Aforestation and people’s involvement, Social Forestry, Agro forestry, Silvipastures and Wind Breaks
Aforestation:- It is the artificial establishment of forests by planting or seeding in an area of non- forest land.
People’s involvement in Aforestation:- It is a voluntary process whereby people, individually or through organized groups, can exchange information, express opinions and articulate interests, and have the potential to influence decisions or the outcome of the matter at hand.
Purposes of public participation:-
a. Increase awareness of forestry issues and mutual recognition of interests:-
- awareness raising on forest related issues
- promotion of dialogue and mutual learning
- means to build trust and engage people
- recognition of stakeholders' interests / stakeholder empowerment
b. Gather information and enhance knowledge on forests and their users:-
- giving & receiving information on all issues
- social impact assessment
- increase knowledge about forests
c. Improve provision of multiple forest goods and services:-
- improve forestry as an output
- increase benefits & beneficiaries
- match supply with demand
- improve forest outputs through external skills, interests, experience and resources
- maintain and develop employment and livelihood opportunities
- know what sort of services to deliver from public forests
d. Stimulate involvement in decision making and / or in implementation processes:-
- find balance between different interests
- involvement / buy-in of stakeholders
- enhance stakeholders' influence in decision making
e. Enhance acceptance of forest policies, plans and operations:-
- greater commitment to agreed plans
- increase social acceptance of management decision and forestry practices
f. Increase transparency and accountability of decision making:-
- input on how best to spend public money
- transparency in allocation of public funds
- as a public service to guarantee public interest
- protect individual and collective interests and rights
g. Identify and manage conflicts and problems together, in a fair and equitable way:-
- identify & prevent/anticipate conflicts
- conflict & problem resolution
Benefits of public participation:-
a. Increase public awareness of forests and forestry among the public:- Active participation, information exchange and collaborative learning are means to increase awareness of the public about more or less complex forestry issues. Mutual recognition between forest related interests improves general awareness of the multiple values of forests and strengthens trust between forest related actors.
b. Maximize the total benefits of forests:- Increased dialogue with the public opens up new opportunities for the forest sector to better define social demands toward forests and forest resources at all levels. This is a means to improve market-oriented delivery of forest goods and services. Active public involvement in forestry also enables one to track social changes in the uses of forests and facilitate integration of these changes in forest management. All these contribute to improving
multiple use forestry and so maximize the total benefits of forests.
c. Share costs and benefits in a fair and equitable way:- In public participation, all parties involved in the process have an equal opportunity to express their opinions and an equitable chance to assert their interests and rights. Because of the voluntary nature of the process, no decision can be imposed on anybody. This implies that the results of the process can only be based on commonly agreed solutions and a sharing of resulting costs and benefits acceptable to all. In offering opportunities to mutually define how costs and benefits of forests may be equitably shared, public participation opens new perspectives for both society and the forest sector to improve the valuation of forest goods and services.
d. Enhance the social acceptance of sustainable forest management:- Finally, public participation in forestry may be considered a means to develop betterinformed and more widely accepted forest management outcomes - at all levels. Social acceptance of forest management also enhances public commitment to sustainable forest management.
Social Forestry:- It means making use of unused and fallow lands so that deeper forests are safeguarded from exploitation, by using fast-growing trees to meet the needs of fodder and fuelwood.
The National Commission on Forests used the term Social Forestry in 1976. The main aim of the commission was to use land surrounding urban settlements, deforested due to human activities.
Objectives of Social Forestry:-
i. Improve the environment for protecting agriculture from adverse climatic factors.
ii. Increase the supply of fuelwood for domestic use, small timber for rural housing, fodder for livestock, and minor forest produce forlocal industries.
iii. Increase the natural beauty of the landscape; create recreational forests for the benefit of rural and urban populations.
iv. Provide jobs for unskilled workers.
v. Effect land rehabilitation.
vi. Raise the standard of living and quality of life of rural and urban people.
Benefits of Social Forestry:-
i. Fight Against Global Warming:- Trees have a vital role in removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Areas having tree cover will be much cooler than the areas without it, thus helping in reducing the energy use. Trees reduce carbon dioxide by acting as a carbon dioxide sink.
ii. Soil Conservation:- Social forestry helps in soil conservation through the following ways.
- Tree roots help in preventing soil erosion by holding the soil in its place.
- Trees reduce soil erosion by reducing the impact of raindrops on the barren surface.
- Decaying leaves makes the soil richer by forming an organic layer on top and reducing the soil erosion.
- It also helps in increasing the capacity of soil in storing water.
iii. Biodiversity will be Increased:- Well grown trees will offer habitation for various animals, plants, shrubs, birds, insects etc. The trees become a source of food and shelter.
iv. Health Benefits by Improving Air Quality:- It helps people by removing various pollutants present in the atmosphere and gives clean and fresh air to breath. Clean air is vital for the health of human beings. Moreover, many types of trees have medicinal values.
v. Conservation of Energy:- It provides a cooling effect to an area it has been planted. Thus it helps in reduced consumption of air conditioners, which directly reduces energy consumption. Lesser energy consumption means a lesser demand for power, which directly leads to lesser power generation through power plants that consume fossil fuels.
vi. Social Benefits:- Social forestry helps in the creation of recreation parks, which will help people destress due to busy schedules in their lives.
Types of Social Forestry:-
i. Scientific Forestry or Silviculture
ii. Farm Forestry
iii. Community Forestry
iv. Agro-Forestry
v. Extension Forestry
Agro forestry:- It is a combination of agriculture and tree growing activity with an objective of producing agricultural products and tree products on a commercial basis. This method of forestry helps in increasing the productivity, economic benefits, social outcomes and the ecological goods and services.
Objective of Agro-forestry:-
i. To manage land efficiently so that its productivity is increased and restored.
ii. To use available resources efficiently and economically
iii. To generate employment opportunities for rural peoples.
iv. To provide raw material for small cottage industries in rural areas.
v. To raise the supply of fuel in the rural areas at convenient distance for consumer. In India 70 million tons of dried cow dung is used every year, which can be diverted for natural organic fertilizer moreover undue pressure is on traditional forest for obtaining fuel wood.
vi. Agro-forestry aims to raise the supply for small timber used by villages for agricultural implements, house construction and other domestic purposes. In this way Agroforestry can meet this requirement of the rural population and reduce pressure on forest.
vii. One of the main objectives of Agroforestry is to raise the production of food crops, legumes and tuber to meet the rapidly growing food requirements of the Indian population.
viii. Agroforestry aims at promoting production of, vegetables, pulses, milk and meat. Thus it can raise the Nutritional value of food, which is urgently, require for mankind in our country. Average Indian gets 2000 calories when 3000 calories require per day.
ix. Agro-forestry program helps in obtaining an ecological balance in rural areas and thus it may be consider a matter of great significance for a country like India.
x. Preservation of humidity in cultivable lands and check soil erosion. Increase productivity of land. In drought prone areas Agroforestry reduces insecurity of the agriculture; in such areas the dual system of production of tree and grasses ensures stability with productivity of land.
xi. Supply of fodder for vast population of livestock. For proper feeding to livestock increase supply of fodder is urgently required. Large supply of milk and meat is achieved from livestock and poultry when fodder and feeding is proper.
Silvipasture:- Silva is forest in Latin. It is the practice of integrating trees, forage, and the grazing of domesticated animals in a mutually beneficial way. It utilizes the principles of managed grazing, and it is one of several distinct forms of agroforestry.
> Properly managed silvopasture (grazed woodland) can increase overall productivity and long-term income due to the simultaneous production of tree crops, forage, and livestock, and can provide environmental benefits such as carbon sequestration.
> Silvopasture is one of the oldest known forms of agriculture, and has been practiced in many parts of the world for centuries. Silvopasture is not the same as unmanaged grazing in woodlands, which has many known negative environmental consequences.
Benefits:-
- Open pasture systems are a result of mass deforestation, generating the loss of carbon storage, decreasing water availability, and increasing soil nutrients to a point that is damaging both to the ecosystem and to humans.
- A primary benefit of silvopasture is increased farmland utilization - silvopasture can incorporate unused woodlands into production and produce multiple products on the same acreage. This diversifies farm income sources and increases farm viability.
- Silvopasture has been found to increase wildlife abundance and diversity and to contribute to carbon sequestration and climate change mitigation.
Livestock:-
- Trees in silvopasture systems provide livestock with protection from sun and wind, which can increase animal comfort and improve production.
- Trees can provide shade in the summer and windbreaks in the winter, allowing livestock to moderate their own temperature.
- Heat stress in livestock has been associated with decreased feed intake, increased water intake, and negative effects on production, reproductive health, milk yields, fitness, and longevity.
- Certain tree types can also serve as fodder for livestock. Trees may produce fruit or nuts that can be eaten by livestock while still on the tree or after they have fallen. The leaves of trees may serve as forage as well, and silvopasture managers can utilize trees as forage by felling the tree so that it can be eaten by livestock, or by using coppicing or pollarding to encourage leaf growth where it is accessible to livestock.
Forage:-
- Well-managed silvopasture systems can produce as much forage as open-pasture systems under favorable circumstances.
- Silvopasture systems have also been observed to produce forage of higher nutritive quality than non-silvopasture forage under certain conditions.
- Increased forage availability has been observed in silvopasture systems compared to open-pasture systems under drought conditions, where the combination of shade from trees and water uptake from tree roots may reduce drought impacts.
Trees:-
- Silvopasture is compatible with fruit, nut, and timber production.
- Grazing can serve as a cost-effective vegetation and weed control method.
- Silvopasture can also help reduce pests and disease in orchards - when introduced into an orchard after harvest, livestock are able to consume unharvested fruits, preventing pests and diseases from spreading via these unharvested fruits and in some cases consuming the pests themselves.
Methods:- Silvopasture can be established by planting trees into existing pasture or by establishing pasture in existing woodland. The two methods differ significantly:
i. Integrating trees into pasture:- Planting trees into existing pasture presents several challenges: young trees must be protected from livestock, trees may take years to become productive (depending on the species), and planting trees in a pasture can limit the ability to use that land for other purposes in the future.
ii. Integrating pasture into woodland:- Integrating pasture into existing woodland presents challenges as well: the woodland likely needs to be thinned to increase light infiltration, which is time consuming and may require heavy machinery, as well as a strategy for dealing with felled trees. Thinned woodlands are also likely to experience a flush of growth in weeds and seedling trees that must be dealt with to prevent the pasture from being overgrown. Pasture forages may also need to be established beneath the trees, a process which can be difficult if trees have already been felled.
Wind Breaks:- These are linear plantings of trees and shrubs designed to enhance crop production, protect people and livestock, and benefit soil and water conservation. Windbreaks can provide valuable opportunities for vine and tree fruit growers, row crop farmers, livestock producers, and rural homeowners.
Benefits:-
i. Boost crop yield and quality:- Crop yield and quality. By microclimate modification, field and orchard windbreaks have been shown to increase the yield of many different crops. Windbreak protection can be especially valuable in orchards and vineyards of high-value horticultural crops.
ii. IPM (Integrated Pest Management):- By incorporating plants that attract beneficial insects, windbreaks can also serve to increase biological control of crop insect pests.
iii. Add specialty crops:- Non-timber products. By using trees and shrubs that produce specialty food or decorative products, Eg.- Chokecherry or corkscrew willow, windbreaks can provide extra income.
iv. Improve animal survival and weight gain:- Animal survival. Tree-sheltered havens, or living barns, within pastures can make the difference between death and survival for livestock subject to harsh weather conditions, Eg.- Newborn and newly-shorn sheep.
v. Livestock performance:- Windbreaks around feedlots have been shown to improve the health and weight gain of cattle and sheep in cold climates.
vi. Produce timber from windbreaks:- Timberbelts. Multirow windbreaks of fast-growing species such as poplar can be sequentially thinned for timber products while maintaining continuity of shelter.
vii. Control wind erosion:- Soil and water conservation. Windbreaks are proven effective in reducing wind erosion of light-textured soils. By dispersing snow evenly across fields, windbreaks help make more moisture available for crops.
viii. Manage snow dispersal:- Snow control. Properly placed windbreaks prevent snow buildup around buildings and on roadways.
ix. Reduce energy costs and improve comfort:- Energy conservation. Rural homes protected by windbreaks need 10-20% less energy for heating and cooling compared to unsheltered homes.
x. Human comfort:- Windbreaks around farm dwellings and rural communities improve quality of life for the inhabitants by reducing wind speed along with noise and dust. Established windbreaks increase property values and enhance aesthetic benefits.
xi. Wildlife habitat:- Trees and shrubs provide much-needed food and habitat for game birds and other wildlife.
xii. Carbon credits:- It has been estimated that for each acre planted in field windbreaks, over 21 metric tons of carbon dioxide will be stored in the trees by age 20.