Sustaining farmers livelihoods through community forestry in Sikka, East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia

Njurumana GN, Ginoga KL, Octavia D. 2020. Sustaining farmers livelihoods through community forestry in Sikka, East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia. Biodiversitas 21: 3786-3796. One of the goals of managing global forest ecosystems today is to synergize their socio-economic, ecological and community livelihood benefits. Each forest type has various socio-economic and ecological characteristics that influence its management strategies and the provision services to the community. In general, the socio-economic benefits of forests in supporting community livelihoods are well known, however, the information which is specifically relevant to tropical monsoon forests is still very limited. This research aims to fill this knowledge gap, by providing information about the socio-economic conditions and provision of services of tropical monsoon forests to people's livelihoods. The research was conducted through structured interviews, FGDs, and field observations, by an analysis unit in community forests in the Sikka district. The information obtained was analyzed through descriptively qualitative and quantitative methods. The results showed an imbalance between the socio-economic conditions of people who rely on the tropical monsoon forest for their livelihoods and the carrying capacity of fuelwood, food, and fodder supply. This imbalance is due to the weak synergy and organization of stakeholders in optimizing how the provision services of forests are used to support farmers' livelihoods. Farmers' dependence on the tropical forest services is still high, therefore the strengthening of farmers' institutions becomes a key factor that determines sustainable management of the forest and enhances the value of its benefits to the community.

OVERVIEW ON PLANT CASSIA SOPHERA LINN

Medicinal herbs are moving from fringe to mainstream use, with a more significant number of people seeking remedies and health approaches free from side effects caused by synthetic chemicals Cassia sophera Linn. (Caesalpinaceae), an important drug in Unani medicine, act as a blood purifier, carminative, purgative, digestive, and diaphoretic. Many compounds have been reported from plants belonging to genus Cassia. This article aims to provide a comprehensive review of the phytochemical and pharmacological aspects of Cassia sophera. It is obtained from deciduous and mixed-monsoon forests throughout greater parts of India, ascending to 1300 m in outer Himalaya. It is widely used in the traditional medicinal system of India has been reported to possess analgesic, anticonvulsant, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, hepatoprotective and antiasthmatic activity, etc. India officially recognizes over 3000 plants for their medicinal value. It is generally estimated that over 6000 plants in India are in use in traditional, folk, and herbal medicine.

Lectotypification of the monotypic genus Pseudodichanthium (Andropogoneae: Poaceae)

The monotypic genus Pseudodichanthium Bor (1940: 272) is represented by the species Pseudodichanthium serrafalcoides (Cooke & Stapf 1908: 450) Bor (1940: 272) occurring in India and the Oman (Clayton et al. 2006). In India, the species is distributed in the Ahmednagar, Khandala, Kolhapur, Mahableshwar, Pune, Purandhar Fort, Raigad, Ratnagiri and Satara. Singh et al. (2015) have been reported this genus as endemic to India. The present investigation reveals that it is not endemic to India, and also occurs in the Saharo-Arabian region, in the country of Oman (Ghazanfar, 1992). The single species, P. serrafalcoides, is found in monsoon forests. Oman tends to have affinities with India in terms of climate in contrast to most of the Arabian Peninsula whose affinities are closer to continental Africa. Pseudodichanthium has been derived from Dichanthium Willemet (1796: 11) because of its unusual morphology characterised by the scarious lower glumes which are broadly winged with inflexed margins.

Seasonal changes in the occurrence of embolisms among broad-leaved trees in a temperate region

Sap freeze–thaw events are a main determinant of the distribution of broad-leaved woody plants in cool regions but the effect in other climates remains unknown. We used cryoscanning electron microscopy to examine the differences in plant growth patterns based on seasonal variation in xylem water distribution in four broad-leaved species (one ring-porous and three diffuse-porous species) in a temperate region of Japan. Leaf fall was detected in November for the ring-porous species Maackia amurensis Rupr. et Maxim., although embolisms were detected in large earlywood vessels in January of the following year. The percentage of embolisms in latewood vessels varied significantly between years. By contrast, xylem embolisms in diffuse-porous species (deciduous and evergreen) were barely detectable during winter. In one evergreen species, embolisms and refilling were detected in some vessels during the growing season. Based on the variation in the number of freeze–thaw events among years in Asian monsoon forests, we infer that M. amurensis obtained no benefit from extending leaf phenology because of the occurrence of vessel embolisms in winter. On the other hand, the leaf phenologies of deciduous and evergreen diffuse-porous species were less constrained by winter embolisms. Maackia amurensis persists in cool temperate regions by limiting the photosynthetic period.

Recovery of Functional Diversity Following Shifting Cultivation in Tropical Monsoon Forests

The relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning is an important issue in ecology. Plant functional traits and their diversity are key determinants of ecosystem function in changing environments. Understanding the successional dynamics of functional features in forest ecosystems is a first step to their sustainable management. In this study, we tested the changes in functional community composition with succession in tropical monsoon forests in Xishuangbanna, China. We sampled 33 plots at three successional stages—~40-year-old secondary forests, ~60-year-old secondary forests, and old growth forests—following the abandonment of the shifting cultivation land. Community-level functional traits were calculated based on measurements of nine functional traits for 135 woody plant species. The results show that the community structures and species composition of the old-growth forests were significantly different to those of the secondary stands. The species diversity, including species richness (S), the Shannon–Weaver index (H), and Pielou’s evenness (J), significantly increased during the recovery process after shifting cultivation. The seven studied leaf functional traits (deciduousness, specific leaf area, leaf dry matter content, leaf nitrogen content, leaf phosphorus content, leaf potassium content and leaf carbon content) changed from conservative to acquisitive syndromes during the recovery process, whereas wood density showed the opposite pattern, and seed mass showed no significant change, suggesting that leaf traits are more sensitive to environmental changes than wood or seed traits. The functional richness increased during the recovery process, whereas the functional evenness and divergence had the highest values in the 60-year-old secondary communities. Soil nutrients significantly influenced functional traits, but their effects on functional diversity were less obvious during the secondary succession after shifting cultivation. Our study indicates that the recovery of tropical monsoon forests is rather slow; secondary stands recover far less than the old growth stands in terms of community structure and species and functional diversity, even after about half a century of recovery, highlighting the importance of the conservation of old growth tropical monsoon forest ecosystems.