Protected areas and landscape change in mainland Southeast Asia (Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam)

This dissertation examines the influence of protected areas and national conservation policies on the landscape of mainland Southeast Asia. The research considers landscape conditions in parks and wilderness areas at several scales. First, the study examines differing patterns of protected areas in the countries of Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand, and Vietnam. Second, case studies in Thailand and Laos show the role of parks in mitigating land cover change since the early 1970s. Finally, discussions of individual park areas link local places to environmental conditions and processes of change at the regional and national scales.; Protected areas occupy over 14% of the total land surface of Indochina, varying from around 9% of Vietnam's land area to over 20% in Cambodia. Although parks are disproportionately located in remote upper elevations throughout the region, this pattern differs by state. Thailand, with the region's first modern protected area in 1962, has established a great number of parks since then. These vary greatly in forest cover, size, and isolation. By contrast, the more recent parks of Lao PDR are relatively few in number, of consistently larger size, and well-forested.; The case studies in Lao PDR and Thailand highlight the variability of both the location and pace of environmental change around parks. Thailand's protected areas exist in a context of widespread deforestation driven by processes of economic development, national security promotion, and agricultural expansion. In Laos, parks lie in historically contested areas protected by their topographic remoteness and political isolation. These factors complicate conservation efforts and significantly influence the environmental character of contemporary parks.; Within individual states, environmental and cultural differences further modify the outcomes of conservation efforts. While governments deploy technologies such as mapmaking, classification, and forestry to create protected areas, local actors in Thailand and Lao PDR have used these same technologies to forward their own interests. The results indicate protected areas are an effective tool for national conservation, but also a venue for political and cultural conflicts.