Tree diversity and regeneration of Community forest2016.pptx

Community Forest has proved that participatory resource management is one of the sustainable ways to Natural Resource Management (NRM).
The principle aim of community forestry is to fulfill the basic forest products related needs of local people (Yadav, 2004).
Tree diversity in a forest plays significant role to maintain biodiversity of the forests.
Tree species diversity and regeneration pattern in community forest determine forestry activities along with natural variation and stability of the species in future.
Population of seedlings, saplings and young trees indicate a successful regeneration of forest species (Saxena et al. 1984).

Tree size distribution in the forest is important aspects to determine nature and amount of forest products to be harvested from particular patches of the forest.
Density of tree species preferred by local community in Rapti Community Forest showed reverse J shaped curved, indicating advance and sustainable regeneration.
Some species like Adina cordifolia (Karma) were recorded with high dBH value but with rare number of dBH class size at advance regeneration stage which was overexploited even at seedling stage due to grazing. Rapti Community Forest is achieving greenery than before however interior parts of the forest were highly disturbed and degraded.
Few species like Shorea roubusta, Terminalia alata and Woodcardia fruticosa had been found dominated near human settlement area.
Locally preferred tree species like Shorea robusta, Terminalia alata, Lagerstroemia parviflora, Hamiltollea sauneolells had high IVI, density, frequency with
advancregeneration stage
In some sampling plot diversity index was zero which was caused by the presence of single species Shorea robusta.
Some species like Ficus bengalensis (Bar), Ficus lacor (Kabro), Dalbergia latifolia (Sati sal) Albizia procera (Siris) were represented at adult stage but not at seedlings and could be promoted in future

1. STATUS OF RAPTI COMMUNITY FOREST IN RELATION WITH TREE DIVERSITY AND REGENERATION Presented by Suk Maya Pun Goldengate Int’l college Symbol no:18190 T.U.Regd.No:5-2-33-624-2007

2. Presentation Outline Introduction Objectives Problem statement Methodology Results and Discussion Conclusion Acknowledgements

3. Introduction Community Forest has proved that participatory resource management is one of the sustainable ways to Natural Resource Management (NRM). The principle aim of community forestry is to fulfill the basic forest products related needs of local people (Yadav, 2004). Tree diversity in a forest plays significant role to maintain biodiversity of the forests. Tree species diversity and regeneration pattern in community forest determine forestry activities along with natural variation and stability of the species in future. Population of seedlings, saplings and young trees indicate a successful regeneration of forest species (Saxena et al. 1984).

4. Introduction contd.. Forest composition, and diversity patterns are significantly correlated with prevailing environmental as well as anthropogenic variables (Ahmad et al., 2010). Fodder and firewood are needs of rural people; however, management is focused on timber trees, promoting certain species (Pandey, 2009). Information on tree composition and diversity of tree species are of primary importance in the planning and implementation of biodiversity conservation efforts and forest management.

5. Statement of the Problem The conservation of forest management activities carried out by the CFUGs play the major impact to increase the number of individuals ,diversity and regeneration of species. Rapti Community Forest (RCF) was handed over at the time when the forest was deforested. The forest was recovered after it was handed over to the community. At local level there is lacking of scientific database including the structure of vegetation, tree diversity and regeneration to understand actual forest status. It seems important to overview tree species and regeneration status with reference to local people’s where local pressure on tree resources is prevailing.

6. Objectives General objective; to study the status of Rapti Community Forest in context with tree diversity and regeneration of the forest. Specific Objectives To study forest structure, tree diversity and regeneration status of RCF. To study people's preferences on tree species for timber, fodder, and firewood. To study forest structure and regeneration of locally preferred tree species .

7. Materials and Methods Study Area: Rapti Community Forest (RCF) Hand over date: 2052 B.S Area: 1141.76 ha Location: Lalmatiya-3, Bhalubang Dang 820 2’ east to 820 5’ east longitude and 280 2’9’ north to 280 36’ north latitude Household s: 588 Forest Type: Dry siwalik Sal forest Vegetation: Shorea robusta, Terminalia alata , Acacia catechu, etc .

8. Materials Clinometers –Height(m) dBH tape- diameter of tree (cm) measured at breast height (1.4 m) Measuring tape to create circular plot GPS device-to locate plots in the forest.

9. Methodology Vegetation survey Sampling method : For vegetation sampling Community Forest Inventory Guidelines 2000 (2 nd Amendments 2004), and Carbon measurement guideline 2010 were followed. For the recording of vegetation data, circular sampling plot of 250 m 2 area with 8.92 m radius. Each plot was positioned in 300 m of distance (FRA field manual 2011). Total 96 circular plots were sampled from block Ka(1), Ka(2), Kha(1), Kha(2), Ga(1), Ga(2) and Gha with sample number; 19, 13, 17, 16, 12, 4 and 15 respectively.

10. Methodology……. Social Survey: Questionnaire survey was done with total 60 households representing 10.2% of total households. As per Nueman (1994), more than 10% sampling intensity for moderately large population is valid for the social studies. To determine sample size Arkin and Colton (1963), formula used where, n= sample size, N= total no. of households Z= confidence level (95% level, z= 1.96), p= estimated population proportion (0.5, this maximize the sample size), d= error limit 5% (0.05) Respondents were chosen randomly from different groups however, gender, age, distance between each household, economic status of local people were taken as reference Management Aspect: Focus Group Discussion with stakeholders of RCF.

11. Density (no./ha)= total no. of individual x 10000 Area of each sampling plot x Total no. of plot Frequency(%) = Total no plots in which species occurred x 100 Total no. of plot Basal area (m 2 ) = 3.14 x dBH 2 4 Important Value Index (IVI) = R.D+R.F+R.B Volume = (girth) 2 * H 16 Where, H= Height Girth= Perimeter of stem at Breast Height= 2∏r DBH= Diameter at Breast Height= 2r Structural Parameter of Vegetation Data Calculation

12. Methodology contd………….. Species diversity indices Shannon-Wiener’s Diversity Index H’ = -ƩPi*Ln*Pi (Shannon and Weiner, 1963) Simpson’s Dominance Index(C) =Σ(pi ) 2 Pi = proportion of individuals in the i th species i.e. (ni/N ). Species evenness(J) = H/Hmax (Magurran, 2004 ) . H = Shannon’s Index of Diversity Hmax= ln S where S = Number of species Species richness (SR) =Number of species occurred in the study area

13. Results Forest Structure: Shorea robusta had highest IVI value in all the sampled plot of the forest i.e 162.083 followed by Terminalia alata , Lagerstroemia parviflora , Hamiltollea sauneolells in all forest blocks. Ficus bengalensis (Bar), Terminallia chebulaI (Harro), Engelhardtia spicata (Mauwa), Holoptelea integrifolia (Pipari), Desmodium oojenense (Sadan), Diospyros melanoxylum (Khaltu), Garuga pinnata (Banjehngat), Alangium chinense (Bire) had very low IVI value representing low dominance.

14. Result: Diversity Indices Forest blocks no. of individual Pi Shannon Wienner (H')=ƩPiLnPi Species richness (s) Simpson dominance=(Pi)2 Hmax= Ln(S) Evenness= H'/Hmax Gha 326 0.066 1.504 15 0.004356 2.70805 0.55538 Ka (1) 525 0.052 1.4 19 0.002704 2.94444 0.47547 Ka(2) 321 0.043 1.95 23 0.001849 3.13549 0.62191 Kha1 295 0.04 2.072 25 0.0016 3.21888 0.64370 Kha2 251 0.055 1.37 18 0.003025 2.89037 0.47399 Ga1 228 0.058 1.99 17 0.003364 2.83321 0.70238 Ga2 79 0.066 1.86 15 0.004356 2.70805 0.68684 Mean value of Shannon Wienner Diversity index of Rapti Community Forest was 1.135. Total 41 tree species and 2025 number of individuals were recorded from 2.4 ha of sampling area.

15. Relations of diversity indices species richness and H' of the forest was positively correlated ( r 2 =0.7926, cor =0.8902, df =94, t = 18.9513) Simpson dominance index was negatively correlated ( r2 = 0.7597, cor = -0.871, df = 94, t= -17.24) with H

16. Fig: dBH density distribution of Shorea robusta Fig: dBH density distribution of Lagerstroemia parviflora Fig: dBH Density distribution of Terminalia alata Fig: dBH Density distribution of Buehanania latifolia dBH size class distribution of locally preferred tree species

17. Result contd…. Tree Density: Total tree density = 844.17 tree/ha, Among which Shorea robusta species had high density i.e 463.3333 tree/ha. Density of tree species

18. Result :Basal Area Total Basal Area =131 m 2 /ha among which Shorea robusta had highest basal area i.e 68.65 m 2 /ha. Similarly, species like Terminalia alata and Lagestromia parviflora had high basal area Engelhardtia spicata had low basal area i.e. 0.003958 m 2 /ha . Volume : Total volume =33244.99 m 3 . Among the species, Shorea robusta had highest tree volume i.e 16459.9 m 3 and Engelhardtia spicata had low volume i.e 0.11334 m 3 .

19. Regeneration Status Total no. of Seedlings=1669 and Saplings= 408 Total species of seedlings and saplings were 20 and 26 respectively with density of 173854 seedlings/ha and 425 saplings/ha respectively. Shorea robusta had high seedling density (97500 no./ha) among others. Species like Alangium chinense , Holoptelea integrifolia , had low seedling density(104 no/ha ) Species wise Sapling density

20. Regeneration Status Contd… Block wise sapling density Block wise seedling density

21. Result: Social Study Plant species Preferred by community for various purposes:

22. Discussion: Forest Structure Among the species Shorea robusta had high IVI value (162.083) DFSP (2008) found the distribution of Shorea robusta in Dang district had accounted more than 70%. Poudyal (2009) also reported the abundance of large proportion of Shorea robusta as dominant and influenced to the diversity index in Lamahi Mahadevpuri Landscape Complex area, which is geographically similar with Rapti Community Forest. Shannon Wienner diversity index of different forest block in RCF was ranged from 0 to 2.069 The value recorded by Poudel et al. (2009) in community forest of Dang was 2.186, which was slightly higher than recent average value of RCF. Variations in diversity index indicated composition, existence of species in per unit area, land variances, disturbances in forest patches.

23. Discussion contd…. Density and Basal Area: Total tree density = 844 tree/ha and Mean basal area =15.59 m 2 /ha. Timilsina et al. (2007) recorded the mean density across all plots was 220 trees/ha and the average basal area was 13.2 m 2 /ha in Sal forest of western Nepal. According to operational plan B.S. 2059 of Rapti Community Forest had, tree density as 428/ha According to Smiet (1992), basal area values may be related to the stand disturbance index. So, in the heavily disturbed forest stand the basal area is lower than in the undisturbed and mildly disturbed stands (Bhuyan et al 2003).

24. Discussion: Regeneration According to RCF operational plan data of 2059 B.S , total seedling density of the forest was 42037.61 seedlings/ha which was comparatively less than recent value (173854 seedlings/ha). At individual species level, most preferred species Shorea robusta had high seedling density which was also high before ten years according to RCF operational plan data (11718 seedlings/ha) Socially preferred tree species displayed high regeneration performance in forests subjected to moderate level of disturbance. In study area, forest prominent to human settlement was dominated by single or preferred seedling stages of trees, which were highly disturbed by grazing activities

25. Discussion: Preferred Species Species like Alangium chinense (Bire) Melia azedarach ( Bakaina ), Engelhardtia spicata (Mauwa), Cassille glauea ( Karikath ), Diospyros melanoxylum (Khaltu), Anogeissus latifolia ( Shidda ) which were less preferred by local community for timber purposes and occasionally used for fodder and firewood had low density and IVI value. The CF management influenced by economic benefits and promoting some tree species useful for timber, were prioritized and preferred As an important tree species, CFUGs put Shorea robusta  at the top priority to grow it in the forests.

26. Discussion contd….. Tree size distribution in the forest is important aspects to determine nature and amount of forest products to be harvested from particular patches of the forest. Density of tree species preferred by local community in Rapti Community Forest showed reverse J shaped curved, indicating advance and sustainable regeneration. Some species like Adina cordifolia (Karma) were recorded with high dBH value but with rare number of dBH class size at advance regeneration stage which was overexploited even at seedling stage due to grazing.

27. Conclusion Rapti Community Forest is achieving greenery than before however interior parts of the forest were highly disturbed and degraded. Few species like Shorea roubusta, Terminalia alata and Woodcardia fruticosa had been found dominated near human settlement area. Locally preferred tree species like Shorea robusta, Terminalia alata , Lagerstroemia parviflora , Hamiltollea sauneolells had high IVI, density, frequency with advance regeneration stage In some sampling plot diversity index was zero which was caused by the presence of single species Shorea robusta . Some species like Ficus bengalensis (Bar), Ficus lacor (Kabro), Dalbergia latifolia (Sati sal) Albizia procera (Siris) were represented at adult stage but not at seedlings and could be promoted in future

28. Recommendation Interior part of the forest is highly disturbed by anthropogenic activities so it should be controlled. Illegal logging of protected tree species like Shorea robusta, Accacia catechu, should be checked and monitoring mechanism should be implemented. CFUGs should enlist updated information about existing tree species in the forest. Forest protection like illegal logging and forest fire has been challenging. So it should be checked in close cooperation and coordination of district forest officials with community forest users groups.

29. Acknowledgements Supervisor: Mr. Rajeswar Shrestha Coordinator, GGIC: Dr. Man Kumar Dhamala Faculty member, GGIC: Mr. Prakash Chandra Aryal, Mr.Sanu Raja Maharjan Harka Gurung Fellowship of New Era , Kathmandu Nammy Hang Kirat and all friends Respondents and CFUGs of RCF Mr. Gem Bdr Khadka , Chairperson of RCF My Late Grand Mother and all family member My Mother

30. Photographs: Vegetation survey

31. Photographs…

32. Households survey

33. Households survey

34. Thank you Any Queries…????