Friday, March 29, 2024
General Agriculture

Basic Principles of Forest Management

Forest resources of use to man and other living organisms are not inexhaustible. This, therefore, implies the need to introduce several approaches to managing forest ecosystems.

Effective forest management will not only sustain the product and service benefits of forests, but it will also protect and restore the ecosystems through the best forestry practices as well as maximally exploit the forest land and environment for man’s development.

Forestry practices that serve these purposes include ecoforestry, agroforestry, forest gardening, and certified forestry.

Definition of Forestry

 Basic Principles of Forest Management

This is defined as the art, science, and practice of studying and managing forested land, plantations, and associated natural resources such as waters and wasteland, primarily for harvesting timber but also, for conservation and recreational purposes. It is related to silviculture, which involves the growing and tending of forests.

Forestry involves the production (tree planting and maintenance), distribution, and consumption of forest products and services. The activities involved in forestry are tree breeding, reforestation, and deforestation (the conversion of natural forests or plantations to non-forest lands and non-vegetated lands).

Definition of Silviculture

This is defined as the theory and practice of controlling the establishment, composition, and growth of stands of trees for any of the goods (including timber, pulp, energy, fruits, and fodder) and benefits (water, wildlife habitat, microclimate amelioration, carbon sequestration) for which trees are desired.

Alternatively, it can be defined as the art and science of controlling the establishment, growth, composition, health, and quality of forests to meet the diverse needs and values of land-owners and society.

Definition of Forest Management

This is defined as a range of interventions that affect forest ecosystems. They include policies for cutting trees for timber, planting, and replanting various species, cutting roads and pathways through forests, and techniques for preventing or controlling outbreaks of fire.

It also involves an emphasis on watershed management, wilderness, and recreation. The goal of forest management plans is to provide logs as raw materials for timber, veneer, plywood, paper, wood fuel, and other industries.

Post-harvest site plans reforestation (tree planting by species) weed control, fertilization, thinning (spacing of young trees that are crowding one another), prevention and control of insect infestation, disease infections, and forest and grassland fires, forest mensuration, wildlife conservation, and watershed protection.

Definition of Ecoforestry

This is forestry that emphasizes holistic practices which strive to protect and restore ecosystems rather than maximize economic productivity. Practitioners of ecoforestry avoid practices like clearcutting, high grading, and pesticides.

Ecoforestry is considered by some to be a traditional practice, whereby people tend to an area of forest, helping it to grow sustainably over many years.

Practitioners of ecoforestry claim that their techniques promote self-regulating forest ecosystems with a diversity of species and natural habitats in harmony with the landscape, weather, soil, water flows, and animals living there. It is rooted in family homesteads selectively cutting trees for home use.

Definition of Plantation Forestry

The plantation is a forest either by planting or sowing trees primarily for timber production. Characteristically, plantations are usually monocultures (one tree species) or a mixture of only two or three species, compared to conventional forests which usually contain a far more diverse range of tree species.

Plantations are always young forests in ecological terms, typically grown and harvested after 10 to 60 years, rarely up to 120 years. Plantations may include tree species that would not naturally occur in the area, especially hybrids and genetically- modified species; these are usually trees that are best suited to industrial applications for wood or pulp production.

Plantations are usually of regular shape with fixed or clearly defined boundaries. Trees are usually planted at regular spacing, even-aged, and more uniform in size, and with a single-layered canopy structure. Plantations can either be industrial/home/farm plantations or environmental plantations.

Industrial plantations are those established for the production of a high volume (commercial) of wood in a short period, for making wood-based products.

Home plantations are those typically established for the production of lumber and firewood for home use, and sometimes for sale.

Ornamental plantations are those established for watershed or soil protection, such as erosion control, landslide stabilization, and windbreaks. Tree species for different plantation types include Gmelina Arborea, Tectona grandis, Terminalia ivorensis (industrial); Acacia nilotica, Rhizophora spp., Azadirachta indica (farm/home).

Definition of Certified Forestry

Several organizations offer auditing services to certify or verify that a forest management operation is employing best practices in sustainable forestry.

The Forest Stewardship Council, based in Bonn, Germany, issues global standards for sustainable forestry based on stakeholder input from industry, communities, and environmental organizations.

The FSC then accredits certification bodies to carry out audits. If forestland passes the audit, the certification body awards a “seal of approval” which can be used as leverage in the marketplace. The Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) and Woodmark and Rainforest Alliance are similar organizations.

Definition of Sustainable forestry

This is a forest management practice that primarily aims at ensuring that the number of goods and services yielded from a forest is at a level the forest is capable of producing without degradation of the soil, watershed features, or seed source for the future.

It differs from Sustained Yield Forestry and Sustainable forest management according to the sets of forest goods and services that are intended to be “sustained”. The concept also assumes that human use will not detract from or degrade the use of forests by other organisms and that human use is ultimately subordinate to healthy ecosystems.

The word ‘forestry’ implies use for human benefit, but to ‘sustain’ forests means to manage healthy ecosystems, the by-products of which are “goods and services” like timber, recreation, wildlife, and other resources that humans have come to expect from forests.

Definition of Woodland Management

This is the practice of managing woodlands, either for the maximization of timber production or for the conservation of wildlife.

A well-managed woodland can produce a steady supply of timber and also maintain a wide variety of environments for woodland species of birds, insects, and flowers. Woodland management techniques are coppicing, pollarding, and shredding.

Read Also: Tomatoes Farming: 9 Factors that Hinders High Yield for Profit

Definition of Agroforestry

This is a land use system that involves the deliberate retention, introduction, or mixing of trees or other plants into crop and animal production systems to increase profitability, sustainability, protection of the environment, and social acceptance.

It implies the combination of forest trees with crops or with domestic animals, or both. Agroforestry aims to increase crop yields through an emphasis on the forest (silviculture) and managing to graze (pasture land). The system is intentional, intensive, integrated, and interactive in implementation.

Agroforestry systems can be classified based on;

  • Components associated with the woody perennials (agrosilvicultural, silvopastoral, agrosilvopastoral);
  • Spatial distribution of the components such as woody perennials, crops, and livestock (compound farms, farmers’ plots);
  • Temporal distribution of components (e.g. relay cropping of trees with crops);
  • Productivity and sustainability (taking into consideration the service role of agroforestry such as soil erosion, shelterbelts, etc.);
  • Socio-economic criteria (scale of production, level of technology input, and management) such as commercial, intermediate, and subsistence agroforestry.

Definition of Forest Farming

In forest farming, high-value specialty crops are cultivated under the protection of a forest canopy that has been modified and managed to produce This is neither forestry nor farming in the traditional sense.

It is an agroforestry practice characterized by intentional, integrated, intensive, and interactive management of an existing forested ecosystem wherein forest health is of paramount concern.

Forest farm management principles constitute an ecological approach to forest management through efforts to find a balance between conservation of native biodiversity and wildlife habitat within the forest and limited, judicious utilization of the forest’s varied resources.

It attempts to bring secondary growth forests that have been overused and disrupted back into ecological balance through careful, intentional manipulation over time, emulating natural processes to restore the original, natural diversity of species. In some instances, the intentional introduction of species for use as botanicals, medicinal, or food products is added in combination with native species.

The five categories of specialty crops are foods (mushrooms, nuts, vegetables, honey from bee plants, herbs, fruits, edible flowers, sap products), botanical products (e.g. Broom, liquorice, or licorice), decoratives (e.g. mosses, ferns, Eucalyptus), handicrafts (basketry materials), and wood products (fuelwood, charcoal, specialty woods for carving, incense, garden mulches from clipped woods and coppice).

The methods of forest farming include;

  • Intensive, but cautious thinning of overstocked, suppressed tree stands; and
  • Multiple integrated entries to accomplish thinning of healthy trees and shrubs of all ages and species, rather than a monoculture of timber species.

Forest farm management is a type of forest stewardship ethic whose objective is to restore and maintain the health of the forest land’s many and varied ecosystems. The benefits include economic benefits (e.g. sale of ginseng, logs, and floral decoratives), modification of the ecosystem without ecosystem disruption, and provision of opportunities for short-term income from existing woodlands.

The drawbacks include the; higher requirement for entrepreneurial attitude from farmers and landowners, the need for research to locate potential buyers of specialty products, and high labor requirements.

Definition of Forest Gardening

Also known as 3-Dimensional Gardening, this is a food production and land management system based on replicating woodland ecosystems, substituting trees (such as fruit or nut trees), bushes, shrubs, herbs, and vegetables that have yields directly useful to mankind.

The crops which are produced often include fruits, nuts, edible leaves, spices, medicinal plant products, poles, fibres for tying, basketry materials, honey, fuelwood, fodder, mulches, game, and sap products. It is based on the principle of companion planting, these can be intermixed to grow on multiple levels in the same area often 0.1-1 ha in size (as shown below), as do the plants in natural forests.

It involves a series of agrosilvicultural systems such as improved shifting cultivation, alley cropping (hedgerow intercropping), multistory cropping, shade trees for plantation crops, a mixture of plantation crops, taungya, and shelterbelts.

Forest/home gardens are an ancient gardening practice in tropical regions but more recent innovation in temperate regions. Woodland gardening is a variation of forest gardening.

The benefits include creating a long-term biologically sustainable system for growing food and other products for a household and little maintenance work after establishment. The main drawback is that planting out and establishment usually require large numbers of plants and substantial work.

Definition of Sericulture

This is the rearing of silkworms for the production of raw silk. Although there are several commercial species of silkworms, Bombyx mori is the most widely used and intensively studied. According to Chinese records, the discovery of silk production from B. Mori occurred about 2700 BC.

Today, China and Japan are the two main producers, together manufacturing more than 50% of the world’s production each year. Silkworm larvae are fed cut-up mulberry leaves, and, after the fourth moult, they climb a twig placed near them and spin their silken cocoons.

The silk is a continuous-filament fibre consisting of fibroin protein, secreted from two salivary glands in the head of each larva, and a gum called sericin, which cements the two filaments together. The sericin is removed by placing the cocoons in hot water, which frees silk filaments and readies them for reeling.

The immersion in hot water also kills the silkworm larvae. Single filaments are combined to form yarn, which is drawn under tension through several guides and wound onto reels. Finally, the yarn is dried, and the now raw silk is packed according to quality.

Definition of Deforestation

This is defined as the conversion of natural forests or plantations to non-forest and non-vegetated lands. It involves the cutting down and removal of forest trees and other vegetative covers without replacement. Causes of deforestation include:

  • The growing rate of the population thus leads to higher demand for forest goods, services, and forestlands;
  • Fiscal and development policies of the government;
  • High cost of other sources of power (petroleum products, electricity) which discourages the use of alternative fuels to firewood;
  • Conversion of forestland into commercial agriculture and subsistence slash-and-burn farming system;
  • Overgrazing and cattle ranching;
  • Indiscriminate logging and forest exploitation;
  • Fuelwood collection;
  • Mining and petroleum exploration; and
  • Infrastructure development and urbanization.

The impact of deforestation includes loss of biodiversity, disruption of the hydrological cycle, soil erosion, disruption in the carbon cycle and ozone layer, desertification, potential losses in revenue and socio-economic benefits, and global warming.

Read Also: Comprehensive Fish Farming Guide

Agric4Profits

Benadine Nonye is an agricultural consultant and a writer with over 12 years of professional experience in the agriculture industry. - National Diploma in Agricultural Technology - Bachelor's Degree in Agricultural Science - Master's Degree in Science Education... Visit My Websites On: 1. Agric4Profits.com - Your Comprehensive Practical Agricultural Knowledge and Farmer’s Guide Website! 2. WealthinWastes.com - For Effective Environmental Management through Proper Waste Management and Recycling Practices! Join Me On: Twitter: @benadinenonye - Instagram: benadinenonye - LinkedIn: benadinenonye - YouTube: Agric4Profits TV and WealthInWastes TV - Pinterest: BenadineNonye4u - Facebook: BenadineNonye

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