Managing Forests for Water Production:Evolution of Multifunctional Forest Management Practices in Himalayan Watersheds in India
Forests are important due to their environmental functions (wildlife refuge, water shed protection, prevention of soil and water runoff, and groundwater recharge) and country like India for their subsistence function as fuelwood, food fodder, and source of income for 100 million forest dwellers as these are particularly sensitive to deforestation. India has experi enced three policy phases since its independence that is industrial forestry, social forestry and protection/regeneration. The evolution of forest management practices through introduction of scientific forestry since 1864 primarily meant for timber production to ecosystem management practices recognizing multi-functionality has been illustrated. Thus the objective is to demon strate multi-functional management of forests primarily for water conservation and supply for ur ban use through a case study of Himalayan watershed. The evolution from management for tim ber production through scientific forest management to muhifunctional management and inte grated land use planning that includes regular water supply and other watershed functions, biodiversity, cultural and eco-tourism over a period of 140 years has been traced by studying Shimla water supply catchments. The management history describes the scientific forest man agement practices managed through working plans and changing management objectives over a period of time. The water production from the catchments forest and outside forest, the quanti ty of water supplied and cost of water supply for environmental value of the forest have been quantified. The paper emphasizes how ecological and landscape consideration are now being imbibed in policy directives recognizing forests as ecosystem. At present the forest conservation is for multiple uses i.e. consumptive and non- consumptive commercial uses i.e. forests are used for water regulation and recharging of ground water, soil conservation, protection of habi tat and wildlife, biodiversity, ecosystem services, micro-climatic functions, and carbon se questration. The forested watershed from which the domestic water supply of the urban areas of Shimla is drawn exemplifies the direct link between integrated watershed management, forest protection and water supply. The forests are managed for protective, productive, cultural and amenity functions by reconciling interests of many different stakeholders who derives benefits from it. Water production and ecological balance are the most valuable function which the for ests are performing as there is no adverse effect on its biodiversity, environmental and other conservation values. Thus, it is an example of muhifunctional forest management which is a global concept.
scientific forest management muhifunctional himalayas forest policy watersheds
Hemant K. Gupta
Forest Survey of India (NZ)
国际会议
The Frist Global Forum of Ecological Economics in Forestry(首届全球森林生态经济论坛 GFEEF)
南京
英文
91-104
2009-08-19（万方平台首次上网日期，不代表论文的发表时间）