Assessing regeneration strategies for sustaining intensively used Chilgoza pine-dominated community forests in Afghanistan

Abstract

Income from Chilgoza pine (Pinus gerardiana) nut harvests, grazing, and the collection of firewood support forest communities within Afghanistan's Eastern Forest Complex. Persistent instability, frequent incidence of armed conflict, limited capacity of Indigenous communities, and inaccessibility to scientific expertise on forest regeneration limit options for addressing forest degradation. Representatives from forest communities in 16 districts in Khost, Paktia, and Paktika Provinces were surveyed to assess community user perceptions of Chilgoza pine regeneration status, forest protection, and acceptability of potential regeneration strategies (rotational stand harvesting, group seed tree protection, individual seed tree protection, partial cone harvesting, and integrated method). Human activity management, primarily via fine systems and forest guards, was widely reported and was regarded as important in managed forests. Respondents who reported current implementation of regeneration methods were more likely to regard natural regeneration as important and most regarding natural regeneration as very important reported the use of partial cone crop harvest as the prevailing regeneration method. Among proposed strategies, partial cone harvesting was the most frequently chosen option where regeneration was regarded as very or somewhat important. In light of the previously reported decline of forests under prevailing management practices, these results indicate a general awareness of regeneration as a forest management issue but also a significant gap among forest users in identifying the limitations of partial cone crop harvesting without additional protection for seedlings, as a potential remedy. We offer integrated rotational harvesting and grazing management strategies as a means to promote sound silviculture practices and provide a next step for community-based forest management to sustain Chilgoza pine. The context of this work in a region where tribal politics has limited outsider input allows it to serve as a model to address natural resource management issues in similar conflict-prone settings.