Necessity of Sustainable Forest Ecosystem Management

The State of Himachal Pradesh (HP) is mountainous state, located in the North India at the foot of mountain region in the Himalayas, with the geographical area of 55,673 km2 and the population of 6.865 million (2011 Census). Due to its undulating topography, wide range of elevations and climates, the state possesses various types of ecosystems, mainly of forest ecosystems. HP also serves as a major source of water for Indus and Ganga river systems and provides water resources for domestic, agriculture and industry water to downstream areas such as Delhi, Panjab and Haryana. The catchment area of the said river systems fall in forest area, which is under jurisdiction of HP Forest Department (HPFD), and its management and conservation of forest area in HP in terms of water resource conservation, which is one of important ecosystem services of forest area, is extremely crucial not only for HP but also socio-economic development of Northern and Western India.

According to Indian State of Forest Report (ISFR) 2015, the forest and tree cover of the state was 27.76% (15,453 km2 ), of which 5.79% was very dense forests, 11.46% was moderately dense forests, 9.14% was open forests, and 1.36% was scrub. Although forest cover of the state has been slightly improved from 14,668 km2 in ISFR 2009 to 14,696 km2 in ISFR 2015, the HP state has not achieved either the India’s national target rate of 66.7% of the forestry coverage for the hilly mountainous area, nor HP State Forestry Sector Policy and Strategy (2005) target of 35.5%. Moreover, insufficient quality of forest is key issue for HP. The open forest areas (less than 40% and more than 10% canopy density) and scrub areas (less than 10% canopy density) could be interpreted as an indication of the mixed picture of quality of forest, which would be the degradation, caused by mainly biotic pressure, as well as improvement, through regeneration and conservation effort. At the state level, since the open forest areas and the scrub areas are gradually improving between ISFR 2009 and ISFR 2015 through natural regeneration (NR) and HPFD’s continuous efforts for artificial NR, protection and conservation etc., however, open forest proportion remains yet at high level as 34.6%. Also the forests in the state are under constant threats because of increased biotic pressure. Excessive and unsustainable usage of forest resources, including fodder and grass, by forest fringe community is also seen as one of concerns for adverse impacts to forest areas and its ecosystem services. Also in last 10 years, more than 100,000 ha of forest have been damaged by forest fire (annually 10,000 ha average), mainly caused by the manmade fire.

In terms of grassland and pasture, which are important for ecosystem and also essential for people’s livelihood in HP, its degradation has occurred at certain extent due to overgrazing or uncontrolled grazing. Degradations of both forest and grassland/pasture would trigger soil erosion as well as landslide, which have been observed frequently in HP. Therefore, further improvement of quality of forest and grassland/pasture in forest area and conservation of its ecosystem through the promotion of participatory and collaborative management approach, which is consistent with HP State Forestry Sector Policy and Strategy (2005), is urgently required in HP, for improvement of ecosystem services, especially conservation of water resources as well as prevention of soil erosion and landslide.

Preparatory Works for Participatory Forest Management

• Identification and Selection of Interventions Areas
• Surveying and Mapping of Intervention Areas
• Engagement of Motivators, Ward Level Facilitators
• Community Mobilisation
• Preparation of FEMP and CD&LIP
• Annual Planning/ Revisiting of Micro Plan (4th Year)

Participatory Forest Management (PFM) Mode

• Site Specific Planning and Monitoring
• Afforestation/ Improvement of Open/ Scrub Forest Fuel wood & Fodder Plantation
• Improvement of Forest Quality at Key Concerned Forest Areas
• Improvement of Pastures/ Grasslands (including in-situ SWC work)
• Forest Fire Protection
• Forestry Intervention at Outside of Forest Areas

Department Mode

• Improvement of Forest Boundary Management at 3.Project Intervention Areas
• Improvement of Nurseries
• Seedling Production
• Non-PFM Drainage Line Treatment (ex-situ SWC work: including treatable surface Erosion Control)
• Secondary Silvicultural Operations for Improvement of Existing Forests
• Improvement/ Densification of Moderately Dense Forest
• Forestation/ Improvement of Open/ Scrub Forest
• Improvement of Pastures/ Grasslands (including in-situ SWC work)
• Forest Fire Management

Training of Project related staff of HPFD

• TOT for FCCU Subject Matter Specialist/ FTU
• Coordinators for Field Facilitation
• Training for GP Motivators and Facilitators

Research

• Monitoring Data Accumulation for Nursing and Planting of Tall Plants
• Monitoring Data Accumulation for Effective Pasture Management
• Study for Effective SWC and Land Slide Control Measures