Nandan Kumar , Rajiv Pandey , Jawaid Ashraf

Abstract

Planting trees outside forests will be an additional source of raising forest cover. However, there is large disparity within the farmer communities for tree planting at their farm at regional scale. This study has considered addressing the issue of adaptation of tree planting in two regions of UP for comparison. These are the Western region with high density of tree plantation at farm; and Eastern region with low density. The information related to social, economic and decision making environment within households besides the infrastructural, extension and technical aspects were collected through pretested questionnaire from 39 and 66 randomly selected households from Eastern and Western UP respectively. Economic motives in tree growing are evident in the share of commercial forest tree species in the farm forest tree content. The study concludes that social and economic environment within the households governs the tree planting on both the regions besides external factors. The farmers of Western UP have better access for market (79%), industry accessibility (83%), cheap transport and agents (89% and 76%), planting materials availability (75%) and loan facility (65%) in comparison to Eastern UP, where these practices are quite low. Association analysis confirms that the land and economic status were influencing the adaptation decisions. Based on the stepwise regression analysis for households' contextual factors, a regular flow of off-farm incomes adds to investible capacity of farm households and encourages tree growing. That the heterogeneity in adoption decision is a function of myriad of factors, which includes intrinsic characteristics of household and state affairs, for the training and extension besides the functionality of the regulatory bodies. Therefore, policy and programme should address both the economic motives of farmers and other associated factors for encouraging tree planting.

Keywords

Farmforestry, Agroforestry, Farmland, Wasteland, Stepwise Regression, Public Policy,
Peasant Farmers

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Jawaid Ashraf

Abstract

Forest and trees provide various goods and services to mankind for livelihood purposes since time immemorial. Remote sensing is a way of acquiring information about the surface of the earth without actually being in contact with it. Remote sensing and Geographical Information System (GIS) has wide application in forestry as well as other sectors like agriculture, infrastructural (urban) development, etc. Satellite remote sensing technologies can also be used as a tool for monitoring, assessment, reporting and verification of carbon credits and co-benefits under an eventual REDD mechanism. Remote sensing has facilitated extraordinary advances in the modeling, mapping, and understanding of forestry and ecosystems. For carrying out the quality research and education, there is a need of highly motivated and committed teachers, researchers and scientists starving for excellence. Therefore, effective human resource development efforts are vital for ensuring productive output as subject experts of remote sensing and GIS by carrying out the proper planning and its implementation particularly in the field of forestry education and research. These efforts have to be systematically planned and implemented. Scientists from different disciplines of forestry have joined the hands with geographers in geospatial satellite technology for a variety of forest-related issues and its applications which is reviewed in this paper.

Keywords

Forest, Remote Sensing, GIS, Forest Management, Biomass, Climate Change

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M. P. Singh ¹, P. P. Bhojvaid ¹, S. R. Reddy ¹, Jawaid Ashraf ¹

Affiliations
1 Forest Research Institute, Dehradun, IN

Abstract

The shift from decrease to a trend of increasing forest cover associated with economic development of a nation or to a geographical region is referred to as forest transition. Studies indicate that earlier stage of human development is marked by high forest cover and low deforestation but increase in incomes accelerate the rate of deforestation leading to loss of forest cover; but at incomes beyond a certain level, the rate of deforestation reduces; then the trend reverses and a slow increase in forest cover is seen. Evidences of Indian forest transition were tried to be traced from the Land Use and Land Cover Change for the period 1880-1980. Supplementing this data with the recent forest cover data of FSI from 1990 onwards, an attempt has been made to characterize forest transition in India. Deforestation was the dominating aspect in the initial temporal phase (till 1980), large scale afforestation/rehabilitation, social forestry and agro-forestry programmes of the state and central governments dominated the temporal phase of forest transition in India during the period of 1980-2000. Conservation and sustainable management of forests dominated the later phase 3 (Beyond 2000). Timber production from government forests gradually declined about 2 million m from the forests (excluding trees outside forests) in 2010 while most of the wood produced in the country come from trees outside forests (TOF) grown in private lands under agro-forestry, along the roads, canal, homesteads, etc. It's predicted that in a business as usual scenario, the forest transition in India will follow the trend as established in the last three decades and it is projected that the forest cover will increase to 71.34 million hectare in 2020. Forest transition trajectory in the forest transition curve indeed serves an easy instrument for testing the effectiveness of government interventions and policy implications.

Keywords

Afforestation, Conservation, Forest Cover Change, Forest Transition, Deforestation, Forest Degradation, Policy Implications

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M. P. Singh ¹, S. R. Reddy ¹, Jawaid Ashraf ¹

Affiliations
1 Forest Research Institute, Dehradun, IN

Abstract

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Keywords

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