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Effects of community forest management on the structure and diversity of a successional broadleaf forest in Nepal
| Publication Type | Journal Article |
| Year of Publication | 2001 |
| Authors | Webb, E, L.; Gautam, A, P. |
| Journal Title | International Forestry Review |
| Volume | 3 |
| Pagination | 146-157, 170, 172 |
| ISBN Number | 1465-5489 |
| Key Words | community forestry; forest management; forests; plant succession; silviculture; species diversity; stand characteristics; stand; structure; thinning; Castanopsis tribuloides; Myrica; Quercus glauca; Rhododendron; arboreum; Schima wallichii |
| Abstract | This study compared the diversity and structure of a community- managed 13-14 year-old successional broadleaved forest with those of a semi-protected, mature natural forest in the Middle Mountains of Nepal. The natural forest type is dominated by Castanopsis tribuloides, Quercus glauca, Schima wallichii, Myrica esculenta and Rhododendron arboreum . Community management applied silvicultural thinnings (treatments: 0, 1 or 2 applications) to enhance the successional process and promote a forest with high ethnobotanical utility. The community forest exhibited a high density of small diameter trees, typical of a young successional forest. Mature, semi-protected forest had substantially greater basal area than the community forest, but there was little difference in total basal area between unthinned and thinned blocks of community forest. Diversity indices among mature forest, unthinned community forest and thinned community forest were very similar. This suggests that although structure is not complex in community forest, diversity was rapidly restored through succession, and that silvicultural thinning did not greatly affect forest diversity. This study provides quantitative biological evidence that under the appropriate circumstances, community forest management can protect and encourage a diverse regeneration in the Middle Mountain region of Nepal. |
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