Earticle

Climate change is considered to be one of the most serious threats and its impact is felt by the most vulnerable world’s poorest countries including Bangladesh. In particular, ethnic communities, whose livelihoods depend on the use of natural resources, are likely to bear the brunt of adverse impacts. A case study was conducted in a fragile ecosystem of Lawachara national park of Bangladesh, to know the indigenous knowledge of the ethnic communities, how they adapt with the climate change impact by using indigenous knowledge. They use various IK to protect their crops from climate change impact. Thus, government should design policies which will be helpful to make them more resilience to face climate change impact.

The aim of the present study was to assess the effect of transitional boundary on community composition and soil carbon stock. Five vegetation types were recognized horizontally along the transitional strip based on the dominance of tree species i.e., Pure Anogeissus latifolia forest (P.AL), mixed Pinus roxburghii and Lannea coromandelica forest (M.PR&LC), pure Pinus roxburghii forest (P.PR), mixed Pinus roxburghii and Lannea coromandelica (M.PR&LC) and pure Anogeissus latifolia forest (P.AL). The results revealed that Anogeissus latifolia was reported dominant tree in the outer transitional boundaries of the forest, which reduced dominance of trees towards middle where Pinus roxburghii was found dominant. The soil carbon stock was reported higher in the Anogeissus latifolia dominant forest and reduced with the dominance of Pinus roxburghii in the middle site. Both the species are growing close to one another and competing for survival, but the aggressive nature of Anogeissus latifolia particular in this region may change new growth of Pinus roxburghii and will enhance soil carbon stock. But high anthropogenic pressure on Anogeissus latifolia tree species could be limited chance to further its flourish.

Biochemical characteristics of 24 Pongamia pinnata genotypes (candidate plus trees) from three agroclimatic zones were estimated and molecular characterization through RAPD markers was done. Various biochemical characters viz. seed oil, total carbohydrates, protein, acid value and Iodine number recorded significant variation among different genotypes. The highest seed oil content was 41.87% while seeds of 14 genotypes recorded above average (32.11%) for the trait. Seed oil and protein content exhibited a significant positive correlation and moderate heritability. Out of the initially selected twenty-five random primers, twenty-two RAPD primers were found to be highly reproducible and produced a total of 183 loci of which 147 (80.32%) loci were polymorphic. Percentage of polymorphism varied from 44% to 100% with an average of 80.62%. High level of genetic variation was found among different genotypes of P. pinnata. Both molecular and oil content (biochemical) markers appeared useful in analyzing the extent of genetic diversity in Pongamia and the result of these analyses will help to better understand the genetic diversity and relationship among populations. Overall, the Pongamia genotypes included in the study showed a correlation with their geographical origins such that genotypes from the same region tend to have higher genetic similarity as compared to those from different regions. However, in UPGMA based Nei’s analysis, some genotypes were found not to be grouped based on geographical origins possibly due to the exchange of germplasm over time between farmers across the regions. The results from oil content analyses showed that several genotypes in ‘Central and Western Plateau’ agroclimatic zone of Jharkhand displayed a good potential for high oil content. The study provides insight about P. pinnata populations in Jharkhand (India) and constitutes a set of useful background information that can be used as a basis for future breeding strategy and improvement of the species.

This study was conducted to examine the community structure of ground beetles between coniferous- and deciduous-dominant forest in agricultural landscapes, in Miryang-si, Yeongdong-gun, Icheon-si, and Cheolwon-gun during April to October in 2009. A total of 19 species belonging to 15 genera of 9 subfamilies were identified from 6,253 collected ground beetles. Dominant species from 4 regions were Synuchus nitidus (3,715 individuals, 59.4% of total) and Synuchus cyloderus (1,783 individuals, 28.5%) respectively. Non-metric multidimensional scaling based on Bray- Curtis similarity showed that ground beetle assemblage was not different between forest stands, but it was significantly different among regions. Overall, forest stands of secondary forests may not show a different community structure of ground beetle assemblages in our study. However, monitoring on the ground beetle fauna as well as other arthropods of secondary forests in agricultural landscapes is still important for the management and conservation of biodiversity, because forests provides important habitats for many predatory arthropods, such as ground beetles, spiders and rove beetles.

The correlation between disturbance intensity and stand development was evaluated on the basis of natural forest community type classification in areas of Baekhaksan (more disturbed area) and Hwangaksan (less disturbed area). The vegetation data were collected by point-centered quarter sampling method, and they were subjected to cluster analysis for classifying community types and to analysis of species composition and species diversity for reviewing ecological characteristics. By the method of cluster analysis, natural forests of Baekhaksan were classified into Quercus forest community, Pinus densiflora community, Q. variabilis community, and Q. mongolica community. Those of Hwangaksan were divided into P. densiflora community, Q. mongolica community, Q. forest community, and Mixed mesophytic community. It is presumed that more developed and less disturbed forest area shows multiple species community pattern and more diversified structure than less developed and more disturbed forest area. In Korean peninsula, the abundance of red pine may play an important indicator to estimate the developmental pattern of the forest after artificial disturbance. The overall evaluation indicated that less disturbed Hwangaksan area had more developed stand pattern with mixed mesophytic community, more complicated species composition, and higher species diversity than Baekhaksan area.

Recently check dam construction number have been increased by becoming known that effectiveness in the control of the landslide and debris flow. However, check dam management standards are not setting yet. Therefore, this study was carried by provide a basic data for the check dam management and inspection in the Gangwondo. The followings are the results of safety inspection on the 274 check dams, which are located in mountain streams, Gangwondo, Republic of Korea. 1. It was determined that, of 274 check dams inspected, 267 check dams (97.4%) generally had a safe condition but 7 check dams (2.6%) had a bad condition that repair and/or complementary measures are required. 2. The check dams with a bad condition had the ages greater than approximately 20 years. This result should be reflected to future stream management strategy including a timing of the specific inspection for durability of check dams. 3. Our finding suggests that the safety inspection of check dams is able to provide basic information required to maintain their own functions, and thus it should be widely applied to stream management strategy against to sediment-related disasters in the future.

The legal basis for the systematic prevention and response to landslide hazards, and the rehabilitation of landslide-hit areas, was established through the amendment of the Forest Protection Act in August 2012. The most noticeable amendment to the Act is the inclusion of clauses associated with the designation and management of landslide-prone zones (including debris flow-prone zones). In this paper, we (1) introduce the clauses related to the designation and management of landslide-prone zones that were included in the amended Forest Protection Act, (2) examine their significance by reviewing the present status of related domestic laws and structural countermeasures such as sediment check dams for sediment-related disaster prevention, and (3) suggest the future directions of the procedure for the designation and cancellation of such zones, and their maintenance and institutional aspects. The establishment of an institutional device for the designation and management of landslide-prone zones has great significance in the aspect of (1) the establishment of a comprehensive management and prevention system for potential landslide-prone zones in forested areas where the hazard risk has been poorly recognized as compared with the flood risks in lowlands, and (2) the establishment of the basis for overcoming the limits of structural countermeasures according to limited budgets. To develop the designation and management system for landslide-prone zones, not only must present problems be addressed, but a cooperation system between the administration and local residents must also be established.