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Assessment of Forest Carbon Stocks in the Himalayas: Does Legal Protection Matter?

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Abstract

Although protected areas are central to global biodiversity conservation, most land lies within unprotected areas. In the developing world forest habitats have received increased attention for their potential as carbon sinks in a climate change perspective, and only few of these forests fall within protected areas. This study assesses how various management regimes, within and outside legal protection, influence forest carbon stocks in temperate broad-leaved forests in the Langtang area of Nepal. Woody biomass stocks, as well as soil organic carbon, were estimated using allometric relationships and converted into carbon estimates by standard equations. Regardless of the high similarity in species composition between the two forest management types, trees in the protected forest (PF) inside Langtang National Park were significantly taller and relatively larger than those in the government forest (GF) outside at Bhalche. Also, above-ground (AG) biomass, and hence AG carbon stocks, and soil organic carbon, were higher in the comparatively healthier PF; the total carbon stock was 284.5 ton/ha in the PF, compared to 167.0 ton/ha in the GF. Similarly, the total carbon pool was slightly greater at higher elevation under both management regimes. It was, however, much lower on the southern slope inside the protected forest because people extracted forest biomass, despite the legal protection, this area being close to settlements. Hence, the extent of biomass extraction determines the forest carbon storage capacity. Notably, it is not the legal protection per se, but rather its level of implementation on the ground that determines its success in protecting natural resources. This is in turn contingent on creating alternative livelihood options for communities relying directly on natural resource extraction.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Deepak Chhetri, Madan Suwal, Kuber Bhatta and Shambhu Dangal for technical support, to Lila Sharma, Bishnu Chapagain, Rajesh Shrestha for field assistance, and to the residents of Bhalche for their cooperation. We also like to acknowledge financial support from the Norad Program for Masters Studies (NOMA) at Central Department of Botany, Tribhuvan University, Nepal and the research project ‘Legal frameworks for Conservation of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services in the Himalayas (HimaLines)’ funded by the Norwegian Research Council (190153/V10) and Grolle Olsens Legat.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Central Department of Botany, Tribhuvan University, Kirtipur, Kathmandu, Nepal

    Asha Laxmi Suwal

  2. Nepal Academy of Science and Technology, GPO Box 3323, Kathmandu, Nepal

    Dinesh Raj Bhuju

  3. Department of Geography, University of Bergen, Fosswinckelsgt. 6, 5007, Bergen, Norway

    Inger Elisabeth Måren

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  1. Asha Laxmi Suwal
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  2. Dinesh Raj Bhuju
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  3. Inger Elisabeth Måren
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Correspondence to Inger Elisabeth Måren.

Appendix

Appendix

See Table 3.

Table 3 Woody species list constituting all woody species included for carbon estimation in the study areas of Langtang National Park (inside legal protection) and Bhalche (outside protection) in mountain forests of Nepal (n = 180)
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Suwal, A.L., Bhuju, D.R. & Måren, I.E. Assessment of Forest Carbon Stocks in the Himalayas: Does Legal Protection Matter?. Small-scale Forestry 14, 103–120 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11842-014-9276-4

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