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Environment and Development »
Forestry for Sustainable Rural Development
Agroforestry
Agroforestry
is a land-use approach that seeks to improve productivity by
planting crops and trees simultaneously or sequentially on the same
plot. It is most useful on lands not suited to monocrop
cultivation. A prominent feature of most agroforestry systems is
the cultivation of multi-use tree species. Depending on the
species, trees may enrich the soil with nitrogen, serve as a source
of livestock fodder, control erosion, provide firewood and building
materials, and produce fruits or nuts. Thus, the addition of trees
to the agricultural system can help to rehabilitate degraded lands,
enhance farm productivity, and contribute directly to household
income.
In the
Philippines, the Mag-uugmad Foundation has created an innovative
program to develop and share knowledge about the upland
agroforestry systems. Mag-uugmad development workers and
farmer-members have introduced new techniques in contour farming
with intensified vegetable production, hedgerow construction, and
green manuring that have increased both the productivity and the
stability of upland farming. Since its experience shows that
farmers are more likely to adopt methods learned from other
farmers, Mag-uugmad sponsors direct farmer-to-farmer training in
these techniques.
Natural
Forest Regeneration
In many Asian
countries, attention is turning toward natural forest management as
a way to increase forest productivity while preserving
biodiversity. Natural forest management is a strategy for enhancing
the productivity of a forest as it grows naturally, instead of
relying on artificial planting. Because these methods do not depend
on heavy doses of costly external inputs, they are well-suited to
community-based management efforts. And because forests are
naturally diverse, a management model based on natural forests
encourages variations in forestry practices in different parts of a
forest and promotes the growth of multiple forest products.
In South
Asia, there have been significant flows of forest products to local
people from previously highly degraded and unproductive forest
lands without recourse to artificial planting. Protection of
sal forests has demonstrated that, for trees that naturally
produce new sprouts, denuded lands can regenerate with relatively
little additional labor or other inputs. In many areas of West
Bengal, sal trees protected from harvest for more then 10
years have flourished, during which time production of nontimber
forest products has also increased. Similarly, in Bangladesh,
community groups have successfully regenerated degraded sal
forest by protecting them from illegal wood cutting, while
obtaining firewood from annual tree pruning.