Dynamics of Land Use of an Equatorial Highland in West Sumatra

Abstract

This paper will attempt to describe and explain ecologically the changes of agricultural land use in relationto socio-economic circumstances in an equatorial highland region since the early part of the 20th century. In the preceding papers, we described the present vegetation and land use (Nakano et al., 1987) and some aspects of physical and chemical properties of the soil (Nakano and Syahbuddin, 1989) around Lake Diatas, Lake Dibaruh and Lake Talang in the Province of West Sumatra. We also focussed our attention on the rain catchment basins of the three lakes which are located in close proximity to one another, since such a basin can be regarded as a significant regional unit from the viewpoints of both natural and human ecology. © 1992, The Association of Japanese Geographers. All rights reserved.