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Barriers to plantation activities in different agro-ecological zones of Southern India

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Abstract

This paper analyses environmental and socio-economic barriers for plantation activities on local and regional level and investigates the potential for carbon finance to stimulate the increased rates of forest plantation on wasteland, i.e., degraded lands, in southern India. Building on multidisciplinary field work and results from the model GCOMAP, the aim is to (1) identify and characterize the barriers to plantation activities in four agro-ecological zones in the state of Karnataka and (2) investigate what would be required to overcome these barriers and enhance the plantation rate and productivity. The results show that a rehabilitation of the wasteland based on plantation activities is not only possible but also anticipated by the local population and would lead to positive environmental and socio-economic effects at a local level. However, in many cases, the establishment of plantation activities is hindered by a lack of financial resources, low land productivity and water scarcity. Based on the model used and the results from the field work, it can be concluded that certified emission reductions such as carbon credits or other compensatory systems may help to overcome the financial barrier; however, the price needs to be significantly increased if these measures are to have any large-scale impact.

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Notes

  1. Grassland (some partly cultivated), degraded natural forest and degraded plantations.

  2. Cashew, Eucalyptus, Mango, Indian Gooseberry.

  3. Cation exchange capacity (CEC) can be used as a measure of the fertility of the soil. A high CEC is considered favourable as it contributes to the capacity of the soil to retain plant nutrient cations (Landon 1991).

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Acknowledgments

Funding for this research was provided by the Swedish Energy Agency, the Knut and Alice Wallenberg foundation and Stiftelsen för Internationalisering av Högre Utbildning och Forskning (STINT). We gratefully acknowledge the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. The authors also wish to thank Martin R Jepsen, Lars-Ove Westerberg, Göran Berndes and Deliang Chen for their invaluable comments on the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth Science, University of Gothenburg, Box 460, 405 30, Gothenburg, Sweden

    Matilda Palm

  2. Centre for Climate Science and Policy Research, Linköping University, Norrköping, Sweden

    Madelene Ostwald

  3. Physical Resource Theory, Department of Energy and Environment, Chalmers University of Technology, Göteborg, Sweden

    Matilda Palm & Madelene Ostwald

  4. Centre for Ecological Science, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India

    Indu K. Murthy, Rajiv K. Chaturvedi & N. H. Ravindranath

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  1. Matilda Palm
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  2. Madelene Ostwald
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  4. Rajiv K. Chaturvedi
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  5. N. H. Ravindranath
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Correspondence to Matilda Palm.

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Palm, M., Ostwald, M., Murthy, I.K. et al. Barriers to plantation activities in different agro-ecological zones of Southern India. Reg Environ Change 11, 423–435 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-010-0154-0

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