Effects of Forest Management and Land Use on Regeneration in REDD+ Villages, Southeastern Tanzania

Forest Regeneration;REDD+;Community Forest;Natural Resources and Environment

May, LianaZak, Donald ;

University of Michigan

关键词: Forest Regeneration;    REDD+;    Community Forest;    Natural Resources and Environment;   

Others  :  https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/99559/May_ThesisFinal.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

瑞士|英语

来源: The Illinois Digital Environment for Access to Learning and Scholarship

【 摘 要 】

Tropical deforestation contributes ~17% to global anthropogenic carbon emissions, andis associated with in declines biodiversity, ecosystem services and livelihood benefits. Drylandforests in the miombo region of Africa cover ~3.6 million km2 and support nearly 100 millionpeople, and are being incorporated into the UN-REDD+ (Reducing Emissions fromDeforestation and forest Degradation) efforts to reduce local-scale deforestation and forestdegradation. Although reducing deforestation rates is the primary goal of REDD+, fosteringrules and regulations that also promote regeneration in degraded areas will play a critical rolein mitigating net emissions. This study considers the effects of the institutional structure of forestgovernance and associated land uses on forest regeneration in REDD+ villages operating undercommunity-based forest management in comparison to centrally-managed forests.Seedling density was used as a proxy for recruitment and modeled using a generalizedlinear model with several environmental parameters to test for the effects of forest governanceand land use on tree regeneration. The environmental parameters that best predictedrecruitment were fire frequency, tree biomass, and soil clay content. Predicted recruitment wassignificantly higher in community-managed forests (1.11 seedlings m2 -1) than centrally-managedforests (0.63 seedlings m2 -1), supporting previous studies showing community managed areashave healthier forests. Centrally-managed lands had lower predicted recruitment across alllands uses, with the lowest regeneration on centrally-managed timber land (0.50 seedlings m2 -1).This demonstrates that environmental conditions experienced by seedlings are not only effectedby land use type, but also the institutional structure that is governing it. Management policiesthat reduce fire frequencies and retain threshold levels of biomass for shade and seed sourceswill help facilitate forest regeneration and maintain ecological goals.