Shifting Paradigms of ANR Practices for Forest Productivity, Livelihoods and Biodiversity

1. Shifting Paradigms of ANR Practices for Forest Productivity, Livelihoods and Biodiversity Pranab R Choudhury, Vinod Kumar, Rajiv Kumar Odisha Forestry Sector Development Project

2. ANR in the Changing Contexts, Status in India & Odisha Changing Paradigms in Forestry and ANR Accommodating to Changing Contexts through Shifting Paradigms in ANR Practices ANR Processes : Flexibility and Scope Potential of ANR for Enhancing Forest Productivity, Augmenting Biodiversity & Improving Livelihoods OFSDP Study Methodology & Caveat Results : Biodiversity, Forest Productivity & Livelihoods Conclusion Design

3. Changing Paradigms in Forestry and ANR

4. Forest Management Need & ANR • Focus of Forest Management Globally & Locally • Rehabilitation and restoration of degraded tropical forest landscapes for (Triple Bottom Line) • Augmenting forest productivity and carbon sink • Conserving and enhance biodiversity • Meeting the community and livelihoods concerns • Shifting Paradigms: From commercial/revenue driven timber spp based management with dominant state custodianship to conservation and livelihoods oriented PFM with community • Conservation of biodiversity – PA, Project Tiger, CBD, Biodiversity Act • Rights based Approach – FRA • Involvement of PRI & Convergence • Livelihoods – NFP, 1988, EAP, CBNRM • REDD+ • Regeneration, tending and harvesting operations requires responding and adapting to these shifting contours • Silviculture operations need to meet often conflicting triple bottom line • ANR has to accommodate these to enhance adaptation and resilience of forests to changing contexts.

5. ANR in SEA & Indian Context • Appeal of ANR Option in this context (SE Asia) • Rehabilitate/regenerate degraded tropical forests • Based on Principles of secondary succession • Traditional knowledge & Community Participation • Augmenting NR through tending, SMC etc. • Enrichment through AR in gaps • ANR operations consists of SMC & cleaning (including high stump cutting, singling etc.) along with planting, usually being carried out by VSS through community participation and participatory micro planning • Reduce bias in favour of a few forest species; eco-social approach • Useful for livelihood and conservation locally, for productivity in terms of growing density, canopy cover and biodiversity • Early indicator of good ANR application is +ve changes in forest cover • Flagship intervention under NAP • 1.69 million ha over a decade (2000-10) • 42,535 JFMCs in 800 FDA • Rs. 2237 Crore • Major strategy for forest rehabilitation under 11 Externally Aided Projects (EAP)at an investment of Rs. 5718 crore

6. Triple bottom lines of ANR

7. Potential of ANR for Enhancing PBLProductivity, Biodiversity & Livelihoods

8. ANR : Potential & Challenges vis-à-vis PBL • Scale of operation, provision for and with scope of manipulation of spp-site matching, regeneration and tending operation provides scope to enhance forest productivity as scope of manipulating genotype (of coppice crop) and site quality (in degraded forests) are limited • With its ability to arrest retrogressions, facilitate succession, species enrichment and moisture augmentation, has significant implications on the biodiversity regime • With high % of degraded forests and their higher concentration in JFM areas, ANR has the potential to influence forest contribution to community livelihoods, it having provisions for species and productivity manipulation.

9. ANR in Odisha • First used in the SIDA assisted social forestry project during the early 1990s with the involvement of the village forest committee (VFC). • Mostly applied to the RDF through the JFM mode, is aimed at augmenting productivity of fuel wood, fodder, small poles, NTFPs, medicinal plants, etc. • Under NAP, during 2003-10, 103,360 hectares of afforestation was taken up with an expenditure of Rs. 93.45 crores • ANR-mode of afforestation constituted about 3/4th of the total area under afforestation • In OFSDP, Eighty percent of 1.76 lakh ha of degraded forests in 2,275 forest-fringe villages are being covered through ANR following the JFM • Prescribed practices under ANR, are singling of coppice shoots, removal of high stumps and climbers apart from planting of short rotation economic species like NTFPs and medicinal plants (@ 300 plants/ha)

10. Study Methodology • Study carried out by OFSDP in 2010-11to analyze the impact of ANR treatments taken up under over an age gradient (by different programs/schemes in Odisha) on the forest composition, structure, and floral biodiversity and livelihoods • Vegetation data (viz. no of individuals of trees, shrubs and herbs and basal area/dbh of trees) through quadratmethod collected from 72 sites over four seasons in 5 Divisions • Biodiversity Index ( using three different biodiversity indices- Berger-Parker Index of Dominance, Shannon-Wiener Index and Simpson Diversity Index), phyto-sociology and soil organic carbon calculated using standard methods.

11. Caveats • Present the emerging trends with respect to biodiversity, forest productivity and livelihoods as a result of ANR operations • Operations have been carried out under different schemes/projectsby project staff and community with different skills and different set of combinations of prescriptions with different intensities • Considering ANR’s scale of operation and practical field situation in departmental/project mode of implementation differences emerging with age of treated forest after ANR operation and in comparison with control are accepted as differences due to treatments

12. Emerging Trends

13. Biodiversity – Berger Parker Index Denotes relative abundances of the various species in the ecosystem. Expresses the proportional abundance of most abundant species. Lesser Dominance in ANR than Control – More Biodiversity Herb dominance trend – Invasive spp dynamics

14. Biodiversity – Simpson Scale Probability that two individuals randomly selected from a sample will belong to different species. Greater the value of this index, greater the diversity Low shrub diversity after 2 yrs and wider wedge between ANR & Control, reflects impact of cleaning operations

15. Biodiversity – Shanon-Weiner Index Takes into account the number of species and the evenness of the species. Similar trend as that of Simpson’s. Except for herbs, the diversity index is lower after ANR operations than control

16. Biodiversity – Overall Interpretation • Decrease in diversity of trees and shrubs after ANR operations than control, indicating increasing dominance of certain species. • Herb diversity showing marginal increase after ANR than control. • Post-ANR, the diversity as well as dominance of trees and shrubs found to be increasing till 10 years along with reduction of the indices for herbs • After 20th year decrease in diversity and dominance for trees and shrubs are quite evident, while herb diversity showed a marginal increase. • In comparison to control, shrub diversity reduction looks quite higherthan the reductions in case of trees and herbs.

17. Dominant Species SPP : Shorearobusta, Holarrhenapubescens, Diospyrosmelanoxylon followed by Buchananialanzan, Terminaliaalata, Tectonagrandis, AntidesmaacidumandCatunaregamspinosa etc. Tree popn under ANR was about 1331/ha while under control it was 1739/ha.

18. Forest Productivity – No of Trees Dominance of 10-20 cm dia-class in both control &ANR indicates coppice crop. In % term, there is little difference among the dia- class distribution between control & ANR I terms of nos, the ANR area has more number of individuals for 0-5cm and 5-10cm age classes after 2 years which indicates better regeneration with diversity

19. ANR : • Lower number of individuals up to 10 cm and above 20 cm diameter classes • In 10-20 cm diaclasses, the no were just below SVT or more at 2 years • Control • No of individuals with less than 5 cm dia (new recruits) and 20-25 cm dia class just below SVT (except for forests after 2 years of ANR).

20. . • Number of trees/ha after ANR treatment less than the control across the temporal scale. • Difference is lower after 2 years, the gap gets wider subsequently

21. . • After ANR treatment was found to be less than the control across the temporal scale. • The difference is lower after 2 years, the gap gets wider subsequently.

22. . • More in ANR area than the control, except after 5 years. • Diff is more after 2 and 20 years and marginally more after 10 years. • Increased soil carbon indicates increasing productivity of soil and also higher carbon capture in soil through recycling of cut and weeded materials.

23. Livelihoods • Provide substantial employment (about 6560 MD/Vill) to remote forest-fringe village communities (first 4 years) • 1.6-3.2 t/village of cleaning materials (fuel wood mostly, occasional small timbers) are generated per ha of ANR operations • Requirement of thinning operations evident at regular intervals • Are eco-tone zones with higher biodiversity of NTFP • Major NTFP in study area areDiospyrosmelanoxylon, Mangiferaindica, Pongamiapinnata, Terminaliaalata, Terminaliabelerica, Terminaliachebula, Aeglemarmelos, Tridaxprocumbens, Buchananialanzan, Oroxylumindicum, Nyctanthesarbortristis, Holarrhenapubescens, Azadirachtaindica, Rauvolfia serpentine, Dioscoreaglabra and Soymidafebrifuga. • Dominance of the Shorearobusta and other abundant species is less in ANR are than the control.

24. Conclusion • Importance of JFM forest for Triple Bottom Line • 1/4th of population, depend on forest for part of their livelihoods; • 1/3rd of villages are either situated in the forest margins or has forest as one of the land uses. • JFM main form of forest management of these forests • Usually these are degraded forests, with lower canopy density, eco-tone situations with more biotic interactions – grazing, fire & livelihoods extractions • Ecologically they represent retrogressing vegetation or sub-climax • In Odisha, mostly coppice crops of Sal and associate species • Better and effective management of these requires scientific information on their structure, composition, biodiversity, productivity, which is not easily available due to lack of scientific research enquiry • Information on behavior of coppice crops to ANR like treatments, not available as management of coppice crops through silvicultural systems was stopped in Odisha in 1980s • This is an attempt to contribute towards filling up those gaps

25. Conclusion • Changes during 10-20 yrs period after a major forest operation very important in the context of transition towards canopy stratification • Trends of increasing diversity of herbs (and young recruits of tree species) indicates increased regeneration of shade bearing species and trees in undergrowths/ground cover in place of the light demanding shrubs/herbs. • Invasive species which were earlier dominating due to the opening of canopy during ANR, are gradually getting replaced with tree canopy bringing in more shade. • This phenomenon reestablishes the potential of ANR to suppress weed growth • More research and enquiry in this important ecosystem and around this widely used tool of ANR are required

26. Thanks!