Abstract
Forest loss is an issue for livelihoods in rural areas of the world. The patterns and trends of forest loss and its associated drivers are relevant for sustainable management. This study focused on forest loss and its associated drivers, integrated with satellite data and perceptions of people in five selected zones in the dry deciduous forest of West Bengal. Simple linear regression was conducted to analyse trends of forest loss. A household survey with Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) approach was used to examine the perceptions of people on forest loss and its associated drivers. The result showed that forest loss is increasing, and varied over the spatial-temporal context. Between 2001 and 2018, forest cover decreased by 1.3% and the five selected zones contributed 79% of total forest loss. Overall 84% of households perceived a decline in forest cover. Agricultural land extension, timber, fuel collection, and wood marketing were common key drivers and increasing threats in the intermediate areas of the zones. Satellite image data only reveal that spatial-temporal forest loss but local people’s experience could perceive related drivers of forest loss, and threat zones of forest loss in the future. Therefore, both integrated methods will be useful for forest management.
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Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Government of India for funding as a Senior Research Fellowship (SRF) (Sanctioned file no. is 09/599/(0083)/2019-EMR-I).
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Bera, D., Das Chatterjee, N., Bera, S., Rana, A., Paul, B. (2023). Determining Recent Trends of Forest Loss and Its Associated Drivers for Sustainable Management in the Dry Deciduous Forest of West Bengal, India. In: Sahu, A.S., Das Chatterjee, N. (eds) Environmental Management and Sustainability in India. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-31399-8_9
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