scholarly journals India’s Commitments to Increase Tree and Forest Cover: Consequences for Water Supply and Agriculture Production within the Central Indian Highlands

Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 959
Author(s):  
Benjamin Clark ◽  
Ruth DeFries ◽  
Jagdish Krishnaswamy
Keyword(s):  
Groundwater Recharge ◽  
Forest Cover ◽  
Hydrological Modeling ◽  
Monsoon Season ◽  
Forest Policy ◽  
Central India ◽  
Field Measurements ◽  
Tree Cover ◽  
Policy Goals ◽  
The Impact

As part of its nationally determined contributions as well as national forest policy goals, India plans to boost tree cover to 33% of its land area. Land currently under other uses will require tree-plantations or reforestation to achieve this goal. This paper examines the effects of converting cropland to tree or forest cover in the Central India Highlands (CIH). The paper examines the impact of increased forest cover on groundwater infiltration and recharge, which are essential for sustainable Rabi (winter, non-monsoon) season irrigation and agricultural production. Field measurements of saturated hydraulic conductivity (Kfs) linked to hydrological modeling estimate increased forest cover impact on the CIH hydrology. Kfs tests in 118 sites demonstrate a significant land cover effect, with forest cover having a higher Kfs of 20.2 mm hr−1 than croplands (6.7mm hr−1). The spatial processes in hydrology (SPHY) model simulated forest cover from 2% to 75% and showed that each basin reacts differently, depending on the amount of agriculture under paddy. Paddy agriculture can compensate for low infiltration through increased depression storage, allowing for continuous infiltration and groundwater recharge. Expanding forest cover to 33% in the CIH would reduce groundwater recharge by 7.94 mm (−1%) when converting the average cropland and increase it by 15.38 mm (3%) if reforestation is conducted on non-paddy agriculture. Intermediate forest cover shows however shows potential for increase in net benefits.

scholarly journals Evaluating Forest Cover and Fragmentation in Costa Rica with a Corrected Global Tree Cover Map

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (19) ◽  
pp. 3226
Author(s):  
Daniel Cunningham ◽  
Paul Cunningham ◽  
Matthew E. Fagan
Keyword(s):  
Costa Rica ◽  
Forest Cover ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Forest Area ◽  
Tree Cover ◽  
Agricultural Crop ◽  
Forest Change ◽  
Alos Palsar ◽  
Tropical Regions ◽  
The Impact

Global tree cover products face challenges in accurately predicting tree cover across biophysical gradients, such as precipitation or agricultural cover. To generate a natural forest cover map for Costa Rica, biases in tree cover estimation in the most widely used tree cover product (the Global Forest Change product (GFC) were quantified and corrected, and the impact of map biases on estimates of forest cover and fragmentation was examined. First, a forest reference dataset was developed to examine how the difference between reference and GFC-predicted tree cover estimates varied along gradients of precipitation and elevation, and nonlinear statistical models were fit to predict the bias. Next, an agricultural land cover map was generated by classifying Landsat and ALOS PalSAR imagery (overall accuracy of 97%) to allow removing six common agricultural crops from estimates of tree cover. Finally, the GFC product was corrected through an integrated process using the nonlinear predictions of precipitation and elevation biases and the agricultural crop map as inputs. The accuracy of tree cover prediction increased by ≈29% over the original global forest change product (the R2 rose from 0.416 to 0.538). Using an optimized 89% tree cover threshold to create a forest/nonforest map, we found that fragmentation declined and core forest area and connectivity increased in the corrected forest cover map, especially in dry tropical forests, protected areas, and designated habitat corridors. By contrast, the core forest area decreased locally where agricultural fields were removed from estimates of natural tree cover. This research demonstrates a simple, transferable methodology to correct for observed biases in the Global Forest Change product. The use of uncorrected tree cover products may markedly over- or underestimate forest cover and fragmentation, especially in tropical regions with low precipitation, significant topography, and/or perennial agricultural production.

scholarly journals Trends of forest area and population and the impact of population on forest area per hectare in Serbia without APS

2012 ◽  
pp. 183-196
Author(s):  
Nenad Rankovic
Keyword(s):  
Population Density ◽  
Population Growth ◽  
Forest Cover ◽  
Forest Policy ◽  
Forest Area ◽  
Economic Changes ◽  
Policy Measures ◽  
Per Capita ◽  
The Impact

Socio-economic changes throughout history have shaped the attitude towards the forest and most significant ones are changes in terms of population. Over the centuries population and population density have had a significant impact on deforestation and the reduction of forest areas. Therefore, it is important to check what kind of trends are concerned and how population growth affects forest areas, forest cover and forest area per capita. These elements are important for assessing the direction, intensity of activity and the degree of success in the implementation of all forest policy measures in Serbia.

scholarly journals Effect of oil palm sustainability certification on deforestation and fire in Indonesia

2017 ◽  
Vol 115 (1) ◽  
pp. 121-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kimberly M. Carlson ◽  
Robert Heilmayr ◽  
Holly K. Gibbs ◽  
Praveen Noojipady ◽  
David N. Burns ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Palm Oil ◽  
Oil Palm ◽  
Forest Cover ◽  
Fire Detection ◽  
Tree Cover ◽  
Forest Loss ◽  
Detection Rates ◽  
Active Fire ◽  
Routine Monitoring ◽  
The Impact

Many major corporations and countries have made commitments to purchase or produce only “sustainable” palm oil, a commodity responsible for substantial tropical forest loss. Sustainability certification is the tool most used to fulfill these procurement policies, and around 20% of global palm oil production was certified by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) in 2017. However, the effect of certification on deforestation in oil palm plantations remains unclear. Here, we use a comprehensive dataset of RSPO-certified and noncertified oil palm plantations (∼188,000 km2) in Indonesia, the leading producer of palm oil, as well as annual remotely sensed metrics of tree cover loss and fire occurrence, to evaluate the impact of certification on deforestation and fire from 2001 to 2015. While forest loss and fire continued after RSPO certification, certified palm oil was associated with reduced deforestation. Certification lowered deforestation by 33% from a counterfactual of 9.8 to 6.6% y−1. Nevertheless, most plantations contained little residual forest when they received certification. As a result, by 2015, certified areas held less than 1% of forests remaining within Indonesian oil palm plantations. Moreover, certification had no causal impact on forest loss in peatlands or active fire detection rates. Broader adoption of certification in forested regions, strict requirements to avoid all peat, and routine monitoring of clearly defined forest cover loss in certified and RSPO member-held plantations appear necessary if the RSPO is to yield conservation and climate benefits from reductions in tropical deforestation.

scholarly journals Effect of urban Morphology on Subtropical Humid Microclimate: the case of Bhopal, India

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 2376-2382
Keyword(s):  
Thermal Stress ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Central India ◽  
Ground Cover ◽  
Field Measurements ◽  
Ambient Air ◽  
Urban Morphology ◽  
Air Temperatures ◽  
New City ◽  
The Impact

In a humid subtropical atmosphere, urbanisation leads to increased thermal stress. The outside thermal stress depends on the flexibility of the geometrical arrangement of the buildings and its morphology and also materials to absorb solar radiation (albedo). The purpose of this study is to look at the influence of the morphology and water bodies on the microclimate of Bhopal, a town in central India. In this study the impact of urban morphology on microclimate is assessed through filed measurements. The field measurements included ambient air temperatures, humidity and wind speed. These metrological parameters were measured at nine sites in which three are in the old city, four in a new city and two sites falls in the suburbs. All three types of sites differed in terms of the building height by street width (H/W) ratio, ground cover, and distance to the lakes. In urban areas air high-temperature differences were mostly found during daytime. A highest intra-urban dissimilarity of 6ºC has been traced on clear days. Within the urban areas, the humidity was found normal (up to25-30%), and showed little diurnal variation. Few other factors that affected the temperature were also observed and are discussed in this paper

scholarly journals MULTITEMPORAL ANALYSIS OF FOREST COVER CHANGE USING REMOTE SENSING AND GIS OF KANHA TIGER RESERVE, CENTRAL INDIA

2018 ◽  
Vol XLII-5 ◽  
pp. 211-219 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. M. Devi ◽  
B. Sinha ◽  
J. Bisaria ◽  
S. Saran
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Remote Sensing ◽  
Land Use ◽  
Land Cover ◽  
Forest Cover ◽  
Central India ◽  
Adaptation Strategies ◽  
Land Use Land Cover ◽  
Tiger Reserve ◽  
The Impact

<p><strong>Abstract.</strong> Forest ecosystems play a key role in global ecological balance and provide a variety of tangible and intangible ecosystem services that support the livelihoods of rural poor. In addition to the anthropogenic pressure on the forest resources, climate change is also impacting vegetation productivity, biomass and phenological patterns of the forest. There are many studies reported all over the world which use change in Land Use Land Cover (LULC) to assess the impact of climate change on the forest. Land use change (LC) refers to any anthropogenic or natural changes in the terrestrial ecosystem at a variety of spatial or temporal scale. Changes in LULC induced by any causes (natural/anthropogenic) play a major role in global as well as regional scale pattern which in turn affects weather and climate. Remote sensing (RS) data along with Geographic Information System (GIS) help in inventorying, mapping and monitoring of earth resources for effective and sustainable landscape management of forest areas. Accurate information about the current and past LULC including natural forest cover along with accurate means of monitoring the changes are very necessary to design future adaptation strategies and formulation of policies in tune of climate change. Therefore, this study attempts to analyze the changes of LULC of Kanha Tiger Reserve (KTR) due to climate change. The rationale for selecting KTR is to have a largely intact forest area without any interference so that any change in LULC could be attributed to the impact of climate change. The change analysis depicted changes in land use land cover (LULC) pattern by using multi-temporal satellite data over a period of time. Further, these detected changes in different LULC class influence the livelihoods of forest-dependent communities. As the study site is a Sal dominated landscape; the findings could be applied in other Sal dominated landscape of central India in making future policies, adaptation strategies and silvicultural practices for reducing the vulnerability of forest-dependent communities.</p>

Economic Issues Related to Asian Deforestation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefanie Onder ◽  
James T. Erbaugh ◽  
Georgia Christina Kosmidou-Bradley
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chains ◽  
Multinational Corporations ◽  
Forest Cover ◽  
Local Population ◽  
Economic Incentives ◽  
Forest Monitoring ◽  
Tree Cover ◽  
Forest Governance ◽  
Observation Data ◽  
The Impact

The loss of Asian forests represents one of the most significant changes in contemporary land cover. Between 2000 and 2020 alone, an area twice the size of Malaysia has lost its tree cover as measured by Earth observation data. These trends have significant repercussions for greenhouse gas emissions, carbon storage, the conservation of biodiversity, and the wellbeing of Indigenous Peoples and local communities (IPLCs), making Asian deforestation a phenomenon of global concern. There are many immediate factors that drive deforestation across Asia, but the conversion to commodity agriculture is the leading cause. Most notably, the expansion of oil palm and rubber plantations by both multinational corporations and smallholders has led to dramatic conversion of forests. The production of timber as well as pulp and paper has further contributed to significant deforestation, with the evolution of each sector often driven by government policies, such as logging bans. However, it is the underlying drivers (i.e., distal and proximate causes) that determine where and when commodity production displaces forest cover. They are particularly challenging to tackle in a globalized world, where consumption patterns driven by local population and income growth lead to environmental and social change in distant producer countries, including in Asia. Certification programs and legality requirements have been put in place to address these externalities with varying success. Deforestation in Asia is also facilitated by weak governance and regulatory frameworks, where forest rights are often unclear, and financial, technological, and human resources for forest monitoring are limited. Several contemporary forest governance strategies seek to promote sustainable management of Asian forests. Financial mechanisms such as reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) and payments for ecosystem services (PES) schemes seek to provide economic incentives for forest conservation. Pledges and activities to remove deforestation from commodity supply chains seek to respond to consumer demand, promote corporate environmental and social responsibility, and reduce the extent to which commodity supply chains contribute to Asian deforestation. And multiple state-led initiatives across Asia to empower IPLCs aim to align forest management objectives between national governments, subnational administrations, and local people. Assessing the impact of interventions related to financial mechanisms, corporate responsibility, and local forest governance will be critical to shaping the future of Asian forest cover change.

scholarly journals Sub-divisional summer monsoon rainfall over India in relation to low pressure systems over the Bay of Bengal and adjoining land regions during 1982-1999

MAUSAM ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 59 (3) ◽  
pp. 327-338
Author(s):  
M. MOHAPATRA
Keyword(s):  
Summer Monsoon ◽  
Bay Of Bengal ◽  
West Coast ◽  
Monsoon Rainfall ◽  
Monsoon Season ◽  
Central India ◽  
Low Pressure ◽  
Seasonal Rainfall ◽  
West Central ◽  
The Impact

A study is undertaken to find out characteristic features of relationship of the low pressure system (LPS) over the Bay of Bengal and adjoining land regions with the rainfall over different meteorological sub-divisions of India during summer monsoon season (June-September). For this purpose, rainfall over 35 meteorological sub-divisions in India and LPS days over west central (WC) Bay, northwest (NW) Bay, northeast (NE) Bay, Bangladesh (BDS), Gangetic West Bengal (GWB), Orissa, north coastal Andhra Pradesh (NCAP), east Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh (EMPC) and Jharkhand (JKD) during different monsoon months and the season as a whole over a period of 18 years (1982-1999) are analysed. There is large month to month variation in the impact of the LPS on the sub-divisional monsoon rainfall over India. However, the results presented in the study including developed correlation maps may be helpful to predict 24 hours rainfall based on the location of the LPS and associated monsoon trough.   The frequent development and persistence of LPS over NW Bay are favourable for higher seasonal monsoon rainfall over east central India. The development and persistence of LPS over WC Bay adversely affect the seasonal rainfall over this region. On the other hand, the frequent development and persistence of LPS over WC Bay and its subsequent westward movement across NCAP are favourable for higher seasonal rainfall over the peninsular region excluding west coast. The seasonal rainfall over northwest India decreases with increase in LPS days over EMPC. The seasonal rainfall over west central India, northeast India and west coast are not significantly related with the number of LPS days over the regions under consideration.

scholarly journals Evidence that a national REDD+ program reduces tree cover loss and carbon emissions in a high forest cover, low deforestation country

2019 ◽  
Vol 116 (49) ◽  
pp. 24492-24499 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anand Roopsind ◽  
Brent Sohngen ◽  
Jodi Brandt
Keyword(s):  
Forest Cover ◽  
Forest Degradation ◽  
Tree Cover ◽  
Forest Protection ◽  
Forest Policies ◽  
Deforestation Rates ◽  
Climate Change Mitigation Policy ◽  
Implementation Period ◽  
Rich Countries ◽  
The Impact

Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) is a climate change mitigation policy in which rich countries provide payments to developing countries for protecting their forests. In 2009, the countries of Norway and Guyana entered into one of the first bilateral REDD+ programs, with Norway offering to pay US$250 million to Guyana if annual deforestation rates remained below 0.056% from 2010 to 2015. To quantify the impact of this national REDD+ program, we construct a counterfactual times-series trajectory of annual tree cover loss using synthetic matching. This analytical approach allows us to quantify tree cover loss that would have occurred in the absence of the Norway-Guyana REDD+ program. We found that the Norway-Guyana REDD+ program reduced tree cover loss by 35% during the implementation period (2010 to 2015), equivalent to 12.8 million tons of avoided CO2 emissions. Our analysis indicates that national REDD+ payments attenuated the effect of increases in gold prices, an internationally traded commodity that is the primary deforestation driver in Guyana. Overall, we found strong evidence that the program met the additionality criteria of REDD+. However, we found that tree cover loss increased after the payments ended, and therefore, our results suggest that without continued payments, forest protection is not guaranteed. On the issue of leakage, which is complex and difficult to quantify, a multinational REDD+ program for a region could address leakage that results from differences in forest policies between neighboring countries.

scholarly journals EQUATIONS TO ESTIMATE TREE GAPS IN A PRECISION FOREST MANAGEMENT AREA THE AMAZON BASED ON CROWN MORPHOMETRY

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Evandro Orfanó Figueiredo ◽  
Marcus Vinicio Neves d´Oliveira ◽  
Philip Martin Fearnside ◽  
Evaldo Muñoz Braz ◽  
Daniel de Almeida Papa
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
Forest Cover ◽  
Field Measurements ◽  
Airborne Lidar ◽  
Projection Area ◽  
Management Technique ◽  
Explanatory Variables ◽  
Impact Area ◽  
Crown Projection Area ◽  
The Impact

ABSTRACT The precision forest management technique still has much to be improved with the incorporation of forest biometric techniques and forest profiling with airborne LIDAR. When planning the cutting of a tree in forest management, the volume to be produced for industry is estimated but not the area impacted by removal of the tree. The objective of the present study was to develop equations for the Amazon rainforest that are able to estimate the impact area of gaps from harvesting individual dominant and co-dominant trees based on the canopy morphology obtained through forest profiling. On two separate occasions profiles were made in an annual forest-production unit in the Antimary State Forest (FEA) in the state of Acre, Brazil. The first was done a few days before the start of logging in 2010 and the second was done after completion of harvest activities in 2011. With field measurements and processing of the cloud of LIDAR points, dendrometric and morphometric variables were obtained for the canopy in order to develop equations for estimating gap areas. After evaluation of the explanatory variables with the highest correlation with gap area, the method used considered all possible models and included 2-4 parameters. The explanatory variables that best represent the impact of clearings are volume of the crown (VCop) and crown-projection area (APC). Ten equations were selected, of which two were chosen for use; these had R2 aj > 75% and Syx <23%. The good fit of the equations demonstrates the potential use of LIDAR to obtain information for estimating in advance the gaps in the forest cover that will be created from harvesting trees of different sizes.

scholarly journals Potential improvement for forest cover and forest degradation mapping with the forthcoming Sentinel-2 program

2015 ◽  
Vol XL-7/W3 ◽  
pp. 417-423 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Hojas-Gascon ◽  
A. Belward ◽  
H. Eva ◽  
G. Ceccherini ◽  
O. Hagolle ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Resolution ◽  
Forest Canopy ◽  
Forest Cover ◽  
Spectral Characteristics ◽  
Canopy Cover ◽  
Tree Cover ◽  
Optical Data ◽  
Validation Data ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Sentinel 2

The forthcoming European Space Agency’s Sentinel-2 mission promises to provide high (10 m) resolution optical data at higher temporal frequencies (5 day revisit with two operational satellites) than previously available. CNES, the French national space agency, launched a program in 2013, ‘SPOT4 take 5’, to simulate such a dataflow using the SPOT HRV sensor, which has similar spectral characteristics to the Sentinel sensor, but lower (20m) spatial resolution. Such data flow enables the analysis of the satellite images using temporal analysis, an approach previously restricted to lower spatial resolution sensors. We acquired 23 such images over Tanzania for the period from February to June 2013. The data were analysed with aim of discriminating between different forest cover percentages for landscape units of 0.5 ha over a site characterised by deciduous intact and degraded forests. The SPOT data were processed by one extracting temporal vegetation indices. We assessed the impact of the high acquisition rate with respect to the current rate of one image every 16 days. Validation data, giving the percentage of forest canopy cover in each land unit were provided by very high resolution satellite data. Results show that using the full temporal series it is possible to discriminate between forest units with differences of more than 40% tree cover or more. Classification errors fell exclusively into the adjacent forest canopy cover class of 20% or less. The analyses show that forestation mapping and degradation monitoring will be substantially improved with the Sentinel-2 program.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document