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Assessment of Forest Cover Change, Community Responses, and Conservation Strategy: Evidence from North Sikkim District, India

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Conservation, Management and Monitoring of Forest Resources in India

Abstract

In this chapter we are studying three important issues which have global concerns, i.e., spatiotemporal assessment of vegetation dynamics, responses of local community in forest management practices, and prospective conservation strategies. To understand the vegetation dynamics, we have used multi-temporal satellite data and have found that forest areas are continuously decreasing from south to north in North Sikkim. Due to strict legal protocols, dense forest cover is least degraded forest here since the last 30 years. Data shows that moderate and open forest cover are changing due to increasing anthropogenic and natural disaster. JFMC/EDC acts as a significant body encouraging local community to participate in forest management practices. We have also tried to propose HCV model as a potential conservation strategy here. The research findings underscore the necessity for further policy implementation to fight rural poverty, equal forest access, active participation, and holistic management of biodiversity especially for this biological hotspot.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The rural administrative unit has its own democratic and political structure. It is a self-governing body in rural areas of India. More information can be obtained from https://legislative.gov.in/constitution-seventy-third-amendment-act-1992 (accessed April, 18; 2021).

Abbreviations

BP:

Below poverty Line

CF:

Community Forestry

DEM:

Digital Elevation Model

DFO:

District Forest Officer

EDC:

Economic Development Committee

FLII:

Forest Landscape Integrity Index

FSI:

Forest Survey of India

GPU:

Gram Panchayat Unit

HCV:

High Conservation Value

IIPS:

Indian Institute for Population Sciences

ISFR:

India State Forest Report

ITTO:

The International Tropical Timber Organization

JFM:

Joint Forest Management

LULC:

Land Use and Land Cover

NDVI:

Normalized Difference Vegetation Index

NFHS:

National Family Health Survey

NP:

Nagar Panchayat

NTFP:

Non-timber Forest Product

OLI:

Operational Land Imager

OLS:

Ordinary Least Square

PRI:

Panchayati Raj Institution

RS-GIS:

Remote Sensing and GIS

SC:

Schedule Caste

SFM:

Sustainable Forest Management

ST:

Schedule Tribe

UN:

United Nations

UNFCCC:

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

WWF:

World Wildlife Fund

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Acknowledgment

We would like to appreciate the people of North Sikkim for their active support during the field work. We would also like to thank Mr. Manghang Subba at Chungthang subdivision for his kind cooperation during the research. Our sincere gratitude is extended to the official staffs of North Sikkim. Above all, we would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to the reviewers for their valuable suggestions.

Funding

No funding has been received for this work.

Availability of Data and Material

The data underlying this article is publicly available and can also be shared on reasonable request to the corresponding author (Sushmita Chakraborty) after approval from the concerned organizations.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The University of Burdwan, Burdwan, West Bengal, India

    Sushmita Chakraborty

  2. GIS, Kolkata, West Bengal, India

    Arunima Chanda

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  1. Sushmita Chakraborty
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, School of Environment, Education and Development, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK

    Mehebub Sahana

  2. Indira Gandhi Conservation Monitoring Centre, WWF-India, New Delhi, India

    Gopala Areendran

  3. Indira Gandhi Conservation Monitoring Centre, WWF-India, New Delhi, India

    Krishna Raj

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Chakraborty, S., Chanda, A. (2022). Assessment of Forest Cover Change, Community Responses, and Conservation Strategy: Evidence from North Sikkim District, India. In: Sahana, M., Areendran, G., Raj, K. (eds) Conservation, Management and Monitoring of Forest Resources in India. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-98233-1_9

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