Academic literature on the topic 'Forest reserves Forest conservation Sustainable forestry Forest reserves Forest management'

AbstractMabira Central Forest Reserve (CFR), one of the biggest forest reserves in Uganda, has increasingly undergone encroachments and deforestation. This chapter presents the implications of a range of forest management options for carbon stocks in the Mabira CFR. The effects of forest management options were reviewed by comparing above-ground biomass (AGB), carbon, and soil organic carbon (SOC) in three management zones. The chapter attempts to provide estimates of AGB and carbon stocks (t/ha) of forest (trees) and SOC using sampling techniques and allometric equations. AGB and carbon were obtained from a count of 143 trees, measuring parameters of diameter at breast height (DBH), crown diameter (CW), and height (H) with tree coordinates. It also makes use of the Velle (Estimation of standing stock of woody biomass in areas where little or no baseline data are available. A study based on field measurements in Uganda. Norges Landbrukshoegskole, Ås, 1995) allometric equations developed for Uganda to estimate AGB.The strict nature reserve management zone was noted to sink the highest volume of carbon of approximately 6,771,092.34 tonnes, as compared to the recreation zone (2,196,467.59 tonnes) and production zone (458,903.57 tonnes). A statistically significant relationship was identified between AGB and carbon. SOC varied with soil depth, with the soil surface of 0–10 cm depth registering the highest mean of 2.78% across all the management zones. Soil depth and land use/cover types also had a statistically significant effect on the percentage of SOC (P = 0.05). A statistically significant difference at the 95% significance level was also identified between the mean carbon stocks from one level of management zones to another. Recommendations include: demarcating forest boundaries to minimize encroachment, enforcement of forestry policy for sustainable development, promote reforestation, and increase human resources for efficient monitoring of the forest compartments.

Imperial expansion transformed and destroyed nature in many areas; yet, as we argue, it also contained conservationist impulses. On the one hand these involved attempts to modify practices on land that was used for agriculture both by settlers and indigenous people. On the other, land was reserved more directly by creating zones where human settlement was disallowed. In the case of forests, this often implied scientific management and controlled commercial logging—although some forests were more tightly protected. With regard to wildlife and protected habitats, settler and colonial governments placed greater emphasis on exclusion in their conservation strategies. This chapter will chart changes in attitude and policy towards protected areas, as tourists replaced elite travellers and white hunters in answering the call of the wild. As in the last chapter, our discussion moves beyond the colonial period. While we focus on countries that became part of the Commonwealth, independent states were operating in a changing international context of which the imperial heritage was only one element. We recognize the shift towards community management of natural resources, and the potential for tourism to generate income for poor people. But we argue that the legacy of exclusive conservation, informed partly by new concerns and interests, remained powerful. It is an ambivalent legacy, still the subject of intense debate and contestation, and heavily criticized in recent literature on Africa. While conservation has helped to preserve some habitats and threatened species, a point not often recognized in critiques, it has not often won local legitimacy. In discussions of wildlife protection, policies of preservation are sometimes distinguished from conservation. The boundaries between these ideas are not easily drawn. In general, preservation is seen as an earlier phase and ‘is posited on…the prevention of any active interference whatsoever’. More recently, such strategies have been adopted in highly protected wilderness zones. Conservation is seen as a later, more interventionist phase. It implies wise usage or management to ensure the long-term viability of a natural resource—much in the way that ‘sustainable’ is used now. In fact, preservation often also requires some degree of management. With respect to wildlife, conservationist approaches became associated with viewing by tourists.