Debajit Datta

Community based mangrove management: A review on status and sustainability

Community Based Mangrove Management (CBMM) has been advocated by both academia and governing agencies as a viable alternative for sustainably managing the ecologically important mangrove forests which are disappearing rapidly worldwide. Drawing insights from diverse sustainability issues, capabilities and performances of worldwide CBMM initiatives were examined in this paper. Higher numbers of CBMM initiatives were reported from South Asia and lesser from South America and Africa. Identification of the causes of degradation at a site and use-specific zonal replantations with respect to species associations were identified as major criteria of ecological sustainability. Regarding economic sustainability, transformation of potential uses of mangroves known by local communities into actual ones was found to be necessary. Proper disbursement of accrued benefits among community members irrespective of their socio-cultural status is also a major concern. Restructuring of CBMM institutions by ensuring participation of subsistence based users in decision-making and resource sharing have been identified as a prime determinant of institutional sustainability. However, limited number of studies on socio-political and institutional aspects as well as impacts of globalization induced socio-cultural transformations of communities on CBMM had been actually found. More focused researches on these aspects had been recommended for better community management of these highly stressed forests.

Analysis of coastal land use/land cover changes in the Indian Sunderbans using remotely sensed data

The world’s largest mangrove ecosystem, the Sunderbans is experiencing multidimensional threats of degradation. The present study was aimed to understand these problems and search for proper remedies by applying suitable remote sensing technologies. South-western parts of Indian Sunderbans Biosphere Reserve had been chosen for assessment of land use/land cover changes in between 1975 and 2006 by using multitemporal Landsat data. Results indicated considerable reduction of open mangrove stands and associated biodiversity mainly in the forest-habitation interference zones of Sunderbans. On the contrary, increase in the coverage of dense mangroves in the reserved forests had been observed indicating the existence of proper centralized management regimes. Overall, a cumulative loss of approximately 0.42% of its original mangrove cover in between 1975 and 2006 had been estimated for this part of the Sunderbans which was at parity with the findings of other studies in the Sunderbans or similar mangrove ecosystems of the tropics. Expansion of non agricultural lands in the last two decades was found to be related with the growth of new settlements, tourism infrastructure, and facilities. This transformation was attributed to the shifting of local peoples’ interest from traditional forestry and subsistence farming towards alternative occupations like shrimp culture, coastal tourism, and commercial fishing although environmentally hazardous livelihood activities like collection of prawn seeds along the riverbanks were still persistent.

Assessment of community-based initiatives in sustainable management of Indian dry deciduous forests

The introduction of the Joint Forest Management (JFM) programme in India as a part of community forestry initiatives from the late 1980s was an internationally recognised successful effort in forest restoration. Its achievements were most pronounced in the Sal (Shorea robusta)-dominated tropical dry deciduous forests of eastern and south-eastern states of India. However, these forests, and consequently the marginal people dependent on them for their livelihood, have increasingly faced multidimensional challenges in the past 15 years in the context of sustainable forest management. An overall assessment of the management scenario for these community forests and formulation of some guidelines towards better management was carried out on the basis of intensive case studies in the Nayagram Forest Range of West Bengal, India. Socio-economic as well as ecological aspects of sustainable forestry were analysed on the basis of criteria and indicators of community-oriented forestry. Functioning of a forest protection community as a cohesive group was found to be the major determinant in achieving sustainability in forest management. Maintenance of such institutional sustainability is recommended for better conservation of these highly stressed forest lands.

An alternative approach for delineating eco-sensitive zones around a wildlife sanctuary applying geospatial techniques

The dynamics, degradation, and conservation of forest ecosystems are matters of prime concerns worldwide at the present. Proper planning and management of a forest area are essentially needed to protect it from the grasp of burgeoning pressure of urban-industrial sprawl. Establishment of eco-sensitive zones (ESZs), which act as buffer areas around the core forests, is one of the key approaches towards achieving this goal. This paper deals with the applicability of geospatial techniques to identify the ESZ around an Indian wildlife sanctuary following the different rules and acts prescribed by the Government of India. Gumti Wildlife Sanctuary, located in the northeastern state of Tripura in India, has been selected here as a case study. Collected pieces of information on the distribution of biodiversity and human population in the area were also used to make the approach more holistic. As inferred from this study, remote sensing and geographical information systems were found to be easily implementable and time as well as cost-effective tools for this purpose with a distinct advantage of spatial as well as temporal accuracy in identifying the existing land use and land cover patterns in pilot assessments. However, the results indicated that only appropriate hybridization of field-based information on the biodiversity and ecological aspects of the forest as well as patterns of human interferences with the remote sensing and GIS-based data could make this approach more relevant in actual implementations.