Natural Regeneration for Landscape Restoration: Potential, Opportunities and Barriers in Central India

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1 Natural Regeneration for Landscape Restoration: Potential, Opportunities and Barriers in Central India On behalf of: Mr. Krishna Kumar Singh, President, Vindhya Environment and Livelihood Trust, India

2 A study of Sidhi district, Madhya Pradesh on enabling conditions of Assisted Natural Regeneration Drivers: invasive species, outbreaks of fire, fuelwood extraction, and grazing. To give assisted natural regeneration a chance need to remove drivers of change: In India, this reduction of barriers : is achieved either through physical fencing of degraded areas, or social fencing involving local communities

3 Sidhi district, Madhya Pradesh, Central India 1 Mha 1.2 M people

4 Application of ROAM The objective to understand how tree-based intervention can contribute to enhance ecosystem services secure local livelihoods in Sidhi Restoration Opportunities Assessment applied in Sidhi district including identification of principal land use challenges in Sidhi, the potential for different FLR interventions, and the presence of enabling conditions for forest landscape restoration. Consultation with stakeholders was facilitated through field visits, workshops, a participatory Mapathon using Collect Earth, Social Network Analysis Restoration Diagnostic Tool

5 The forest of Sidhu Distrcit Around 0.5 Mha (Census of India 2011). Nearly 40 percent of this area is under forest cover (Ibid.) with a mix of different economically as well as culturally valuable species such as Sal (Shorea robusta), Mahua (Madhuca indica), Tendu (Diospyrous melonoxylon), Bael (Aegle marmelos), Salai (Boswellia serrata), Palash (Butea monosperma), Aonla (Amblica officinalis), Shisham (Dalbergia sissoo), Baboo spp, Terminalia spp, Acacia spp, etc. Nearly half of Sidhi s forests comprise the Sanjay National Park which is a protected area dedicated to tiger conservation. This protected area is also the source of the Gopad and Banas rivers. Lives and livelihoods of Sidhi s large rural population (more than 80 percent) that depends on them for fuelwood, food, fodder, small timber as well as non-timber forest produce.

6 Degradation in Sidhi s forests Between 1996 and 2016, more than 15,000 ha of forest have been lost to development of irrigation infrastructure and expansion of agriculture Over 60 percent of the forests were degraded as a result of invasive species, fires, open grazing, and unsustainable extraction of forest produce including fuelwood (Government of Madhya Pradesh 2011)

7 Forest Landscape Restoration in Sidhi comprises primarily three activities, namely 1. Conservation of the protected area (97,000 hectares). 2. Protection of moderately dense and dense forest areas from fragmentation and degradation; and 3. Restoration of degraded and deforested lands, with canopy density <0.4 (64,000 hectares). Initial estimates have found that that more than 85 percent of Sidhi s degraded forests were suitable for Assisted Natural Regeneration because these areas had supported good forest cover, as recently as 1996, with species suited to natural regeneration. And in the monsoon, shoots could be seen across large swathes of these forest lands

8 Challenges for Assisted Natural Regeneration -I 1. Neglect of assisted natural regeneration in forest plans: Areas suited for assisted natural regeneration overlap with those where plantations are possible. focus has been on plantations, particularly of teak (Tectona grandis). Sidhi show that, between 2011 and 2015, more than 20 million teak saplings were planted across more than 20,000 ha of degraded forest land. Teak is not naturally found in Sidhi; 2. High demand for fuelwood and fodder: The principal causes of degradation of Sidhi s forests are over-extraction of fuelwood and open grazing. new saplings emerge each year, these are lopped and leaves are used for fodder and the wood is dried for fuel.

9 Challenges for Assisted Natural Regeneration - II 3. Absence of community based institutions that could support natural regeneration: India s participatory forest management policy provides opportunities for communities to be involved in the protection and management of forests. In Sidhi, Joint Forest Management Committees have been constituted across most forest areas. However, an institutional stocktaking found that most of these are paper committees and not actively involved in protection and management of forests. Even where these committees are active, the flows of benefits to communities have not been assured leading to waning interest. As a result social protection of forests from barriers to regeneration are missing.

10 Conclusion ROAM found that assisted natural regeneration held immense potential for restoring forested landscapes. The absence of critical enabling conditions such as policy implementation, institutions and incentives however pose challenges for implementation of ANR. While this case study focused on Sidhi district, it has relevance across many parts of India. Addressing the missing enabling conditions is therefore key for India to achieve its commitment to the Bonn Challenge.