Earticle

Pterocarpus erinaceus is a multipurpose tree species indigenous to semi-arid and Guinean-savanna woodlands of Africa. Natural regeneration on the savanna is being hampered by higher fire frequencies and other land use changes. Simultaneously, demand for timber from the species on the international market is on the rise, raising conservation concerns. To ensure sustainability, good quality seeds, sources of which have not received much research focus, are needed for afforestation. This study investigated how seed quality, germinability and initial seedling growth of P. erinaceus might be influenced by land-use type, mother tree size as well as source and timing of fruit harvest, using both correlational and experimental approaches. The results showed that up to 94.6% of all harvested fruits contained seeds, with no differences found between fruits harvested from cultivated and non-cultivated lands. Percentage of (sound) unblemished seeds was found to be higher for fruits harvested early March (47.3%) than fruits from late April (39.5%). Percentage sound seeds was 41.4% for dispersed fruits (i.e. detached fruits picked from under mother trees) which was not found to differ from undispersed fruits (i.e. fruits harvested while still attached to mother trees) at 45.5%. Also, the influence of fruit harvest time was not found to be different for dispersed and undispersed fruits. Correlations between seed set (proportion of fruits containing seeds) and mother tree size (both tree height and DBH) were found to be very low and non-significant for both dispersed and undispersed fruits. Across mother trees, mean emergence percent was 79.7%, and mean seedling height at three weeks following emergence was 5.32 cm. Both emergence percentage and seedling height were not found to differ among mother trees, but seeds from dispersed fruits had a higher emergence percent (85%) than seeds from undispersed fruits (74%). Implications of findings are discussed.

Coastal plantation is one of the key natural defence against the tidal surge induced tropical cyclones. In Bangladesh, a total of 81 km long coastal belt was established from Potenga to Muhuri in Chittagong. This study explores the wind protection efficiency of the coastal plantations at 28 observation points along the 81 km long Potenga–Muhuri irrigation project of Chittagong coastal belt. We found that wind protection efficiency was lowest (1.40% and 7.00%) at 1st observation point of outside the embankment (OE) and inside of the embankment (IE) than Sea Shore (SS), respectively. On the other hand, the highest (82.89% and 95.72%) wind protection efficiency was observed at 22th observation for Outside of the Embankment (OE) and Inside of the Embankment (IE) than Sea Shore (SS), respectively. This study also highlighted on species specific wind protection efficiency. The result revealed that 6-year old Casuarina, 6-year old mixed plantation and 10-year old Sonneretia apetala with the width of 20.12 m, 30.48 m, and 15.24 m can reduce wind speed up to 30 H, 30 H and 25 H at windward side, respectively. Analysis also showed that percentage of wind reduction was significantly higher at plantation coast than barren, and ship breaking yard coast. The findings of this study have great potentiality to contribute substantially to take more coastal embankment afforestation programs by the Government of Bangladesh and to choose the more wind resistant plant species throughout the coastal areas of the country.

Biodiversity refers to the total number and variation among species of flora and fauna of an area. Due to tremendous biotic especially anthropogenic pressure these natural resources are being vanishing. In present study genetic diversity among accessions of Thamnocalamus spathiflorus was evaluated. A total of 51 vegetative characters and 42 primers (10-mer) were screened. Out of 42 screened primers, 28 polymorphic primers were selected for further analysis. A total of 263 bands were recorded as polymorphic whereas 48 bands were monomorphic. The resolving power (Rp) of 28 Randomly Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) primers ranged from 4.6 (OPE08) to 17.6 (OPA11). The polymorphic information content (PIC) value ranged from 0.21 (OPAH09) to 0.44 (OPG02). The result revealed high degree of genetic relatedness (56 to 80%). Cluster analysis revealed two major clusters both for morphology as well as RAPD. Unlike morphological characterization, the accession (D5) from Bahli, Rampur, Shimla (H.P.) was clustered separately from the others in RAPD cluster analysis. Accessions with closed locality grouped together through RAPD marker system however analogy was recorded for morphological traits. The study conducted reflects the utility of RAPD technique for species identification and phylogenetic studies in bamboo for conducting bamboo breeding program.

The issue of sustainable forest management (SFM) continues to emerge as part of the REDD+ mechanism mitigation efforts. Especially for some developing countries, such as Indonesia, forest management is required to provide benefits to the welfare of local communities in addition to forest conservation efforts. This study aims to identify the economic, social, and environmental impacts of community-based forest management (CBFM) implementation activities, which is one of the implementations of SFM at field level. The primary objectives were to find out the impacts of CBFM activities based on local people’s perceptions and to identify what factors need to be considered to increase local people’s satisfaction on CBFM activities. The data from 6 sub-villages was derived through surveys with local people involved in CBFM activities, interviews with a key informant, and supported by secondary data. The results of the study state that CBFM activities have increased the local people’s income as well as their welfare, strengthening the local institution, and help to resolve conflicts in the study area. CBFM has also been successful in protecting forests by rehabilitating unproductive lands and increase forest cover area. By using binary logistic regression analysis, it found that income, business development opportunities, access to forests, conflict resolution, institutional strengthening, and forest rehabilitation variable significantly affected the local people’s satisfaction of CBFM activities.

There are many countries having a long history of exotic tree introduction from different countries and several countries including New Zealand, Brazil and Hungary have successfully introduced exotic trees. Korea’s tree breeding program for introduction of exotic tree was originally started from 1924. Records reveal that hundreds of tree species were introduced from many countries and tested their germination and viability. About 415 introductions were eliminated since they had been introduced and tested. Subsequently, seven exotic trees that proved successful in trials and plantations have planted for afforestation. Simultaneously, several promising exotic trees are still under the test. In this paper, we will succinctly review and evaluate their comparative growth performance of the exotic trees in the plantation programs of the country to coping with climate change.

Decomposition of litter is a function of various interrelated variables, both biotic and abiotic factors. Litter decomposition acts like a natural fertilizer play a prime role in maintaining the productivity and nutrient cycling in agroforestry systems. There are few studies of decomposition carried out in agroforestry systems with coffee; so it is necessary to perform more research work to fill the research gap, which will allow a better understanding of the management of the coffee agroforestry systems. This paper is based on the theoretical and conceptual aspects of leaf litter decomposition in agroforestry systems, emphasizing the combination with coffee cultivation and critically examined the role of the different factors involved in the decomposition. This study made a comparison of different investigations with regards to weight loss, decomposition rates (k), initial chemical composition, and release of the main nutrients. This study suggested that it is necessary to implement studies of decomposition and mineralization, and the microflora and fauna associated with these processes, so that serves as an important tool to develop a model for enabling a description of the short, medium, and long-term dynamics of soil nutrients in coffee agroforestry systems.