Characterizing land-use diversity in village landscapes for sustainable mountain development: a case study from Indian Himalaya

Abstract

This study aimed to analyze the ecological, socio-economic and policy implications of land-use diversity in a traditional village landscape (900-1,000 m amsl.) in the Garhwal region of Indian Himalaya. The village landscape was differentiated into three major land-use types viz., forests, settled agriculture and shifting agriculture. Settled agriculture was further differentiated into four agroecosystem types viz., homegarden system (HGS), rainfed agroforestry system (RAS), rainfed crop system (RCS) and irrigated crop system (ICS), and shifting agriculture system (SAS) was differentiated into different stages of a 4-year long cropping phase and a 7-year long fallow phase, and forests into Community Forests (CF) and Reserve Forests (RF). HGS is the most productive agroecosystem, with soil organic carbon and nutrient concentrations significantly higher than all other forest/agricultural land-uses. Farmers capitalize upon crop diversity to cope with the risks and uncertainties of a monsoon climate and spatial variability in ecological factors influencing productivity. The SAS, a landuse adopted as a means of acquiring inheritable rights over larger land holdings provided in the policies during the 1890s, is less efficient in terms of land productivity than the traditional RAS and HGS but is maintained for its high labour productivity coupled with availability of high-quality fuelwood from fallow vegetation. Dominance of fodder trees in the RAS seems to derive from policies causing shortage of fodder available from forests. Cultural norms have favoured equity by allowing hiring of labour only from within the village community and income from non-timber forest products only to the weaker section of the society. Conversion of rainfed to irrigated cropping, a change facilitated by the government, improves agricultural productivity but also increases pressure on forests due to higher rates of farmyard manure input to the irrigated crops. Existing forest management systems are not effective in maintenance of a large basal area in forests together with high levels of species richness, soil fertility and resistance to invasive alien species Lantana camara. Farmers have to spend huge amount of labour and time in producing manure, managing livestock and other subsidiary farm activities. Interlinkages among agriculture, forests and rural economy suggest a need of replacing the present policies of treating agricultural development, forest conservation and economic development as independent sectors by an integrated sustainable development policy. The policy should promote technological and institutional innovations enabling parallel improvements in agricultural productivity and functions of forest ecosystems.

Participatory active restoration of communal forests in temperate Himalaya, India

“…With increasing education and awareness, people started questioning policies that prohibit the development of tree‐crop mixed systems while ignoring detrimental impacts of wildlife on their livelihood (Rao et al 2003). Tree‐crop mixed systems can be more efficient in sequestering carbon, conserving biodiversity, and enhancing livelihoods than the permissible exclusive plantations (Singh et al 2008; Bhadauria et al 2012; Semwal et al 2013). Damage to top‐down forest plantations and agricultural abandonment are the current outcomes of neglecting people's genuine needs (Rao et al 2003; Galabuzi et al 2014).…”

“…Legal prohibition on terracing and plowing in forest land seems a major barrier in mass production of rare and threatened medicinal herbs in degraded forest land, which can serve both local economic and global ecological interests in restoration. The rationale behind this prohibition is questioned when one finds traditional tree-crop mixed terraced farms to be more efficient in conserving soil, water, carbon stocks, and biodiversity than many silvicultural forests on natural slopes (Semwal et al 2004(Semwal et al , 2013Singh et al 2008).…”

Participatory forest restoration for sustainable livelihood: A case study from Himalaya

“…Characterization of species in terms of probabilities of their extinction articulated in the IUCN Red List and potential of climate change mitigation through carbon sequestration was altogether lacking in traditional knowledge. Nonetheless, medicinal herbs and bamboo selected for planting by people for early-high income rendered co-bene ts of biodiversity conservation and climate change mitigation (Singh et al, 2008;Salick et al, 2014;Laishram et al, 2020;Reang et al, 2022). Likewise, oak selected by people for its products (viz.…”

“…al., 2022).4.4 Forests, Landscape and LivelihoodDeforestation and forest degradation in the Indian Himlayan region are outcomes more of development of modern infrastructure/industries than agricultural expansion prohibited since 1880s or logging since 1970s. Likewise, agricultural abandonment is an outcome more of land holdings becoming too small to meet local needs/aspirations and prohibitive levels of depredation by wildlife concomitantly with effective implementation of policies of supplying subsidized food grains and creating opportunities of income to people from non-farm/non-forest sectors rather than depletion of soil fertility, weed infestation or climate change(Wakeel et al, 2005;Singh et al, 2008;Shimrah et al, 2015).Termination of manuring, soil/water conservation treatments and maintenance of agroforestry tree cover/health after abandonment of cropping results in emissions , biological invasion and positive feedbacks on detrimental wildlife in the present temperate climate unlike rapid passive restoration in the humid tropics(Evans et al., 2017; Dhakal & Kattel, 2019; Zethof et al, 2019; Zambiazi et al, 2021). Fantini, A.C., Piotto, D., Siminski, A., Vibrans, A.C., Oller, D.C., Geferson, E.P., Piazza, E., & Peña-Claros, M. (2021).…”

Study on spatial diversity and influencing factors of Tunpu settlement in Qianzhong

“…The research framework of the development law of rural settlements based on external factors such as nature, economy, society and culture has been widely used in the study of settlement space. For example, Singh et al [11] analyzed the in uencing factors of land use in the Galval region of rural India from three aspects: ecological, socio-economic and policy in uences. Liu Sheng et al [12] explained that natural and human activities are important driving forces that cause the spatial differences in the hollowing out of traditional settlements in Lishui.…”