Deforestation in Mwanza District, Malawi, from 1981 to 1992, as determinedfrom Landsat MSS imagery

Malawi is critically short of fuelwood, the primary energy source for its p overty-stricken populace. Deforestation from 1981 to 1992 in Mwanza Distric t in southern Malawi was assessed using Normalized Difference Vegetation in dex (NDVI) values calculated from multitemporal Landsat Multispectral Scann er (MSS) images. A control site, where vegetation change was assumed to be minimal, was used to account for the large effect of phenology on NDVI vari ability between images, and to reveal more subtle differences indicative of changes in percentage woody canopy cover. The average annual deforestation rate was estimated to be 1.8% in Mwanza District between 1981 and 1992. (C ) 2000 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.