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(1) Litterfall in an age sequence (7, 17, 30, 46 and 56 years) of Alnus nepalensis D
. Don plantation stands in the Kalimpong forest division of the Eastern Himalaya was compared over two years for quantity and temporal distribution. (2) Average annual litter production in the plantations ranged from 3.2 t ha-1 (7-year stand) to 5.8 t ha-1 (46-year stand). Litterfall showed marked seasonal distribution and peaked in dry winter. (3) Seasonal rates of decomposition were distinct, with the highest rate in the first three months (warm rainy season) followed by subsequent seasons of the year. Among different stands decomposition rate was highest in the 30-year stand, i.e. at the time of canopy closure. The pattern of nutrient release (K > Ca > P > N) was the same in all the stands and the actual amount of nutrient release (30 > 17
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Natural regeneration, root nodule biomass and nitrogenase activity (acetylene reduction) of Alnus nepalensis D
. Don (alder) were estimated at ten different landslide-affected elevated (1000-2500 m) sites in the Kalimpong forest division of the Eastern Himalayas. Alder regeneration was best in the middle zone (1500-2000 m) of this altitude range. Nitrogenase activities were between 5 and 19 μ mol C2 H 4 g-1 nodule d. wt h-1 in a peak activity month (July). The activity was largely dependent on mean soil temperature and root nodule moisture. The highest rate of acetylene reduction was found in the rainy season (July) at the 1830 m elevation site. Nitrogenase activity was negligible at night and increased during the day with a midday maximum. Alder regeneration, seedling growth, root nodule biomass and nitrogenase activity were temperature dependent along the gradient of altitude and fell off below 1500 m and above 2000 m
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Forests: Nature at your Service’—this year’s World Environment Day theme—emphasises the variety of life-sustaining services that forests provide and reminds us to take action to protect these resources
. The problem of forests is intrinsically linked to the problem of black carbon. One reason we are losing our forests is that people still have to use fuel-wood from forest trees for cooking and heating. These fires are also a major source of the black carbon that scientists now realise is negatively affecting us all in many ways
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Recent challenges for sustainable development are linked to large-scale land use transition and its impact on forest-dependent populations
. Alternatively, agroforestry practices offer multiple opportunities to farmers to improve farm production and incomes; they also result in productive and protective forests functions. Large cardamom (Amomum subulatum) cultivation with N2-fixing Himalayan alder (Alnus nepalensis) as a shade tree in the Eastern Himalayas is one such alternative agroforestry practice. Performances were analyzed for cardamom agroforestry with N2-fixing alder (alder-cardamom), without alder (forest-cardamom), and with an age series of alder-cardamom between 5 to 40 years. Alder tree association accelerates the cycling of both nitrogen and phosphorus, and more than doubles production and yield. While increasing soil fertility, alder-cardamom agroforestry also conserves soil and water, and sequesters atmospheric carbon. This leads to ecological sustainability in mountain watersheds. It also provides a high aesthetic value and draws upon cultural, recreational and educational values that are harnessed by local communities as non-farming employment opportunities in ecotourism. Ecosystem services provided by cardamom agroforestry contribute to the well being of the upland people and at the same time profit the beneficiaries downstream.
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Common Property Resources (CPRs) continue to be an important part of communities' natural resource endowment in developing countries
. Despite their valuable contributions to people's sustenance, environmental stability and the strengthening of private resource based farming systems, they are neglected by researchers, policy makers and development planners alike. Disregard of CPRs and their productive potential is a major missing dimension of rural development strategies in developing countries and reflects much of the officialdom's indifference to environmental protection. This is illustrated by the status and changes in CPRs in the dry tropical regions of India, where not only are CPRs not integrated into rural development strategies but they are prone to rapid degradation largely induced by side effects of other development and welfare policies. The paper argues that due to the convergence between potential CPR-centered policies or programs and the emerging concerns for participatory development, environmental sustainability and poverty alleviation, CPRs could be made an effective component of rural development strategies in areas such as dry regions of India. The paper reports and analyzes the empirical findings from a study of CPRs conducted by the author during the 1980s. Based on four years of field work covering 82 villages in over 20 districts of India's dry region, the study has quantified the benefits of CPRs in terms of employment, income and physical supplies, and has recorded some less quantifiable contribution
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Mountains occupy nearly a quarter of the global land surface and are home to 12 percent of the world’s population
. They compress a wide range of climates and ecosystems into a relatively small area, resulting in an extremely high level of biodiversity. Half of the 34 global biodiversity hotspots are found in mountain areas. Much of the important genetic and agrobiodiversity found in the mountains is not found elsewhere. In comparison to lowland areas, mountains are richer in species and their peaks form isolated ‘islands’ of suitable habitat
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Weather events like intensive rainfall causing floods and flash floods result into loss of lives and properties whereas prolong drought can cause decline in agriculture production and loss of vegetation cover
. Rainfall affects the lives and economies of majority of people where the populations are dependent on rain water for agriculture. With the existence of large unpopulated rugged terrain with limited number of observation hydro-meteorological stations, accurate rainfall estimation is a challenging task and the spatial distribution of the rain gauge is not sufficient to provide a detail outlook on highly temporal and spatial variable nature of rainfall that may be needed for applied stream flow modeling technique. In the present paper, the estimated 24 hours rainfall product developed by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in a South Asian domain was validated with the observed rain gauge data on a daily basis for the monsoon period of 2002 to 2004. The result shows maximum negative bias and root mean square error (RMSE) in the heavy rainy days and Satellite Rainfall Estimation (SRE) overestimates the rain before monsoon and in rain shadow area. Qualitatively rainfall events in general match but quantitatively SRE and observed rain gauge product are vast difference. The study provides important input for the improvement of the SRE development algorithms. Further, incorporation of orographic effect in the algorithm is felt necessary before it should be implemented to the stream flow model for flood forecasting
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Early warning system (EWS) is an integral component of risk management for natural threats as societal catastrophes many of which are attributed to climate change is on the rise
. It has been listed as one of the five priorities under Hy- ogo Framework for Action (HFA) for building disaster resilience nations and communities. However, to put in place an operational and reliable technical Glacial Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF) EWS in the Himalaya, characterized by hostile terrain and climate, despite the urgency in view of the climate change is a challenge. It needs a robust and unique yet simple manageable and replicable system considering the number of potentially dangerous glacial lakes. As a collaborative pilot initiative between International Center for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) and Kieo University, Japan, has put in place a Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) based lake monitoring system in Imja Tsho (Lake) of Dudh Koshi basin, Nepal. The uniqueness of this system is in the extended utility offered by internet connectivity and opportunity thereby for different actors to pull resources thus making replication viable financially. Other unique feature of this system is the possible on-line services (distance education, tele-medicine and communication) to rural populace which is critical for inculcating ownership necessary for functioning of such instrumentations in rural set up. In view of these possibilities, Wi-Fi based lake monitoring system has huge potential to be adapted for GLOF EWS in future
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The climate variability and global climatic change has brought significant impact on the glacial environment of Everest region
. The rapid melting of glaciers had result of reduction of glacier mass with the increase in size of mo-raine dammed glacial lakes. The merging and expansion of supraglacial lakes at the snout of the valley glacier had formed moraine dammed lakes. Most of these lakes had formed only on the second half of twentieth century as an impact of global warming. The expansion of these lakes leading to the stage of glacial lake outburst floods (GLOF). The Himalaya had experienced at least one catastrophic GLOF event in three to ten years period. The area of the glaciers in the Everest region is first mapped by ICIMOD in 2001 using the topographic maps published by Survey of India from 1959 to 1982 based on the aerial photographs of 1957 to 1959 and hence referred the data from 1960’s. The total area covered by the glaciers in the Everest region was about 482 sq km in 1960’s and the glacier area mapped of the region from the satellite was only 473 sq km in 2000. The significant glacier area reduced was noticed from the small glaciers and valley glacier snouts extending down to the low elevation. However the reduction of total area is small but the length of the valley glaciers are retreating at a rate of 10 to 60m/yr in average. The shrinking of glacier mass split the glacier body with the increase in number and decreases in area. The numbering of glaciers was based on the World Glacier Inventory (WGI) methodology. In general, the glaciers are shrinking and retreating faster in the recent decade with the proliferation of moraine dammed lakes, which might pose GLOF danger in future and some of it had already catastrophic outburst event. Hence the lakes which are mapped in the region and identified as potentially dangerous lakes poses different scenario in the present days
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There is need for mountain systems to be viewed in the frame of climate change and enhanced ecosystems services
. This paper highlights and analyses the impacts of global summits and conferences in relation to the mountain agenda, marginalization of mountain systems, climate change and biodiversity, mitigation and adaptation, the scientific uncertainty and knowledge gap, and finally on the opportunities arising from the Rio+20 process and conference in 2012
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