Canopy Research in Nepal Himalayas: Opportunities and Challenges

2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
Mohan P. Devkota
Keyword(s):  
Rural Communities ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Forest Canopy ◽  
Sustainable Use ◽  
Conservation Strategy ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
Interdisciplinary Field ◽  
Use Of Resources ◽  
Functional Aspects ◽  
Canopy Research

 Despite a rapidly expanding interdisciplinary field worldwide, forest canopies of Nepal Himalayas are yet to be explored and the national conservation strategy still has to recognize the importance to identify it as an essential domain of canopy dwelling animals and plants. In the last few decades canopy science has emerged as a new discipline with more interdisciplinary and large-scale research possibilities are coming including canopy-atmosphere interactions, structural and functional aspects of canopy on biodiversity are a few among them. Canopies are important in supporting high terrestrial diversity and providing goods and services. Diverse rural mountain societies not only depend on goods and services provided by canopy but it also provides opportunities to explore sustainable use of resources for local livelihood generation. New frontiers of forest canopy research can also provide inputs to understand the potential impacts of climate change on the changing availability of goods and services affecting rural communities of Nepal. Yet, it still remains one of the unexplored and overlooked areas in the biodiversity sector of Nepal. Here, the opportunities of canopy research in Nepal Himalayas and various challenges associated with this are reviewed.

scholarly journals Matsulu: A community in developmental fermentation and fusion

2006 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Johan Visser ◽  
Rian Terblanche
Keyword(s):  
Rural Communities ◽  
Waste Management ◽  
Mission Statement ◽  
Sustainable Use ◽  
White Paper ◽  
Personal Agency ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Use Of Resources ◽  
Theatre For Development ◽  
University Of Pretoria

Since 2004, the Drama Department (University of Pretoria) has engaged in the development and execution of Theatre-for-Development projects in accordance with the mission statement of the Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT), as well as the White Paper on Integrated Pollution and Waste Management for South Africa (1998) – shifting governmental approach to this sensitive socio-economical issue from cure to prevention – to interrogate issues concerning the environment, sustainable use of resources and subsequently: conservation, within developing urban and rural communities. Theatrefor-Development (TFD) utilizes theatre to disseminate developmental messages.This paper should be seen as not so much as a report of an end result, but as research in progress. Continued projects addressing the issues of conservation, the environment, development and sustainability will in future lead to more definite reporting on results. The paper investigates the ability of TFD to affect changes of behaviour and encourage personal agency and empowerment in community members concerning waste management and the sustainable use of resources within a developing rural society.It will not claim to be definitive; results and conclusions can not be generalized.

Temporal-spatial changes in ecosystem services and implications for the conservation of alpine rangelands on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau

2015 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiao-Wen Li ◽  
Meng-Di Li ◽  
Shi-Kui Dong ◽  
Jian-Bin Shi
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Carbon Storage ◽  
Habitat Quality ◽  
Spatial Patterns ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Sustainable Use ◽  
Conservation Strategy ◽  
Ecosystem Conservation ◽  
Water Provision

Ecosystem services emerged as a concept to bridge ecosystem conservation and the sustainable use of natural resources. Given the limited funding and resources available for ecosystem conservation, fully understanding and identifying the temporal-spatial patterns of ecosystem services can help establish a cost-efficient ecosystem conservation strategy. Although studies have indicated globally important ecosystem services on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP), key ecosystem services, such as carbon storage, water provision and habitat quality, have not been spatial-explicitly quantified, leading to a lack of understanding of key spatial patterns for conservation of this unique alpine ecosystem. To fill this gap, these three key ecosystem services were simulated for the QTP rangelands by using the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Trade-off model, and the hotspots of those ecosystem services were evaluated and identified. It was shown that alpine meadows played a key role compared with alpine steppe and alpine desert in providing the ecosystem services of water provision, carbon storage and habitat quality in the alpine rangelands of the QTP. In addition, it was shown that there had been a considerable decrease in both the potential and the protected hotspots of ecosystem service between 1990 and 2000, implying that the existing conservation system (i.e. National Nature Reserves) could not effectively maintain these hotspots and that there was a need to restore those degraded rangeland ecosystems within the existing conservation system. The large-scale spatial heterogeneity among the different ecosystem services found in this study can be used to inform a more comprehensive conservation strategy for the provision of ecosystem services as well as biodiversity in the QTP rangelands.

STUDY OF POND STATUS IN INDIA : A REVIEW

2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
V.K. YADAV ◽  
SONAM SHARMA ◽  
A.K. SRIVASTAVA ◽  
P.K. KHARE
Keyword(s):  
Fresh Water ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Human Population ◽  
Climate Changes ◽  
Hydrological Cycle ◽  
Habitat Destruction ◽  
Conservation Strategy ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
Human Use ◽  
Over Exploitation

Ponds are an important fresh water critical ecosystem for plants and animals providing goods and services including food, fodder, fish, irrigation, hydrological cycle, shelter, medicine, culture, aesthetic and recreation. Ponds cover less than 2 percent of worlds land surface. Ponds are important source of fresh water for human use. These are threatened by urbanization, industrialization, over exploitation, fragmentation, habitat destruction, pollution, illegal capturing of land and climate changes. These above factors have been destroying ponds very rapidly putting them in danger of extinction of a great number of local biodiversity. It is necessary to formulate a correct conservation strategy for pond restoration in order to meet the growing needs of fresh water by increasing the human population. Some measures have been compiled and proposed in the present review.

Land Use Change and Commodity Frontiers

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel M. Cáceres ◽  
Esteban Tapella ◽  
Diego A. Cabrol ◽  
Lucrecia Estigarribia
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Field Work ◽  
Dry Forest ◽  
Social Actors ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
Fast Pace ◽  
Forest Use ◽  
The Government ◽  
Social Environmental ◽  
Management Recommendations

Argentina is experiencing an expansion of soya and maize cultivation that is pushing the agricultural frontier over areas formerly occupied by native Chaco forest. Subsistance farmers use this dry forest to raise goats and cattle and to obtain a broad range of goods and services. Thus, two very different and non-compatible land uses are in dispute. On the one hand subsistance farmers fostering an extensive and diversified forest use, on the other hand, large-scale producers who need to clear out the forest to sow annual crops in order to appropriate soil fertility. First, the paper looks at how these social actors perceive Chaco forest, what their interests are, and what kind of values they attach to it. Second, we analyze the social-environmental conflicts that arise among actors in order to appropriate forest’s benefits. Special attention is paid to the role played by the government in relation to: (a) how does it respond to the demands of the different sectors; and (b) how it deals with the management recommendations produced by scientists carrying out social and ecological research. To put these ideas at test we focus on a case study located in Western Córdoba (Argentina), where industrial agriculture is expanding at a fast pace, and where social actors’ interests are generating a series of disputes and conflicts. Drawing upon field work, the paper shows how power alliances between economic and political powers, use the institutional framework of the State in their own benefit, disregarding wider environmental and social costs. 

scholarly journals Dynamic variations in salinity and potassium grade of a potassium-rich brine deposit in Lop Nor basin, China

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lichun Ma ◽  
Kai Wang ◽  
Yu Zhang ◽  
Qingfeng Tang ◽  
Hui Yan
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Sustainable Use ◽  
Potassium Sulfate ◽  
Middle Pleistocene ◽  
Underground Brine ◽  
Average Decrease ◽  
Rational Development ◽  
Mining History ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Lop Nor

AbstractThe Quaternary Lop Nor playa is the largest production base of potassium sulfate in the world. It has a mining history of more than 10 years, and its share in the Chinese potassium sulfate market is about 50% to-date. In this basin, the high-salinity potassium-rich brines are mainly contained in Middle Pleistocene–Holocene glauberite strata. Based on the monitoring of the underground brine table and geochemical analysis, this study reveals variations in the underground brine table and potassium-bearing grade before and after large-scale mining in the Lop Nor potash deposit. The results showed that the underground brine table and potassium sulfate grade decreased by varying degrees over sub-mineral areas after large-scale mining. The underground brine table declined by 8.5 m, on average, in the Luobei depression, by 6.4 m in the Tenglong platform and by 1.9 m in the Xinqing platform. However, the potassium-bearing grade showed the different trend. The Tenglong platform had the largest decline with average decreases in layers W1, W2 and W3 of 18.2%, 13.0% and 24.8%, respectively. In the Xinqing platform, the average decrease in layersW2 and W3 were 17.4% and 16.0% respectively. The Luobei depression decreases were relatively small (W1, W2 and W3 decreased 4.3%, 4.2% and 3.1%, respectively). This research provides a theoretical basis for the rational development and sustainable use of the potassium-rich brines in the Lop Nor basin.

scholarly journals Mapping ‘wild zones’ of globalisation: on private actors and the rule of law

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-113
Author(s):  
Chantal Mak
Keyword(s):  
Global Economy ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
International Investments ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Private Corporations ◽  
Comprehensive Framework ◽  
Private Actors ◽  
The Impact

While private corporations have become increasingly influential in the global economy, a comprehensive legal framework for their activities is missing. Although international and regional legal instruments may govern some aspects of, for instance, international investments and the supply of goods and services, there is no overarching structure for assessing the impact of large-scale private projects. In the absence of such a comprehensive framework, specific rules of private law allow profit-seeking companies to expand their activities on an economic basis, mostly without having to heed social concerns (Pistor, 2019). This is particularly problematic insofar as multinational companies have obtained power to set the rules for their engagement with states, organisations and individuals, for instance in the form of transnational investment contracts. Given the fragmented nature of the legal sphere in which such contracts are elaborated and performed, those who face the harmful consequences of such investments may not be able to participate in decision-making processes. The contracts remain in ‘wild zones’ of globalisation (Fraser, 2014, p. 150), where powerful private companies rule.

scholarly journals Synthesizing published knowledge of boreal forest cover change for large-scale landscape dynamics modelling

2003 ◽  
Vol 79 (1) ◽  
pp. 132-146 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dennis Yemshanov ◽  
Ajith H Perera
Keyword(s):  
Boreal Forest ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Forest Canopy ◽  
Forest Cover ◽  
Forest Succession ◽  
Simulation Models ◽  
Limiting Factors ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
Forest Cover Change ◽  
Discrete State

We reviewed the published knowledge on forest succession in the North American boreal biome for its applicability in modelling forest cover change over large extents. At broader scales, forest succession can be viewed as forest cover change over time. Quantitative case studies of forest succession in peer-reviewed literature are reliable sources of information about changes in forest canopy composition. We reviewed the following aspects of forest succession in literature: disturbances; pathways of post-disturbance forest cover change; timing of successional steps; probabilities of post-disturbance forest cover change, and effects of geographic location and ecological site conditions on forest cover change. The results from studies in the literature, which were mostly based on sample plot observations, appeared to be sufficient to describe boreal forest cover change as a generalized discrete-state transition process, with the discrete states denoted by tree species dominance. In this paper, we outline an approach for incorporating published knowledge on forest succession into stochastic simulation models of boreal forest cover change in a standardized manner. We found that the lack of details in the literature on long-term forest succession, particularly on the influence of pre-disturbance forest cover composition, may be limiting factors in parameterizing simulation models. We suggest that the simulation models based on published information can provide a good foundation as null models, which can be further calibrated as detailed quantitative information on forest cover change becomes available. Key words: probabilistic model, transition matrix, boreal biome, landscape ecology

Conservation of animal genetic resources: approaches and technologies for in situ and ex situ conservation

2008 ◽  
Vol 42 ◽  
pp. 71-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.A. Woolliams ◽  
O. Matika ◽  
J. Pattison
Keyword(s):  
Rural Communities ◽  
Genetic Resources ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Production Systems ◽  
Regional Distribution ◽  
Livestock Production ◽  
Ex Situ ◽  
Animal Genetic Resources ◽  
The Face ◽  
Livestock Products

SummaryLivestock production faces major challenges through the coincidence of major drivers of change, some with conflicting directions. These are:1. An unprecedented global change in demands for traditional livestock products such as meat, milk and eggs.2. Large changes in the demographic and regional distribution of these demands.3. The need to reduce poverty in rural communities by providing sustainable livelihoods.4. The possible emergence of new agricultural outputs such as bio-fuels making a significant impact upon traditional production systems.5. A growing awareness of the need to reduce the environmental impact of livestock production.6. The uncertainty in the scale and impact of climate change. This paper explores these challenges from a scientific perspective in the face of the large-scale and selective erosion of our animal genetic resources, and concludes thai there is a stronger and more urgent need than ever before to secure the livestock genetic resources available to humankind through a comprehensive global conservation programme.

scholarly journals Estimating Forest Canopy Cover by Multiscale Remote Sensing in Northeast Jiangxi, China

Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 433
Author(s):  
Xiaolan Huang ◽  
Weicheng Wu ◽  
Tingting Shen ◽  
Lifeng Xie ◽  
Yaozu Qin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Remote Sensing ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Forest Canopy ◽  
Canopy Cover ◽  
Google Earth ◽  
Tree Canopy ◽  
Landsat Data ◽  
High Resolution Data ◽  
Modis Ndvi ◽  
Tree Canopy Cover

This research was focused on estimation of tree canopy cover (CC) by multiscale remote sensing in south China. The key aim is to establish the relationship between CC and woody NDVI (NDVIW) or to build a CC-NDVIW model taking northeast Jiangxi as an example. Based on field CC measurements, this research used Google Earth as a complementary source to measure CC. In total, 63 sample plots of CC were created, among which 45 were applied for modeling and the remaining 18 were employed for verification. In order to ascertain the ratio R of NDVIW to the satellite observed NDVI, a 20-year time-series MODIS NDVI dataset was utilized for decomposition to obtain the NDVIW component, and then the ratio R was calculated with the equation R = (NDVIW/NDVI) *100%, respectively, for forest (CC >60%), medium woodland (CC = 25–60%) and sparse woodland (CC 1–25%). Landsat TM and OLI images that had been orthorectified by the provider USGS were atmospherically corrected using the COST model and used to derive NDVIL. R was multiplied for the NDVIL image to extract the woody NDVI (NDVIWL) from Landsat data for each of these plots. The 45 plots of CC data were linearly fitted to the NDVIWL, and a model with CC = 103.843 NDVIW + 6.157 (R2 = 0.881) was obtained. This equation was applied to predict CC at the 18 verification plots and a good agreement was found (R2 = 0.897). This validated CC-NDVIW model was further applied to the woody NDVI of forest, medium woodland and sparse woodland derived from Landsat data for regional CC estimation. An independent group of 24 measured plots was utilized for validation of the results, and an accuracy of 83.0% was obtained. Thence, the developed model has high predictivity and is suitable for large-scale estimation of CC using high-resolution data.

scholarly journals Retrieving Forest Canopy Elements Clumping Index Using ICESat GLAS Lidar Data

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 948
Author(s):  
Lei Cui ◽  
Ziti Jiao ◽  
Kaiguang Zhao ◽  
Mei Sun ◽  
Yadong Dong ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Forest Canopy ◽  
Remote Sensing Data ◽  
Alternative Methods ◽  
High Signal ◽  
Laser Altimeter ◽  
Waveform Data ◽  
Forest Park ◽  
Clumping Index ◽  
The Impact

Clumping index (CI) is a canopy structural variable important for modeling the terrestrial biosphere, but its retrieval from remote sensing data remains one of the least reliable. The majority of regional or global CI products available so far were generated from multiangle optical reflectance data. However, these reflectance-based estimates have well-known limitations, such as the mere use of a linear relationship between the normalized difference hotspot and darkspot (NDHD) and CI, uncertainties in bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) models used to calculate the NDHD, and coarse spatial resolutions (e.g., hundreds of meters to several kilometers). To remedy these limitations and develop alternative methods for large-scale CI mapping, here we explored the use of spaceborne lidar—the Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS)—and proposed a semi-physical algorithm to estimate CI at the footprint level. Our algorithm was formulated to leverage the full vertical canopy profile information of the GLAS full-waveform data; it converted raw waveforms to forest canopy gap distributions and gap fractions of random canopies, which was used to estimate CI based on the radiative transfer theory and a revised Beer–Lambert model. We tested our algorithm over two areas in China—the Saihanba National Forest Park and Heilongjiang Province—and assessed its relative accuracies against field-measured CI and MODIS CI products. We found that reliable estimation of CI was possible only for GLAS waveforms with high signal-to-noise ratios (e.g., >65) and at gentle slopes (e.g., <12°). Our GLAS-based CI estimates for high-quality waveforms compared well to field-based CI (i.e., R2 = 0.72, RMSE = 0.07, and bias = 0.02), but they showed less correlation to MODIS CI (e.g., R2 = 0.26, RMSE = 0.12, and bias = 0.04). The difference highlights the impact of the scale effect in conducting comparisons of products with huge differences resolution. Overall, our analyses represent the first attempt to use spaceborne lidar to retrieve high-resolution forest CI and our algorithm holds promise for mapping CI globally.

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