Forest inventory, assessment, and monitoring, and long-term forest observational studies, with special reference to India

Abstract

National forest assessments are attracting increasing attention owing to their role in providing information related to manifold forest functions. Large-area information is in high demand, both for the forest in its role as ecosystem and in its role as resource and service provider. Of particular current interest are forest assessment systems at national level by countries that wish to engage in the REDDC initiative. Large-area forest monitoring has never had a prominent place on the curricula of forestry faculties in India or many other tropical countries. As a consequence, in many tropical countries, there is only very limited technical capacity for large-area forest monitoring. The discipline of "forest inventory" has developed a versatile toolbox of techniques and methods useful for national level assessments, and remote sensing technology has, over the last few decades, added some exciting options to this toolbox. This article analyzes the process of national forest monitoring and identifies key areas where national capacity may be developed. A brief description of forest assessment in India, long-term observational studies, and synergy with the national forestry inventory is also presented.

Productivity of highland bamboo (Yushania alpina) across different plantation niches in West Amhara, Ethiopia

“…The growth of the bamboo stand is characterized by the increase in the length, the number of culms, and biomass (Mulatu and Fetene 2013) increment in weight and length from the rhizome system underground and the culms aboveground (Chen et al 2016). Forest stand structure is recognized as being of theoretical and practical importance in understanding and managing forest ecosystems (Tewari 2016). It is used to manipulate the management objectives following the establishment of a forest stand in order to understand productivity so that to estimate the products (Franklin et al 2002;Kamruzzaman et al 2018).…”

Estimating the age-dependent changes in carbon stocks of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) stands in Turkey

“…Maintaining forest C sinks has also become important to mitigate global climate change. In order to implement successful forest management policies, a scientific basis is required (Tewari 2015). Thus, forest C dynamics have been quantified at various spatial and temporal scales (Dixon et al 1994;Luyssaert et al 2010;Pan et al 2011).…”

Patterns of above-ground biomass and its environmental drivers: an analysis based on plot-based surveys in the dry tropical forests and woodlands of southern Africa

“…However, the established relationship between DBH and AGB allows the rapid quantifi cation of AGB for forest stands parts of south-central Africa, however. In contrast to tropical rainforests, dry tropical forests and woodlands have not been the focus of research and ground-based studies and forest inventories are scarce (Tewari, 2016).…”