Forest Management

What is Forest Management?• Forest management is the branch of forestry concerned with the

overall administrative, economic, legal, and social aspects and with the essentially scientific and technical aspects, especially silviculture, protection, and forest regulation.

• This includes management for aesthetics,fish, recreation, urban values, water, wilderness, wildlife, wood products, forest genetic resources and other forest resource values.

• Management can be based on conservation, economics, or a mixture of the two. Techniques include timber extraction, planting and replanting of various species, cutting roads and pathways through forests, and preventing fire.

Need for Forest Management

Forest management is required to avoid the followings:

• Extinction of Thousands of Species -Millions of plants and animal species are in danger of disappearing as a result of deforestation.

• Heavy Soil Erosion -One function of the forest is that its roots hold the soil in place.

• Greenhouse Effect-The continued degradation of our forest heightens the threat of global warming

• Flooding-One major importance of forest is that they absorb water quickly in great amount during heavy rainsand avoid floods.

• Landslides- Trees prevent soil from getting eroded by natural agents like wind or water.

• Degraded Watershed -When forest mountains are denuded, watersheds are degraded and this leads to the loss of sustained water supplies for lowland communities.

Methods of Managing Forest• Afforestation- Afforestation is the establishment of a

forest or stand of trees in an area where there was no forest.

• Reforestation-Reforestation is the restocking of existing forests and woodlands which have been depleted, an effect of deforestation.

• Sustainable forest management-Sustainable forest management (SFM) is the management of forests according to the principles of sustainable development.

• Avoiding Wildfire-A wildfire is any uncontrolled fire in combustible vegetation that occurs in the countryside or awilderness area.

Conclusion

• One of the biggest challenges towards the outlook of forests in the recent times has been concerns about ‘sustainability’ of our resources. It has emerged as one of the main concerns of recent policy advocacy.

• The National Forest Commission, has recommended creating an enabling environment to facilitate assessment, monitoring and reporting on national-level criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management.

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