Provisioning Ecosystem Services of Rhododendron rich forests in Western Himalayas

Published: 13 November 2020 by MDPI in The 1st International Electronic Conference on Forests — Forests for a Better Future: Sustainability, Innovation, Interdisciplinarity session Forest and Urban Forest Sustainability

https://doi.org/10.3390/IECF2020-08070

Abstract:

Himalayan forests are an important component of the global biodiversity and play a crucial role in maintaining the overall ecosystem balance. Rhododendron species belonging from the Ericaceae family are found at an altitude of 1500m-3000m in the Himalayan region and act as an important keystone species in the Himalayan ecosystem with high ecological and medicinal value. The present study focuses on highlighting the provisioning ecosystem services offered by the Rhododendron species which not only provide a range of services to the local community but its extraction for the commercial utilization provides many livelihood opportunities to the Himalayan native communities. However due to the high demand for the Rhododendron products and services there has been a rampant harvest of the species in the Himalayan region and as Rhododendron forests are an important keystone species in the Himalayas it is vital to maintain the forest health and vitality of the species as it plays a key role in maintaining the Himalayan ecosystem balance. Hence our research focuses on the assessment of the provisioning ecosystem services of Rhododendron species and to provide various conservation strategies for its sustainable utilization.

Keywords: Himalayas; Provisioning services; Rhododendrons; Sustainable use

View paper View Poster

78 Reads
0 Recommendations

Comments on this paper

DAMIANO TOCCI

17 November 2020

info about operation

Dear Authors, in detail, how do you plan to operate in field to achieve the set goals?

Rodolfo Picchio

23 November 2020

Session Chair comment

Dear Authors,

I congratulate you for the case study presented. The peculiar characteristics of Himalayan local and native communities, as well as the overall ecosystem balance, are strongly tied to Himalayan forests. In this context, the ecological, medicinal and economical value of Rhododendron species is brought out and related to its assessment and high demand for products and services, providing some important conservation strategies in order to achieve a more effective and sustainable utilization. I hope to read further insights on this specific and interesting topic soon.

Session Chair

Rodolfo Picchio

Sanchi Singh

23 November 2020

Study details

Thank you for your valuable insights. Would like to elaborate some more on the topic. As the Rhododendron forests is an important source for NTFPs in the Western Himalayas we have studied the range of ecosystem services provided by the Rhododendron forests which are utilized by the native communities at both the domestic and commercial levels. Further the role of the social forestry groups, such as the van panchayat communities which are prevalent in the study area will also be studied for the effective management practices and sustainable harvest of the Rhododendrons species in the Western Himalayas.

Plz find below the following shared links for additional details on the methods and the study.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF02862203
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0305750X10000896
Thank you.

Sanchi Singh

Sudipta Chatterjee