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Planning conservation strategies

K.N. Ganeshaiah
ganesh@atree.frlht.ernet.in
 Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, University of Agricultural Sciences,
GKVK Bangalore

R. Uma Shaanker
Department of Crop Physiology, University of Agricultural Sciences,
GKVK Bangalore.


Strategies to conserve the biodiversity of the country should be based on development of country-wide maps for conservation.

Recent developments in GIS and RS techniques have offered fresh opportunities to address more efficiently the ecological and conservation issues. These tools have been specifically useful in understanding the patterns of spatial distribution of the biological resources, in modelling the impact of various factors on patterns of loss of biodiversity and in monitoring forest ecosystems. We have begun working on a range of issues in collaboration with several organizations¹. These programmes have been partly or completely sponsored by several funding agencies².

Developing threat maps for the Sanctuaries and National Parks.



Fig.1: Threat map of Biligri Rangaswamy Temple Wildlife Sanctuary

A countrywide network of National parks, Wild life Sanctuaries and Forest Reserves constitutes the predominant mode through which our biological diversity is being presently conserved. Although there are generic rules and norms defined to offer protection to these conservation sites, several local specific stresses and problems threaten their ecosystems and the very life in them. Consequently there is a need to develop site specific protection protocols based on threats and stresses experienced by, and the pattern of spatial distribution of diversity in, these conservation sites. We have been attempting to develop methodologies for preparing such threat- or stress- maps of the sanctuaries.

The stress is mostly assumed to be due to any activity that might affect the forest ecosystem: human pressures from within and outside, encroachments, cultivation, harvesting of the forest products, grazing and plantations, any developmental activities such as laying roads, constructions and quarrying. We have been quantifying and mapping these stress factors of the sanctuaries. For instance, dividing the entire area of Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple (BRT) wild life sanctuary, in to square grids as small as 30 hectares, we assumed that each grid is likely to be impacted by any of these activities with in a radius of 3.00 kms, with the intensity of impact decreasing inversely with the distance of the activity from the grid. We also assumed that certain impacts are shaped by the local geographic features of the grid eg., harvesting and encroachment negatively by the slope. We also overlaid on these factors the intensity of fire and weeds. The impact values of all the grids are thus comp uted and thematic stress maps are developed. These threat maps are further discussed with the officials from the forest department and the stakeholders for their inputs and their perception of the threats are also incorporated in to these maps. Eventually such maps will be useful in developing the site specific management plans for different sanctuaries and national parks especially when used with the maps depicting the distribution of the biological richness of the sites.

Classification of Forest Vegetation


Fig.1: Land cover change in Western Ghats by 2020.

Forest Management has undergone a major shift in its philosophy. Initially, management emphasised mostly on using the forests without substantial loss in their productivity. At present, however, the thrust is mainly on the conservation of biological resources of our forests and harvesting them is viewed tenable only when their sustainable use can be ensured. In fact a total ban on felling of trees in several forests of the world is an indication of such a shift. Unfortunately the classification of the forests, a primary requirement for a proper management has not undergone a parallel change. The current methods of forest classifications have several problems:
  1. They are mostly based on the canopy structure and to a very less extent on the herb and shrub layers and on the other components of the forests.
  2. These classificatory processes fail to identify small scale vegetation heterogeneity and demarcate the forests in to large discrete units such as scrub,deciduous and evergreen forests which are assumed to be internally homogenous.
  3. They do not reflect the conservation value of the forests such that the management efforts can be accordingly allocated.
  4. Field ecologists have realized that the forest does not change from one vegetation type to the other abruptly as suggested by the demarcating line of the existing methods rather are highly heterogeneous spatial mosaics which can be hierarchically combined in to fewer and fewer types.
Thus there is a need to arrive at fresh methods of classifying the forests and we are attempting to develop new protocols that are objective, incorporate the information on all layers of vegetation and also are possibly useful in the context of the conservation of biological resources. Accordingly we propose two distinct methods of classifying the forests based on the need and level of management efforts available. These methods rely on collecting the quantitative data on vegetation composition of all the three layers viz., trees, shrubs and herbs in grids evenly spread out at as finer scale as possible in the whole of forests. Using this data, forests can be classified in two different ways depending upon the need.
  1. Biological richness maps: The conservation value of these grids can be computed by a suitable combination of the diversity estimates of the three different vegetation layers and mapped in a spatial format. From such data, using suitable mapping software, contours of conservation values can be developed and derived for the whole forest. Hypsographic or 3-D views developed from these contours suggest gradient of conservation values in the forests from which areas of high conservation importance can be located by identifying the peaks of diversity. Similar maps can also be developed for the economic richness of the forests based on the density and distribution of the economically important species.
  2. Vegetation cluster maps: Based on the vegetation composition, the grids that are similar can be identified using the multivariate statistical tools and clustered together to suggest the areas of similar vegetation composition. Mapping such clustered grids offers a spatial perspective of the vegetation types of the forest. This clustering process can be repeated hierarchically to arrive at fewer groups and the level of grouping can be decided by the management team depending upon the resources available and the intensity of management required.

Contours of conservation: towards a national agenda
The present century has witnessed an unprecedented loss of biodiversity the world-over.

Therefore conservation of biological resources is viewed as one of the immediate tasks we should embark on, at a global scale. It is prescribed that every country shall consider it a responsibility to conserve its biological resources for a sustained and healthy global posterity. But launching of any such national conservation program is contingent upon the knowledge of what, where and how to conserve. In this sense it has become very essential that we develop perspective maps of our biological resources that are as detailed as possible. In fact such atlases are being constructed by different groups, but it is important to develop a common protocol to integrate them to arrive at national maps of biological diversity.

We are hence working towards a national approach for mapping and integration of the various biological and spatial elements of conservation so as to prioritize the conservation needs. We suggest that strategies to conserve the biodiversity of the country should be based on development of country-wide maps for conservation - what we refer to as contours of conservation. These maps which would result from integrating data from various layers and of different elements provide a composite map of the spatial structuring of biodiversity for the country and can guide national conservation efforts. In other words, just as we are systematically preparing maps depicting the physiognomy of our country, we should also aim to develop maps depicting the biognomy or the biodiversity profiles of our country for a sound national conservation strategy and for an appropriate allocation of resources to the conservation activities. We suggest a bottom-up approach for developing these biodiversity atlases and contours of conservation and suggest that they could be done in three steps, namely (i) mapping the biological elements for conservation, (ii) mapping the spatial (habitat) elements for conservation and (iii) mapping the contours of conservation. We describe below these steps with examples of the efforts made at our centre and elsewhere.

The contours of conservation, the biodiversity atlases and their accompanying data will have widespread application in guiding national conservation plans and in the effective allocation of scarce resources. These maps could be used to evaluate the relevance of protected areas and accordingly restructure them. Because of the strong visual outputs generated by these maps, they would serve both the generalist and specialists alike in making decisions in conservation action. Besides addressing issues related to conservation of biological diversity, these maps would help direct attention to basic issues pertaining to the distribution pattern of species. For example, the biodiversity contour maps will enable determining the anomalous distribution patterns, if any, of taxa and their implications.

Deforestation and Land Use Change
This programme, mainly by the scientist working at Ashoka Trust for Research in Environment and Ecology (ATREE, Bangalore) is currently concentrated in two regions: the Western Ghats and the Eastern Himalayas. The objectives of the program are to assess the extent of change in land cover, particularly deforestation and forest degradation, identify causes of change and examine consequences.

Using remote sensing imagery, archival maps, and ground surveys, the scientists at ATREE in collaboration with other teams¹ have examined land use changes and deforestation in the Western Ghats and Arunachal Pradesh. In addition, land use change and deforestation have been studied in detail in three other areas: Agasthyamalai Hills and Biligiri Rangan Hills in the Western Ghats, and Darjeeling Hills in the Eastern Himalayas. Detailed maps showing the nature and extent of change have been prepared, and statistics on deforestation, forest fragmentation, and conversion of forest land to other types of usage have been compiled. ¹University of Massachussetts, Boston, U.S.A; Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and Environment, Bangalore; National Remote Sensing Agency, Hyderabad; Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Banglore; and Karnataka Forest Department; Forest Survey of India, Bangalore.

²International Plant Genetic Resources Institute, Mc Arthur Foundation, Centre for International Forest Research Organisation, Karnataka State Department of Forest Ecology and Environment.

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