeast Asia. However, the rate at which biomass accumulates during the recovery process in these forests is poorly understood. We studied a forest landscape located in Khao Yai National Park (Thailand) that experienced strong dist...

Aquaculture is one of the fastest growing food producing industries in the world. Aquaculture effluent contains high concentrations of inorganic nutrients. Reduction of these inorganic nutrients in aquaculture effluent is crucial for fulfilling the effluent standards or reuse of aquaculture effluent. This study investigated the effective use of gre...

Aquaculture is one of the fastest growing food producing industries in the world. Aquaculture effluent contains high concentrations of inorganic nutrients. Reduction of these inorganic nutrients in aquaculture effluent is crucial for fulfilling the effluent standards or reuse of aquaculture effluent. This study investigated the effective use of gre...

As more data and technologies become available, it is important that a simple method is developed for the assessment of land use changes because of the global need to understand the potential climate mitigation that could result from a reduction in deforestation and forest degradation in the tropics. Here, we determined the threshold values of vege...

Determining the optimum levels of macroalgal density and salinity for removing aquaculture effluent has gained increasing research interest in recent years because of the growing concerns over environmental sustainability. Here, we determined the effects of macroalgal density and salinity on the uptake of NO2−, NO3−, NH3, and PO43− by Caulerpa lent...

Understanding how indigenous people manage their natural resources can provide a basis for formulating appropriate policies for natural resources management that benefits them while preserving their cultural beliefs. The objective of this study is to investigate the factors that influence the management of natural resources and the conservation of...

In Pakistan, excessive lowering of the groundwater table has made crop irrigation costlier and without improving production efficiency, Pakistan's rural economy will be adversely affected. This study estimated the technical, allocative, and groundwater use efficiency of wheat producers, identified the factors affecting their allocative efficiency,...

Thailand has recently introduced agricultural policies to promote large-scale rice farming through supporting and integrating small-scale farmers. However, achieving these policies requires agricultural tools that can assist farmers in rice farming planning and management. Crop models, along with remote sensing technologies, can be useful for farme...

Changes in wetland environments can alter the dynamics of waterbird populations. We investigated the effects of hydrological and landscape variables on the abundance of resident waterbirds (ducks, fish-eaters, large waders, small waders, and vegetation gleaners) from 2003 to 2014 in Bung Boraphet, Thailand's largest freshwater wetland. Generalized...

Mapping forest types in a natural heterogeneous forest environment using remote sensing data is a long-standing challenge due to similar spectral reflectance from different tree species and significant time and resources are required for acquiring and processing the remote sensing data. The purpose of this research was to determine the optimum numb...

This empirical research investigates the factors influencing the adoption of three irrigation technologies using a probit statistical model: water wheel (WW), water pump (WP), and weir (WR) irrigation technologies as well as their economic returns per unit of rice cultivated area. The influencing factors were categorized into demographic, socioecon...

Climate change is adversely affecting smallholder farming households in Africa and in particular in Ghana because their activity depends on climate-regulated water resources. This study examined the vulnerability of smallholder maize farming households to climate change in the Brong-Ahafo region of Ghana by employing the Livelihood Vulnerability In...

Waterlogging is a persistent problem resulting in damage to crops and therefore the livelihood of the coastal people in the southwestern region of Bangladesh. It is important to better understand the perception of local people on this problem to formulate appropriate policy interventions. This research aimed at analyzing the perception of local peo...

China has considered tourism development as an important policy for reducing rural poverty. However, various governances of tourism development have affected local livelihood in different ways. Here, we assessed local livelihood under the community-based (CBT) and lease-to-operate tourism (LOT) governances in two tourism villages; the Jade and Phoe...

In May 2014, the Member States of the United Nations adopted Resolution 23/1 on “strengthening a targeted crime prevention and criminal justice response to combat illicit trafficking in forest products, including timber.” The resolution promotes the development of tools and technologies that can be used to combat the illicit trafficking of timber....

Waterlogging is a severe problem in the southwestern coastal region of Bangladesh. This research aims at exploring the severity of waterlogging problems and the practices of as well as perceptions about adaptation in the polders situated in Khulna, Bangladesh. A survey of the households was conducted. The study finds that community people spontaneo...

Effective governance is important for sustainable tourism development, especially in China, where local tourists have sharply increased over the last 20 years. This study aimed to assess the two different governance systems, the community-based tourism (CBT) and Lease-Operation Tourism (LOT) currently implemented in the Jade and Phoenix Valley near...

The REDD+ scheme of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change has provided opportunities to manage tropical forests for timber production and carbon emission reductions. To determine the appropriate logging techniques, we analyzed potential timber production and carbon emission reductions under two logging techniques over a 40-year...