Land cover and soil erosion estimation of production forest during logging moratorium in mount seulawah, aceh indonesia

Increase of deforestation in Aceh has been growing concern, despite logging moratorium has been imposed since 2007. Deforestation has caused land cover changes, and led to uncontrolled erosion and flooding. This study aimed to find out land cover change during legal moratorium of production forest of Mount Seulawah, Aceh, and the level of soil erosion caused due to land cover changes. Descriptive method was implemented for this study. Qualitative and quantitative analysis were applied. Data collection was carried out in Forest Production Management, Region I, Banda Aceh, while field data was carried out in Production Forest, Lembah Seulawah Sub-district, Aceh Besar during May till July 2016. Landsat 8 OLI Path 131 Row 56 of January 18, 2015 was utilized in this study. Soil erosion calculation was done using Wischmeier Method (USLE). Overlying maps of class of erosion and a map of soil depth was carried out to produce map of erosion hazard. Rate of erosion hazard was classified based on the Minister of Forestry of Republic Indonesia Number P.32/Menhut-II/2009 guidelines. The findings show legal moratorium not significantly affects the continuing of erosion hazard due to Illegal logging, deforestation and land cover change. Secondary forest (57.71%) and bush (40.95%) are dominant vegetation in the area. Soil erosion level in the area was from light to severe with dominant of light erosion (59.13%).