India is home to a bewildering range of exceptional and spectacular biodiversity elements, but in last few years natural ecosystems have come under relentless onslaughts due to land degradation that leads to huge economic losses every year. Fast-expanding urban sprawls, rampant mining of minerals, rapid industrialisation, groundwater dependent and chemically supported intensified agricultural practices, growing incidence of disasters and climate change impacts are further accelerating land degradation.
The phenomenon of land degradation has enhanced food insecurity along with poverty that is expected to worsen in future due to climate variabilities and interlinked vulnerabilities. In last more than five decades human induced pressures have severely manipulated natural ecosystems of our country. Various direct and indirect drivers of biodiversity loss have drastically modified our natural ecosystems. However, we all are still not very sure about the larger impacts of these mega and hidden drivers of biodiversity loss as they have been seldom analyzed comprehensively and hence many of these drivers are still either unidentified or not assessed appropriately.
Due to inadequate representation and mainstreaming of the value of natural ecosystems and biodiversity in decision-making, many of the natural ecosystems across different agro-climatic zones of the country are undergoing rapid decline and degradation. Globally, there has been a huge consensus on the importance and role of healthy ecosystems in solving a string of environmental crises. Climate change and spread of zoonotic are some of the immediate risks that we are facing presently, and it has challenged our very survival. There is a growing need to assess nature's contributions to people for human well-being and multiple values of natural ecosystems as also to identify various anthropogenic and environmental drivers affecting them to understand the trends and scenarios for appropriate policy planning.
Mountain ecosystems are vital for maintaining nature’s contribution and well-being of people living upstream as well as downstream. The forests in Indian Himalayan Region (IHR) are biodiversity hotspots and a source of many ecosystem goods and services for the entire country and South Asia at large. Forests are vital need for subsistence rural lifestyle of locals as they are significantly dependent on these rich and biodiverse ecosystems. These forests are unlimited storehouse of provisioning, regulating and supporting cultural ecosystem services.
Unfortunately, the Himalayan forests have been severely exploited in the last few decades for diverse essential and subsistence demands of local inhabitants as well as larger demands for fuelling the development of the country. Degraded forest ecosystems are not sufficiently able to supply required goods and services to support good quality of life of marginal hill communities. In my last fifteen years of research on natural and man-made pressures on forests in Central Himalayas, the conclusion, with a clear evidence, was that anthropogenic pressure has severely affected moist temperate mixed broad leaved forests and also other forest types of the region. The dominance of seral species and pioneers in these forests instead of climatic climax species that are keystone species in many cases is a clear indication that forest ecosystems in the region are struggling and might be undergoing a hidden collapse. Continuous encroachment and pressure might jeopardize functioning of these forests and flow of ecosystem services from them.
There was a clear observation about the vital need to take stock of scattered but relevant scientific findings to develop scientific planning based management of broad leaved forests in the Central Himalayas. Loss and degradation of spring sheds in IHR is one such crucial problem highlighted by the Niti Aayog that has been addressed through continuous and ongoing research and developmental activities. It was also observed that addressing societal challenges can help planning conservation initiatives to achieve long-term and short-term biodiversity conservation targets.
Climate variability, vulnerability and the Himalayas are synonyms that are well-addressed and, hence, have also been included in the National Action Plan for Climate Change (NAPCC) as it is the most influential driver that is rapidly altering the natural habitats of keystone and threatened species in the region. It was important to understand the climatic niche of vulnerable species and predicting its shift due to impending climate change to assess the damage. It was also relevant to use this approach to plan and implement long term ex-situ or in-situ strategies to protect the species and their fragile habitats.
Though various important species across IHR are exploited for their economic and medicinal benefits, yet the impact of climate change for important species has not been very efficiently documented till date. We studied two important species of which first was Quercus leucotrichophora (A. Camus or Banj oak), a keystone tree species in moist temperate forests of Uttarakhand. Banj oak forests are highly diverse with high soil organic matter as also water holding capacity that supports human well-being across the region. We found that climate variability, coupled with anthropogenic pressure, has affected the regeneration and succession patterns of Banj oak in the region. It is also important to understand that conservation of Banj oak is more of socio-ecological challenge that requires more interdisciplinary approach with local participatory efforts.
Our results concluded that the estimated potential habitats of the Q. leucotrichophora forests will decline by 84-99 per cent in the coming three to five decades as per the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)’s Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs). It was clear that shift of the species from its present habitats due to climate variability requires climate adaptive management for forest landscape restoration (FLR) through active community involvement. Our study also provided information about the suitable niches for the species of Banj oak forests in the state to address the growing concern of spring shed rejuvenation using climate adaptive FLR in the Central Himalayas.
In another study, habitat suitability of Hippophae salicifolia (Seabucktorn) was undertaken that is a high value species which grows particularly on the riparian fronts of river Ganga in all high altitude valleys in the Central Himalayas. Species can be considered as an indicator of riparian forest health in higher reaches of river Ganga. Species has huge slope stabilisation potential that can be used for reducing landslide risks and also its fruits have important bio-prospecting and value addition potential. Natural habitats of the species in Uttarakhand are severely degraded due to their continuous destruction. Shift of species from its micro-habitats was observed and it was projected that suitable area for it might be lost by 87 per cent following all the IPCC climate change scenarios by 2050 and 2070, making the species highly vulnerable. An upward shift of species habitat was also observed from 2,800 to 4,500 m amsl (above mean sea level) that is alarming for the survival of alpine, subalpine and timberline ecosystems and species. The research highlighted the need for in-situ and ex-situ conservation of species to harness its potential for sustainable development of marginalised communities.
In last less than a decade there has been tremendous advancement around the world in terms of conceptualisation, research, implementation and policy uptake for Nature-based Solutions (NbS) to address and reduce the severity of disaster risk and climate vulnerability. There is also growing momentum in ongoing international policy dialogues by Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Ramsar Convention, and Sendai Framework on Disaster Risk Reduction. These are aimed at understanding, including and facilitating implementation of NbS for solving societal challenges by addressing disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptations and mitigations.
NbS have proven potential to achieve and localise goals and targets proposed in international agreements related to biodiversity conservation, disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation, and mitigation. Situation and target-based applications of appropriate NbS that support livelihood for the local community have proven success in poverty alleviation and skill development while overcoming restoration challenges. Restored landscapes through FLR as an NbS solution are biodiverse, productive, carbon-rich and climate-resilient regions that can fulfil the requirements for localising Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 1, 2, 6, 13, 14 and 15 and also support Intended Nationally Determined Targets (INDCs) under Paris COP, 2015. This research-based effort was to understand that restoration is required to be planned and conducted with due recognition and acceptance of growing climate uncertainty that comes after better understanding of the future restoration targets and accordingly planned initiatives.
I proposed an integrated climate sensitive restoration framework that involves locals, especially indigenous communities, in mapping degraded lands and identification of species as they have an in-depth understanding of their ecosystems that can be supported by advanced scientific tools and approaches to better understand and address climate uncertainty.
We tried to explore the potential of NbS in traditional Indian societies based on their indigenous and traditional ecological knowledge (ITEK) systems. Traditional agroforestry systems in the Himalayas were one of them that have historically supported millions of smallholding farmers. However, from 2007onwards, agroforestry has started receiving attention in global climate discussions for its huge carbon sink potential under the tree outside forest category. It can play an important role in offsetting greenhouse gases (GHGs), ensuring livelihood diversification, realising SDGs and achieving post-2020 global biodiversity targets. We included novelty to the approach on fodder banks that can not only reduce pressure from forests resulting in reduced degradation but also reducing women drudgery. One successful fodder bank model was developed with financial support from Department of Science and Technology (DST)’s SYSP scheme in Upper Kedar valley by using fast-growing, high biomass yielding and nutritious fodder species by active participation of women folk. This model has huge replication potential that helps the Forest Department of the state in general and other Himalayan states at large for developing fodder supply zones by developing fodder banks and introducing fast-growing and high biomass yielding plants also in cropland bunds.
The larger advantage of developing fodder banks can reduce the burden for women; help to preserve and store surplus fodder; increase availability of nutritious fodder during the period of fodder scarcity (lean winter months); enhance nutritive value of crop residue and other cellulosic waste for animal feeding by conventional and nonconventional fodder; and increase milk and meat yield. It was appreciated as a successful model by IUCN and also SAARC Forestry Center, Bhutan and is presently governed by Mahila and Yuvak Mangal Dals of the village.
This fodder model judiciously addresses the need of sustainable land restoration. It is a key to restoring degraded land, halting biodiversity loss, and reinstating ecosystem services across IHR. If replicated and adopted, it can help localise the national commitments and targets of Bonn Challenge and also the recently started United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021–2030) for restoration of 150 M ha of degraded lands by 2020 and 350 M ha by 2030. Such climate sensitive NbS can help in sustainable land restoration and bring transformative changes for achieving the targets of UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021–2030) and Sustainable Development Goal 15, and addressing the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework. However, to better realise success, climate finance mechanisms to drive restoration are equally important to be considered for reducing bias and enhancing opportunities of equitable sharing and this is where corporates can get involved under their CSR and Corporate Ecological Responsibility (CER) projects. We are also trying to explore involvement of citizen scientists for their broader presence that can help in post-plantation monitoring to ensure success and reduce mortality of restoration programmes.
Shalini Dhyani
Senior Scientist, Critical Zone Research Group, Water Technology and Management Division
CSIR-National Environmental Engineering Research Institute, Nagpur