Carbon Stock in Community Managed Hill Sal (<i>Shorea robusta</i>) Forests of Central Nepal

Thapa‐Magar, Khum B.; Shrestha, Bharat Babu

doi:10.1080/10549811.2015.1031251

Cited by 30 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…Irrespective of the different management durations, all the CFs included in the present study were highly degraded with sparse shrubby vegetation and a few isolated trees before the management was initiated by the local communities. In terms of tree stocking, the management by CFUG has had positive impact on these CFs (Thapa-Magar and Shrestha 2015). Slightly higher proportion of mycorrhizal fungi in the CFs managed for >10 years (35%) than in the CFs managed for <10 years (30%) might be the result of improvement in forest health after conservation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Macrofungal diversity in community-managed sal (Shorea robusta) forests in central Nepal

et al. 2015

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Macrofungi constitute a group of the high-value forest resources worldwide. In this paper, we report species richness and composition of the macrofungi in sal (Shorea robusta) forests of mid-hill central Nepal, which were managed for 4–29 years by the local communities. The sal forests were rich in macrofungi (115 species) with Polyporaceae being the largest family followed by Clavariaceae. Saprotrophic fungi were more common than mycorrhizal species. The proportion of mycorrhiza was <40% of the total macrofungi species which might have indicated the deteriorated condition of the forests before the initiation of conservation management. However, the proportion of mycorrhizal species was slightly higher in the forests managed for >10 years than in the forests managed for short period. The species richness increased with increasing canopy and litter cover. Since silvicultural activities and resource utilization often have negative impacts to macrofungal diversity, these activities need to be optimized to keep balance between forest management and biodiversity conservation.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Macrofungal diversity in community-managed sal (Shorea robusta) forests in central Nepal

et al. 2015

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“…Ecosystem based management of IAPS, i.e., prevention and control of IAPS though proper management of habitat/ecosystem, has been increasingly felt necessary as the number of IAPS and the areas of natural ecosystems that they have invaded are continuously increasing (Guo et al 2018). Thousands of small to large patches of forests in Nepal are being managed by local communities, and, as a result of their management, the ecological conditions of forests have improved substantially in terms of vegetation cover, tree stocking, ecosystem services, and biodiversity conservation (Shrestha et al 2010;Thapa-Magar andShrestha 2015, Oldekop et al 2019). Results of this study suggests that these participatory forest managements might have also helped to prevent and control many IAPS.…”

Section: Conclusion and Management Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Forest regrowth reduces richness and abundance of invasive alien plant species in community managed Shorea robusta forests of central Nepal

Khaniya

Shrestha

2020

j ecology environ

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Background: Natural forests are generally considered to be less prone to biological invasions than other modified ecosystems, particularly when canopy cover is high. Few decades of management of degraded forests by local communities in Nepal has increased canopy cover and altered disturbance regimes. These changes might have reduced the abundance of invasive alien plant species (IAPS) in forests. To understand the status of IAPS in such forests, we studied two community managed Shorea robusta forests (Sundari and Dhusheri) of Nawalpur district in central Nepal. In these two forests, vegetation sampling was done using circular plots 10 m radius at forest edge, gaps, and within canopy. Variation of IAPS richness and cover across these microhabitats were compared, and their variation with tree canopy cover and basal area analyzed. Result: Altogether 14 IAPS were recorded in the study forests; among them Chromolaena odorata, Ageratum houstonianum, and Lantana camara had the highest frequency. Mikania micrantha was at the early stage of colonization in Sundari Community Forest (CF) but absent in Dhuseri CF. Both IAPS cover and richness was higher at forest edge and gap than in canopy plots and both these attributes declined with increasing canopy cover and tree basal area. Conclusion: The results indicate that increase in canopy cover and closure of forest gaps through participatory management of degraded forests can prevent plant invasions and suppress the growth of previously established IAPS in Shorea robusta forests of Nepal. This is the unacknowledged benefit of participatory forest management in Nepal.

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“…This devolution has been recognized as a major accomplishment in natural resource management and is often credited with successfully curbing deforestation, revitalizing degraded forests and protecting forests, while supporting local livelihoods [ 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 ]. Recent studies suggest that it could also increase carbon storage [ 11 , 12 , 13 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The effects of the Nepal community forestry program on biodiversity conservation and carbon storage

Luintel¹,

Bluffstone

Scheller

2018

PLoS ONE

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Approximately 15.5% of global forest is controlled by ~1 billion local people and the area under community control is increasing. However, there is limited empirical evidence as to whether community control is effective in providing critical global ecosystem services, such as biodiversity conservation and carbon storage. We assess the effectiveness of one example of community-controlled forest, Nepal’s Community Forestry Program (CFP), at providing biodiversity conservation and carbon storage. Using data from 620 randomly selected CFP and non-CFP forest plots, we apply a robust matching method based on covariates to estimate whether CFPs are associated with greater biodiversity conservation or carbon storage. Our results reveal a significant positive effect of CFP on biodiversity, which is robust against the influence of unobserved covariates. Our results also suggest a significant negative effect of the CFP on aboveground tree and sapling carbon (AGC) at the national scale (-15.11 Mg C ha-1). However, the CFP has a mixed effect on carbon across geographic and topographic regions and in forests with different canopy covers. Though there were no significant effects of the CFP on AGC at lower altitudes, in the Terai or hill regions, and under closed canopies, there were positive effects in open canopies (25.84 Mg C ha-1) at lower slopes (25.51 Mg C ha-1) and negative effects at higher altitudes (-22.81 Mg C ha-1) and higher slopes (-17.72 Mg C ha-1). Our sensitivity analysis revealed that the positive effects are robust to unobserved covariates, which is not true for the negative results. In aggregate, our results demonstrate that CFP can be an effective forest management strategy to contribute to global ecosystem services such as biodiversity, and to a lesser extent carbon.

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Carbon Stock in Community Managed Hill Sal (Shorea robusta) Forests of Central Nepal

Cited by 30 publications

References 29 publications

Macrofungal diversity in community-managed sal (Shorea robusta) forests in central Nepal

Macrofungal diversity in community-managed sal (Shorea robusta) forests in central Nepal

Forest regrowth reduces richness and abundance of invasive alien plant species in community managed Shorea robusta forests of central Nepal

The effects of the Nepal community forestry program on biodiversity conservation and carbon storage

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