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Simplification of Pine Forests Due to Utilization by Tibetan Villages in Southwest China

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Abstract

In China, many rural communities depend upon forests to provide wood, fuel, fertilizer, animal bedding, and valuable non-timber forest products (NTFP). However, the degree to which forest resource extraction is compatible with new conservation aims is unclear because there is little information on the specific ecological effects of traditional forest collecting practices. Therefore, we compared the structure and floristics of Pinus densata forests exposed to three levels of resource extraction by Tibetan villages in northwest Yunnan: (1) a forest site protected from wood and timber removal, (2) moderately utilized forest sites exposed to traditional collecting practices, and (3) patches of highly utilized forest from which timber extraction is high in response to recent development pressures. The results show that understorey and cryptogamic species are reduced in all the utilized forest sites by comparison with the protected forest. However, the moderately utilized pine forests still provide good NTFP habitats by maintaining relatively high canopy covers, litter covers, and understorey structural complexity; this suggests that traditional forest resource use, while simplifying the forest, does not pose an increasing threat to pine forest integrity. By comparison, the highly utilized forests are transformed into open, herb-rich environments in which canopy covers and understorey complexity are depleted, and NTFP habitats are degraded. In the future it may be practical to enhance biodiversity by proscribing forest resource collection, but the immediate priority is to monitor the sustainability of forest utilization using indicators such as understorey development, litter cover, and cryptogamic richness.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful for the assistance of Jisha villagers, particularly Mr Wanzha and his family. Plant specimens were kindly identified by Deng Min, and Dr Jim Shevock. Andrew Willson assisted with GIS data and useful literature, while Drs. Horst Weyerhaeuser and Jason Gillespie provided equipment. This work was in part supported by the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF) project on Applied Ethnoecology for Biodiversity Assessment, Monitoring and Management in northwest Yunnan. Comments from anonymous referees improved the manuscript greatly.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Heilongtan, Kunming, 650204, China

    David R. Melick, Xuefei Yang & Jianchu Xu

  2. WWF South Pacific, PO Box 8280, Boroko, NCD, 111, Papua New Guinea

    David R. Melick

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  1. David R. Melick
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  2. Xuefei Yang
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  3. Jianchu Xu
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Correspondence to David R. Melick.

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Melick, D.R., Yang, X. & Xu, J. Simplification of Pine Forests Due to Utilization by Tibetan Villages in Southwest China. Environmental Management 40, 866–879 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-007-9015-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-007-9015-0

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