Forest Officials Research Articles

Impact of COVID-19 in the forestry sector: A case of lowland region of Nepal

All walks of life have been affected by COVID-19 but smallholders from developing countries have been impacted more than others as they are heavily reliant on forest and agriculture for their livelihoods and have limited capacity to deal with COVID-19. Scholars are heavily engaged in assessing the impacts of COVID-19 on health and wellbeing, gender, food production and supply, stock market and the overall economy but not on the forestry sector. Using questionnaire surveys and key informant interviews—informed by grey literature and published articles— representing Division Forest Offices, Provincial Forest Directorates, and the Ministry of Forests and Environment in Nepal, this study assessed the impact of COVID-19 on the forestry sector of Nepal. Our analysis suggests that: (1) nature-based tourism is more severely affected than other sectors; (2) private, religious and leasehold forests faced minimal impacts of COVID-19 than that of community and government-managed forests; (3) wild boar (Sus scrofa), different species of deer, and birds have been more impacted than other wild animals; (4) the price of the timber has increased significantly whereas the price of non-timber forests products (NTFPs) has decreased; and (5) illegal logging and poaching have increased but the incidence of forest encroachment has been reduced. Our study further reveals that agroforestry practices in home gardens, borrowing money from neighbors/banks/landlords and liquidating livestock remained key alternatives for smallholders during COVID-19. Many studies reported that reverse migration could create chaos in Nepal, but our study suggests that it may enhance rural innovation and productivity, as returnees may use their acquired knowledge and skills to develop new opportunities. As COVID-19 has created a war-like situation worldwide, Nepal should come up with a forward-looking fiscal response with alternative income generation packages to local living to counter the impacts of COVID-19 on the forestry sector. One of the options could be implementing similar programs to that of India’s US$ 800 Compensatory Afforestation Program and Pakistan’s 10 Billion Tree Tsunami Program, which will create a win-win situation, i.e., generate employment for reverse migrants and promotes forest restoration.

Reterritorialization of Community Forestry: Scientific Forest Management in the Terai and Chure Region of Nepal.

Nepal's community forestry is an example of a decentralized, participatory and autonomous development model. However, recent community forestry practices informed by the concept of scientific forestry in resource-rich and commercially lucrative Terai regions of Nepal have reversed community forestry gains. Scientific forestry, enforced through the Department of Forest has reproduced frontier power dynamics creating reterritorialization of community forestry through commercialization. Discouraging subsistence utilization and increasing commodification of high-value timber resources have been crucial in reconfiguring forest authority and territorial control. Moreover, the Scientific Forestry Programs have informally institutionalized rent-seeking practices at the local level. A local level, power nexus has developed among forest officials, contractors and community elites that systematically undermine local participation, allocation of resources for subsistence livelihoods and local autonomy. In effect, scientific forestry is recentralizing forest authority by legitimizing territorial control and the elite accumulation of benefits.

Ecology in Lakshmi Saravanakumar's novel ‘Kanagan’

The primary cause of deforestation is Man and also, he is the first to suffer from deforestation. The study is set to illustrate this under the title ‘Ecology in the Kanagan novel’. The novel sets out to explain who is responsible for deforestation and why they are doing it. The destruction of elephants at the instigation of big bosses also highlights the irresponsibility of forest officials who do not see them. The novel also reveals that the hill people, ‘Pali’, are being blamed for the ongoing deforestation and killing of elephants for their selfish ends. Along with these, the medical team that visits from time to time in the name of medical help can find out about the rare herbaceous plants in the forest, which are known to steal vines and eventually become extinct. The novel depicts the opposition of the hill people to this disgrace and sets out to bring about social change which is caused as a consequence of that. This article explains the role that elephants play in augmenting forest resources and the benefits they bring to wildlife. It also suggests that elephants have evolved into tools that work for humans during the twentieth century. Laws enacted by the government to protect wild elephants are being scrutinized in this review article. The tigers are threatened as an endangered species, revealing the steps taken by the government to protect the tigers. The study also says that the people have to protect the forests and the rare species of elephants and tigers that live in them from the brink of extinction.

Automatic Monitoring of Deforestation using Arduino

The manual monitoring of the forest to prevent unauthorized activities is practically difficult job. The three major operations that are essential in monitoring the forest are developed in this work, namely tree cutting detection, fire detection and contaminated water detection using metal sensor, vibration sensor, firesensor and pH sensor respectively. An Arduino Uno is used along with GSM to communicate to central server from remote place. The sensed data from sensors is collected and sent to the authorized person via GSM. In addition, this system uses Wi-Fi router module through which employee and forest officer can communicate with each other in case of network is disabled.

Facilitating Human-Wildlife Cohabitation through Conflict Prediction

With increasing world population and expanded use of forests as cohabited regions, interactions and conflicts with wildlife are increasing, leading to large scale loss of lives (animal and human) and livelihoods (economic). While community knowledge is valuable, forest officials and conservation organisations can greatly benefit from predictive analysis of human-wildlife conflict, leading to targeted interventions that can potentially help save lives and livelihoods. However, the problem of prediction is a complex socio-technical problem in the context of limited data in low-resource regions. Identifying the right features to make accurate predictions of conflicts at the required spatial granularity using a sparse conflict training dataset is the key challenge that we address in this paper. Specifically, we do an illustrative case study on human-wildlife conflicts in the Bramhapuri Forest Division in Chandrapur, Maharashtra, India. Most existing work has considered human wildlife conflicts in protected areas and to the best of our knowledge, this is the first effort at prediction of human-wildlife conflicts in unprotected areas and using those predictions for deploying interventions on the ground.

People's Participation in Community Forest Management

The proposed study introduced the "People's Participation in Community Forest Management". This study was conducted on community forest of the central part of Nepal in Sindhuli district. The main objective of this study was to assess the participation of users group in forest management activities, decision making, benefit sharing mechanism and finding the factors that effect on people's participation. Primary data was collected through preliminary survey, questionnaire survey, focus group discussion and key informant survey. Secondary data was collected from concerned Division Forest Office (DFO), CFUGs operational plan, constitution of CFUGs, minutes, and documents from local government and non-government organizations. The qualitative and quantitative data was analysed using statistical packages SPSS, MS Excel. For qualitative analysis descriptive methods were used and the result was presented in different charts, tables and graphs. From the study, participation of forest users' group was high on forest product collection and distribution and low in plantation in forest management activities, decision making process satisfactory and benefit sharing mechanism was transparent and factors affecting for the participation of users' group was illiteracy and busy in farming. Therefore, this study is supportive for all who work for the improvement of users’ group participation in the community forest management.

Potential for Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) Applications in Biodiversity Conservation, Managing Forests, and Related Services in India

The recent advancement in data science coupled with the revolution in digital and satellite technology has improved the potential for artificial intelligence (AI) applications in the forestry and wildlife sectors. India shares 7% of global forest cover and is the 8th most biodiverse region in the world. However, rapid expansion of developmental projects, agriculture, and urban areas threaten the country’s rich biodiversity. Therefore, the adoption of new technologies like AI in Indian forests and biodiversity sectors can help in effective monitoring, management, and conservation of biodiversity and forest resources. We conducted a systematic search of literature related to the application of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning algorithms (ML) in the forestry sector and biodiversity conservation across globe and in India (using ISI Web of Science and Google Scholar). Additionally, we also collected data on AI-based startups and non-profits in forest and wildlife sectors to understand the growth and adoption of AI technology in biodiversity conservation, forest management, and related services. Here, we first provide a global overview of AI research and application in forestry and biodiversity conservation. Next, we discuss adoption challenges of AI technologies in the Indian forestry and biodiversity sectors. Overall, we find that adoption of AI technology in Indian forestry and biodiversity sectors has been slow compared to developed, and to other developing countries. However, improving access to big data related to forest and biodiversity, cloud computing, and digital and satellite technology can help improve adoption of AI technology in India. We hope that this synthesis will motivate forest officials, scientists, and conservationists in India to explore AI technology for biodiversity conservation and forest management.

A Study on the Problems and Improvement by Analyzing the Disastrous Large-scale Forest Fire Response System: Focusing on Simultaneous Forest Fires along the East Coast of Gangwon-do Province

On April 4, 2019, the forest fire that spread simultaneously to five cities and counties, including Inje, Goseong, Sokcho, and Gangneung and Donghae, on the east coast of Gangwon-do, was extinguished at an early stage. It is regarded as the result of the response with full force of Korea Forest Service, National Fire Agency, Militray, and other related organizations. However, it is also true that the limitations of current forest fire response system and the operation of forest fire response personnel, facilities and equipment were revealed in the process of responding Gangwon forest fire. To find solutions to these problems, from March 3 to April 2, 2021, a survey was conducted with firefighters, forest officials and residents in Gangwon-province with experience in forest fire on a total of 29 questions about Law and Policy, Forest Fire Response System and Operation of manpower and equipment. Based on the results of the survey and literature research, an improvement plan for the Forest Fire Disaster Response System was sought. Based on our survey results, we propose the following measures to improve South Korea's forest fire response system in the future. ; the incident command system should be unified, forest authorities' forest fire prevention and management system should be further strengthened, and forest fire response system must be improved to the level of other major countries through better legislations.

Habitat Characteristics of Magnolia Based on Spatial Analysis: Landscape Protection to Conserve Endemic and Endangered Magnolia sulawesiana Brambach, Noot., and Culmsee

Based on habitat preferences, in this study, we investigated the spatial distribution of the Magnolia genus in the northern part of Sulawesi. Habitat characteristics, especially temperature, precipitation, and topography, were determined using spatial analysis. The temperature and precipitation datasets were obtained from WorldClim BIO Variables V1, and topographical data were obtained from the Google Earth Engine. Data collection began in 2008–2009 and was completed in 2019–2020. In total, we analyzed 786 waypoints. The genus distribution was then predicted based on the most suitable habitat characteristics and mapped spatially. This study confirmed that Magnolia spp. distribution is affected by the annual temperature range, precipitation seasonality, and elevation. We discovered endemic and endangered species, Magnolia sulawesiana Brambach, Noot., and Culmsee, that were previously distributed exclusively in the central part of Sulawesi. Five waypoints of the endemic species were found in the conservation area of the Gunung Ambang Nature Reserve and on the border of Bogani Nani Wartabone Nation Park. In general, M. sulawesiana is distributed at higher elevations than other Magnolia species. This study provides a scientific basis for forest officers to develop in-situ and ex-situ conservation strategies and landscape protection measures to maintain the sustainable use of the genus, especially the sustainability of endemic species.

Traditional knowledge and practices, sacred spaces and protected areas, technological progress: Their success in conserving biodiversity

AbstractWhile the loss of species is a well‐known phenomenon drawing much attention, the loss of traditional ecological knowledge is more insidious and goes unnoticed. India, a mega‐biodiverse country, is home to many indigenous communities known for their historical conservation strategies entwined in traditional beliefs. Using focus groups, questionnaire surveys, in‐depth interviews, and in‐class test, this study explores the differences in knowledge and attitudes towards conserving biodiversity amongst four stakeholder groups living around two national parks in the state of Uttarakhand. Forest officers highlight lack of documentation of traditional practices and its coverage in school curricula. School children's test results show lowest scores in biodiversity amongst all science subjects. Village elders' responses show alienation, with some having to change their traditional means of livelihood due to environmental degradation. General public showed interest, awareness and admiration for ancestral ways of living in co‐existence with nature. Along with its ethical, cultural and societal dimensions, biodiversity plays a critical role in sustaining ecosystems and supporting livelihoods. In times of environmental uncertainty when the experiences of the living past may not be directly applicable, its recognition as a tried and tested inventory could be a beneficial resource that needs capturing before it is lost forever.

Standardised Sampling Approach for Investigating Pathogens or Environmental Chemicals in Wild Game at Community Hunts.

Simple SummaryWild game can host pathogens capable of infecting humans, livestock, and companion animals or accumulate environmental chemicals that may be transferred via food of animal origin. For food safety research, as well as for various other scientific purposes, the provision of a sufficient number of samples without unnecessary disturbance or killing of animals is a major limitation. With the presented approach, it was possible to obtain samples from game animals killed as part of standard ungulate management practice. Examples of organs, tissues, and other matrices that have been used in wild ungulate studies in Europe and that may be obtained through this approach are summarised as well. The basis of this approach was a framework agreement with the BImA, whereby federal forest officials carried out sampling with the help of hunters at drive hunts from 2017/18 to 2020/21 in Brandenburg, Germany. Numerous samples from four ungulate species were obtained. The number of sampled animals per hunt differed between hunting districts and hunting seasons. Districts with higher hunting bags also promise higher sampling success. This approach can serve as the basis for long-term monitoring of animal and public health threats associated with wildlife and is adaptable to other regions.Wildlife may host pathogens and chemicals of veterinary and public health relevance, as well as pathogens with significant economic relevance for domestic livestock. In conducting research on the occurrence and distribution of these agents in wildlife, a major challenge is the acquisition of a sufficient number of samples coupled with efficient use of manpower and time. The aim of this article is to present the methodology and output of a sampling approach for game animals, which was implemented from 2017/18 to 2020/21 at drive hunts in Brandenburg, Germany. The central element was a framework agreement with the BImA, whereby federal forest officials and other hunters collected most of the samples during field dressing. Further samples of game carcasses were obtained by scientists during subsequent gathering at a collection point. Altogether, 3185 samples from 938 wild ungulates of four species were obtained for various studies analysing—in this case—food-borne agents in game animals. Sampling was representative and reflected the proportional distribution of ungulate species hunted in Brandenburg. Hunting district and hunting season strongly influenced hunting bag and hence sampling success. This sampling approach was demonstrated to be a suitable basis for monitoring programs, that can be adapted to other regions.

Forest Fire Detector and Fire Fighting Monitoring System Using Solar Cell Based Internet of Things (IoT)

Forest and land fires in Indonesia, based on National Board for Disaster Management (BNPB) are recorded that the burned area reached 328,724 hectares with 2,719 hotspots in the January – August 2019 period. The factors causing forest fires include climate change, human activities in forest areas, and forest officers that can’t be monitored in real-time. The internet of things (IoT) based solar cell-based forest fire detection using for a monitoring system in real-time. This research uses PV (Photovoltaic) as power on the system. This IoT is integrated with the android application so that the user can monitor forest conditions at any time. This research uses ESP8266 12 – F as an IoT module, Arduino Uno for controlling the device, and relays. This result data are based on laboratorium test. The result of this research is a monitoring system that can monitor smoke (MQ-2 sensor), temperature and humidity (DHT22 sensor), water pressure (pressure transmitter), current and voltage in the battery charging remotely and can be controlled automatically when the sensor detects the flame.

Prototype of Fire Detection Tool Using Short Message Service (SMS) Notification as A Disaster Mitigation Effort Against Environmental Damage Due to Forest Fires

In relation to the threat of drought, it is necessary to do a drought analysis to evaluate the drought that has occurred. Another disaster caused by water drought is forest fires. The purpose of this study using the prototype of a Forest Fire Detection Tool (FFDT) are to early detection of forest fires and providing Short Message Service (SMS) notification of forest fires to the officer. The method of this study used a prototype of a FFDT with SMS Notification. This tool is controlled using the ATmega328 microcontroller or better known as Arduino Uno R3 and also the GSM 800L v2 module so that this tool will provide notification to forest guards in the form of sirens and SMS sounds when there are indications of smoke or fire that are identical to the event of a forest fire. Monitoring uses fire sensors, namely fire for the detection of flames that are often associated with forest fires and uses sensors as soon as possible, namely MQ2 and MQ9, all of which are equipped in one device, a forest fire detector using the Arduino Mega microcontroller. When there is a good sign that the flame or as soon as possible is read, the tool will send an SMS notification to the forest officer, the process of sending the SMS makes the fire process can detect even though it is still in a small condition or not widened.

A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW ON JOINT FOREST MANAGEMENT (JFM) RESOLUTION, 2011 AND ITS AMENDMENT, 2015 IN ODISHA, INDIA

This paper reviews rules and regulations implemented by introducing a state policy of Joint Forest Management (JFM) in the forest fringe villages of Odisha, a coastal state of India. It critiques the guidelines and amendments associated with JFM in Odisha that seem not to be examined previously. Several questions are revealed right here relating to the formation of an institution like Vana Surakhya Samiti (VSS) or Eco Development Committee (EDC), the role of villagers, community members, and the Forest Department in building these institutions at the local level, the meetings, resolutions needed, people of the village associated, MOU required between a Divisional Forest Office and these institutions following the resolution of JFM, 2011 and amendments of 2015, and so on. This comparison of the resolution and amendments concludes; that the participation of villagers increases with the initiatives of the JFM in the protection of their own area. JFM has a larger role function in building trust among the forest department officials and villagers of the nearby forest. The necessary modifications in the JFM amendment, of 2015 have made the financial processes transparent, the inter-village and intra-village conflicts are reduced to different projects implemented following this JFM policy. The forest fringe village individuals and their participation in managing the forest resources is a mandatory need. JFM has catered to these needs with different resolutions and amendments. It has not only helped the Government to manage the forest resources in a sustainable way but also enhanced the livelihood of the people making their future better.

Pitfalls of Scientific Forestry Practices in the Community Forestry of Nepal

The government of Nepal abolished scientific forest management in 2021, however, the underlying reason remained unexplored. Hence, this study explores reasons that pushed on abolishment of this practice in the community forestry. The study followed the qualitative methods and reviewed the policy documents, published and unpublished literature followed by semi-structured interviews with forest officials and community forestry leaders. Though scientific forest management was promoted to maximize timber production and employment generation, stakeholders often raised concern over the exploitation of forests, including the appropriateness of the proposed silviculture system along with the governance issues related to it. On the contrary, forest bureaucracy promoted this as an “one size fit approach” irrespective of management objectives while poorly integrating locality factors, and research-generated knowledge. Apparently, scientific forest management is highly contested on technical and managerial grounds, while it is utterly uneconomical to forest user groups. Diverse views, interests and disbelief of the stakeholders, along with inadequate scientific evidence is primary reasons for a failure. Hence, the study argues for promoting “research in use approach” in strengthening forest management practices with the wider engagement of the stakeholders from knowledge generation, use, and dissemination in the community forestry.

Spatio-Temporal Patterns of Common Leopard Attacks: A Case Study from Aadhikhola Rural Municipality, Syangja

Information on the spatio-temporal patterns of attacks in certain areas contributes to the designing and implementation of effective mitigation measures. The aim of this study was to assess spatial distribution of Common Leopard attacks to highlight conflict risk zone and temporal trend in Aadhikhola Rural Municipality of Syangja districts from 2016 AD to 2019 AD. Data was collected as registered cases caused by Common Leopard at the Division Forest Office, Syangja according to the Wildlife Damage Relief Guideline, 2013 AD. Total cases were 187 with the highest incidents (n=66) in ward no. 4 (Bangsing). The highest cases occurred in summer (44%) followed by spring (20%). By month the highest number of attacks occurred in July (22%) followed by June, May. Most of the attacks occurred inside livestock sheds (84%), during day time (69%), with goats being the major prey. Kernel Density Estimation (KDE) was used for safety analysis. Kernel density attack layer was reclassified using the geometric interval algorithm to generate five risk zones of leopard attacks. Wangsing, Deurali, Faparthum, Setidovan were very high risk zone for leopard attacks. Predator-proof corrals/ enclosures and improved herding and guarding practices are suggested to reduce livestock losses.

Detection of forest fire burn-area using landsat-8 and sentinel-2: a case study of Nivale (Kolhapur) beat of Chandoli National Park, Maharashtra, India

Forests play an important role in maintaining environmental equilibrium in the ecosystem. Forest fires, which can occur for a variety of reasons, are the greatest threat to forests. In order to control forest fires, it is critical to assess the formation and behavioral characteristics of forest fires. Detecting fire areas and the severity is much easier with satellite images obtained with advancing technologies. The main objective of this study is to extract burn area from Landsat-8 and Sentinel-2 satellite images of 2017 using six vegetation indices. Remote sensing data was used to study a forest fire in the Nivale (Kolhapur) beat of Chandoli National Park of Maharashtra. The Department of Divisional Forest Officer (Wildlife)- Chandoli National Park at Karad (DDFO-CNP) provided reference data indicating that the fire had damaged 194 hectares of Scrub forest. In addition, forest fire areas were determined using an objectbased image classification technique. When the findings of the study are compared to the values obtained by DDFO- CNP, it is found that Sentinel-2's object-based analysis provided the highest accuracy with an overall accuracy of 84 % and 0.795 Kappa statistics. Landsat-8 image has 82 % overall accuracy and 0.765 Kappa value. The findings of Sentinel-2 and Landsat-8 spectral indices showed the Sentinel-2 had better results in all indices. Differenced Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (dNDVI) and Relative Difference Normalized Burn Ratio (RdNBR) performed better than other indexes with a difference of only 18.27 and 30.88 hectares respectively. According to the fire severity analysis, a burn area with high intensity in Sentinel-2 was identified as moderate-high in Landsat-8. As per the research findings, sentinel-2 had a high severity area of 28.72 ha and a low severity area of 37.04 ha. It shows that satellite images of Sentinel-2 are highly suitable than Landsat-8 for estimating scrub forest fire areas. Finally, the findings of this study could be useful to forest managers to monitor burn regions quickly after the fire and in reducing severity and frequency of forest fires.

Human Wildlife Conflict and Impacts on Livelihood: A Study in Community Forestry System in Mid-Hills of Nepal

Human wildlife conflict (HWC) impacts the livelihood of many rural communities worldwide. This study investigated the impact of HWC on people living near community forests (CF) in Nepal. Using databases provided by the Division of Forest Offices and data obtained from surveys between October 2019–March 2020, we quantified the financial loss of HWC to the local people. Between 2015 and 2019, 3315, or 27%, of the livestock owned by the survey respondents were killed by wild predators in the Kaski and Tanahun Districts. Chicken (Gallus spp.) was the most common prey taken (80%), followed by sheep (Ovis spp.) and goats (Capra spp.) (15%), cows (Bos spp.) (2%), pigs (Sus spp.) (2%), and buffalo (Bubalus spp.) (1%). Leopards (Panthera pardus) were the primary predators, followed by golden jackals (Canis aureus), jungle cats (Felis chaus), yellow-throated martens (Martes flavigula), and Himalayan black bears (Ursus thibetanus). The financial loss of livestock during this period was USD $115,656.00, equivalent to USD $142.61 per household. Crops were also damaged and eaten by wildlife, and 2165 crop-raiding events were recorded between 2015 and 2019. Rice (Oryza sativa), followed by maize (Zea mays), millet (Panicum miliaceum), and potatoes (Solanum tuberosum) were the main crops lost. Rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) were the most common crop raiders, causing 74% of the damage, followed by Indian field mice (Mus booduga) (12%). From 2015 to 2019, crop losses equated to USD $83,424.00. Forest regeneration on abandoned agricultural land expanded wildlife habitats, enabling wild animals to come within reach of human settlements, which increased the likelihood of HWC events. Although the success of the community forest restoration program resulted in increased forest-cover, marginally increasing biodiversity, the reduced distance between human settlements and wildlife habitat, compounded by a lack of natural prey, may have unwittingly exacerbated HWC in this region. We recommend surveying predator and prey populations in the forest habitat, and implementing a habitat management program to improve prey populations within the community forests. Meantime, we propose establishing a financial relief and insurance program for crop and livestock losses at the local community level to alleviate any financial difficulties to the local communities caused by HWC.

해외 조림사업 방향성 모색을 위한 인도의 A/R CDM 사업 현황분석 및 평가

The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) has been internationally implemented as a part of the Kyoto Mechanism to reduce Greenhouse Gases (GHG) for mitigating climate change. Although forest is considered as the only carbon sink and its significance has increased, the number of registered Afforestation/Reforestation (A/R) CDM projects has recently decreased. Also, the Paris agreement, the new regime of climate change, sets to outline Sustainable Development Mechanisms (SDMs) to substitute CDM including A/R CDM, but the rulebook does not finalize yet. Therefore, it is essential to review the status of registered A/R CDM projects to build a best practice model on forestry sectors before entering the new framework. This study would research A/R CDM projects implemented in India, which is the most active country to be interested in Afforestation and Reforestation. The used materials were 19 Project Design Documents for A/R CDM projects in India, including statistical and spatial data. Those documents were used to identify the status and analyze the environmental and socio-economic factors in the study area. As Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is important during project decision making process, the relationship between current CDM projects and SDGs, the other important framework to be achieved, used for the analysis. The major project areas were in Uttar Pradesh carried out by Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) from Indian administration. The climates of A/R CDM projects areas including Uttar Pradesh were mostly warm, dry, and well-drained, and the native plants were highly preferred. Unlike the other project areas, Uttar Pradesh was economically worse, which means that the area was highly related to SDG 2 and 15. This research could contribute to achieving SDGs by matching each goal with the environmental and socio-economic factors. Throughout the matching, host countries could select the suitable factors to achieve SDGs by implementing the A/R CDM projects. This study would suggest the framework which should be considered before implementing A/R CDM or other projects related to forestry sectors. As a result, it could be connected to respond to climate change, forest management, and GHG reduction ultimately.

Mangroves Fueling Livelihoods: A Socio-Economic Stakeholder Analysis of the Charcoal and Pole Production Systems in the World’s Longest Managed Mangrove Forest

The declining mangrove cover worldwide highlights the necessity of understanding the linkages between ecological and socio-economic dimensions of mangrove management. This study analyses the socio-economic aspects of the pole and charcoal production systems at Matang Mangrove Forest Reserve (MMFR), known as the world’s longest managed mangrove forest, in Malaysia. We performed a socio-economic survey to identify the roles and relationships among stakeholders in the pole/charcoal production system and quantified the cash-flows in monetary value. Altogether, 160 interviews were conducted with contractors, forest officials, workers, middle-men, and consumers. The contractors are functioning as a “hub” from production to commercialization and receive major economic benefits. The commercialization of most charcoal (>80%) aims to its exportation to Japan while the commercialization of poles is local. Although the workers’ income was less than the minimum wage, they still prefer charcoal production jobs because of the availability and geographic proximity of these jobs. Our research suggests a standard salary and health insurance schemes for the workers to reduce social inequality/poverty and improve their well-being. Considering that mangroves occur in over 120 countries, our methodology can be used as a reference to unveil the socio-economic situation of mangrove-dependent communities as well as to map the economic cash-flow of the local activities that form the basis for long-term sustainable mangrove management plans.