A forest is a highly complex and constantly changing environment. It is made up of a variety of living things like wildlife, trees, shrubs, wildflowers, ferns, mosses, lichens, fungi and microscopic soil organisms; and non-living things such as water, nutrients, rocks, sunlight and air. Trees are the biggest part of this complex community.
Forests provide the following services –
Trees of a forest act as natural air conditioners and water pumps. They cool the earth by giving shade and recycling water. By cooling the air and ground around them, the shade from trees helps cool the earth’s temperature overall.
Trees also help moderate the earth’s rainfall, which also helps keep the temperature cooler. Forests help in causing rain. They provide food, medicine, shelter and warmth and Support biodiversity. Several human communities or tribals inhabit forests and derive their livelihood there.
Types of Forests
There are different types of forest ecosystems across the globe. A brief description of types of forests is as below-
1. Tropical evergreen forest: These forests are found in areas that receive a mean rainfall of 80 for every 400 inches annually. The forests are characterized by dense vegetation which comprises tall trees at different heights. Each level is shelter to different types of animals.
2. Tropical deciduous forest: In these forests, shrubs and dense bushes rule along with a broad selection of trees. The type of forest is found in quite a few parts of the world while a large variety of fauna and flora are found there.
3. Temperate evergreen forest: These forests have quite a few numbers of trees as mosses and ferns make up for them. Trees have developed spiked leaves in order to minimize transpiration.
4. Temperate deciduous forest: The forest is located in the moist temperate places that have sufficient rainfall. Summers and winters are clearly defined and the trees shed the leaves during the winter months.
5. Taiga: Situated just before the arctic regions, the taiga is defined by evergreen conifers. This type of forest is also called as Coniferous Forest. As the temperature is below zero for almost half a year, the remainder of the months, it buzzes with migratory birds and insects.
Stress on Forests
The growth of human population created fresh requirements of land for housing, agricultural expansion, farming practices, development of pastures, mining, and industrial developments. All the requirements were fulfilled by clearing of vast tracts of forests across the globe.
Over harvesting of industrial wood, fuel wood, other forest products, overgrazing and many natural factors like insect pests, diseases, forest fires and disasters created additional stress on forests.
Most of the forests of the world have been destroyed over the period of last thirty years. The Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) and the United Nations Environmental Programmes (UNEP), through a number of assessments have declared that the rate of destruction of tropical forests is 11.3 m ha per year.
Conservation and Management of Forests
Protection, preservation and development of forests together with the sustainable use of forest resources are called as conservation and management of forests.
The need and importance of conservation and management of forests is being felt the world over. Different countries are trying to conserve and manage their forests.
Governments have framed their forest policies and have enacted laws to protect forests whereas local communities in different parts of the world are making their own efforts for the protection and management of their forests by making plans of their own.
Forests control and affect the global environment also. Hence, nations of the world have planned to protect global forests through joint efforts.
Global Scenario of Conservation and Management of Forests
Forests control and maintain global as well as local environmental processes. The Stockholm Conference of 1972, values forests as the ‘largest, most complex and self- perpetuating ecosystems”.
The conference made following recommendations-
• Countries of the world should strengthen basic and applied research for improved forest planning and management with emphasis on environmental functions of forests,
• Countries of the world should modernise their forest management concepts by including multiple functions and reflecting the cost and benefits of the amenities provided by forests,
• Countries of the world should incorporate environmental values in land use and forest management, and
• Countries of the world should establish appropriate monitoring systems for continuous surveillance of the forest cover of the earth.
Following the Stockholm Conference (1972), many countries in the world banned cutting of trees in view of conservation and management of their forests and the devastating natural calamities like landslide and flooding.
The Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has focussed attention on the role of forests in controlling world climates and changes occurring in them.
Parties to UNFCCC have reached to an agreement on rules and modalities for accounting the roles of forests.
Sustainable Forest Management
The world community in modern times is focusing on the Sustainable Forest Management (SFM). According to this management scheme, countries of the world should utilize their forest resources keeping in minds the needs of future generations.
By 2000, nine international initiatives were launched incorporating the development of implementation of schemes in 85 percent forests on the global level.
An Intergovernmental Panel on Forests (IPF) and Intergovernmental Forum on Forests (IFF) have worked for common management, conservation and sustainable development of all types of forests under United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development (1997-2000).
A United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF) was formed in October 2000. The IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) and the WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature) together with the Food and Agricultural Organisation(FAO), are surveying the status of forests of the world and are launching projects for the conservation and management of forests across the globe.
