Protective and environmental functions of forests
Alvert Gottl and N. El-Hadji sene
XI WORLD FORESTRY CONGRESS
13 to 22 October 1997, Antalya, Turkey
The forest as a natural buffer plays an important role in maintaining ecological balance, while being a key element in the landscape and a supplier of raw materials and protective services to various companies. A key policy objective forest should be to maintain the existing forest areas and try its expansion in areas with low forest cover, wherever possible (particularly in fragile ecosystems such as mountainous or dry areas) as suggested in Agenda 21. Society must maintain awareness of the multiple functions of forests, both in the use of their commodities as protective aspects, recreational and landscape structure.
The economic functions of forest resources are still very important, and the world economy is in need of wood from forests, although the sustainable management must reconcile different functions. Sustainable management ensures equitable satisfaction potentially divergent needs and aspirations.
This document will focus on observing how the overall situation of forest resources is affecting their ability to provide the protective functions usually expected of those, what are the trends in the understanding of these protective functions, how initiatives and development activities are linked to these functions and how the implementation of the UNCED Agenda 21 and related conventions helps preserve the protective functions of forests. This review will make specific reference a selected set of relatively fragile ecosystems and the XI World Forestry Congress has decided to devote particular attention, mainly mountain ecosystems and the management of watersheds, dry forests and coastal forests and swamps.
GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS ON THE ROLE AND ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION OF FORESTS
The forest can provide any protection and conservation functions expected of him if in their natural state and under good natural or ecological conditions, being used, it is managed sustainably. Under such conditions, health and vitality of the forest are very important. Efforts towards sustainable forest management incorporating these two important features among the most significant criteria for sustainable forest management. It is the vitality of forests that can grow with sufficient strength and vigor, so as to counteract the physical forces that affect soil erosion by water. The same force allows a well structured architecture and abundant foliage are opposed to wind erosion.
Vitality is an important notion and a concept that has been incorporated into the criteria for sustainable forest management. It is the result of a general physiological functioning of the body: a tree with good vitality shoots grow vigorously and produce strong, massive flowering and fruit is abundant, the ability of vegetative regeneration is very present and allows a reasonable perpetuation of training involved and therefore the normal operation of the various roles of the forest guards. Counting
health, vitality and proper condition, and secured the management and development, especially in the forest involved the following environmental and protective of importance:
• Protection of water resources . Thanks to foliage, the roughness of the bark and abundant litter, trees and forests reduce the rate of dispersion water and promote a slow but total infiltration of rainwater should also be noted the ability of trees, especially in dryland areas, to retain other precipitation such as fog, who can be collected and stored. The combination of these elements makes it possible for a seemingly barren environment is stored in the soil a large amount of water that can support the survival of trees and forests, sometimes in adverse conditions. By reducing erosion, forests also provide clean water processes natural.
• soil protection. Forest cover attenuates the wind while its dense Fixed network of roots holds the ground: This feature, added to the function in relation to water mentioned above, protects against erosion from wind and water, earth movement (debris flow and rockfall) and in cold climates, the risk of avalanches, with the combination of lower dispersion and penetration of water into the aquifers and intermediate, the forest has a cushioning effect that protects against flooding and erosion of river banks , the latter being very important role. Many of these functions may, however, be undermined by inappropriate practices and inadequate management allowing accidental denudation of the land or the existence of gaps in the masses on foot. This degradation, if unchecked, leads to deforestation which, in turn, leads to exacerbate runoff, leaching, destruction of soil structures, to an increasing erosion and eventual desertification.
• Attenuation of local climate and reducing the impact of gas emissions. Through control of the wind speed and air flow, forests influence local air circulation and can thus retain the suspension solid and gaseous elements, and filter air masses and retain contaminants. The forest has a protective effect on human settlements and especially neighboring crops. This capability is exploited for the protection of inhabited areas, especially those adjacent to industrial areas and generally in urban forests.
• Conservation of natural habitats and biodiversity . The forest provides a habitat for flora and fauna and, depending on their health and vitality and ultimately, the way it is managed and protected, it secures its own perpetuation through the functioning of ecological processes under natural circumstances, the many sequences state gradually evolve towards an equilibrium, weather formations and associations that should be the optimum depends on the characteristics of climate and physiography. In Europe, nearly half of the ferns and flowering plants grow in the forest. Due to its size and structural diversity, are more animal species in the forest than any other ecosystem. The forest's ability to provide suitable habitat to its various components are also highly dependent on the composition, density and structure. The composition and structure strongly influence diversity, while the density can improve security.
is recognized that mixed species forests provide better wildlife habitat than pure forests. This should be borne in mind when considering to plantations or forestry management and forest ecosystems profoundly modified.
• recreational and social functions of forests . Apart from these physical and biological functions directly protective forests in general have gained increasingly recreational functions during the past five decades. In the vicinity of cities, tourism has flourished and places of rest and healing, benefiting from the forest environment, in the forested areas of developed or developing countries, holiday homes again attract men into the woods. The management of woodlands in these areas should be more and more oriented towards objectives related to the welfare of the people, leisure services and recreation, protection of man against the effects of urban areas and industrialization. To better meet these needs should be taken options on forestry and forest management by promoting multi-species mass attractive and diversified structure. The forest must have the appropriate equipment, access roads and not disruptive and that will reduce fire risks.
• Protection of forests against anthropogenic erosion. While urban communities are striving to get closer to nature, while the evolution of global and local economies can be a threat for other protective functions of natural forests in the developing world where forests still maintain their functions cultural and religious. It is a challenge for the XXI century forestry also address those needs and preserve the cultural dimension of the protective functions of forests. Efforts should be made to save the tropical rain forests, the training of special plants currently under threat, the boreal forest and some old data in the temperate world, not only to protect and conserving biodiversity that these formations contain full, but also to safeguard the livelihoods and cultures related to these ecosystems. A number of innovative management options and many social forestry initiatives and community have been undertaken to address these issues, along with the preservation of sustainable lifestyles, including tests include extractive reserves in the Amazon and the new partnerships and begin to develop partnerships in countries as diverse as Mexico and Mali, etc.
The economic functions of forest resources are still very important, and the world economy is in need of wood from forests, although the sustainable management must reconcile different functions. Sustainable management ensures equitable satisfaction potentially divergent needs and aspirations.
This document will focus on observing how the overall situation of forest resources is affecting their ability to provide the protective functions usually expected of those, what are the trends in the understanding of these protective functions, how initiatives and development activities are linked to these functions and how the implementation of the UNCED Agenda 21 and related conventions helps preserve the protective functions of forests. This review will make specific reference a selected set of relatively fragile ecosystems and the XI World Forestry Congress has decided to devote particular attention, mainly mountain ecosystems and the management of watersheds, dry forests and coastal forests and swamps.
GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS ON THE ROLE AND ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION OF FORESTS
The forest can provide any protection and conservation functions expected of him if in their natural state and under good natural or ecological conditions, being used, it is managed sustainably. Under such conditions, health and vitality of the forest are very important. Efforts towards sustainable forest management incorporating these two important features among the most significant criteria for sustainable forest management. It is the vitality of forests that can grow with sufficient strength and vigor, so as to counteract the physical forces that affect soil erosion by water. The same force allows a well structured architecture and abundant foliage are opposed to wind erosion.
Vitality is an important notion and a concept that has been incorporated into the criteria for sustainable forest management. It is the result of a general physiological functioning of the body: a tree with good vitality shoots grow vigorously and produce strong, massive flowering and fruit is abundant, the ability of vegetative regeneration is very present and allows a reasonable perpetuation of training involved and therefore the normal operation of the various roles of the forest guards. Counting
health, vitality and proper condition, and secured the management and development, especially in the forest involved the following environmental and protective of importance:
• Protection of water resources . Thanks to foliage, the roughness of the bark and abundant litter, trees and forests reduce the rate of dispersion water and promote a slow but total infiltration of rainwater should also be noted the ability of trees, especially in dryland areas, to retain other precipitation such as fog, who can be collected and stored. The combination of these elements makes it possible for a seemingly barren environment is stored in the soil a large amount of water that can support the survival of trees and forests, sometimes in adverse conditions. By reducing erosion, forests also provide clean water processes natural.
• soil protection. Forest cover attenuates the wind while its dense Fixed network of roots holds the ground: This feature, added to the function in relation to water mentioned above, protects against erosion from wind and water, earth movement (debris flow and rockfall) and in cold climates, the risk of avalanches, with the combination of lower dispersion and penetration of water into the aquifers and intermediate, the forest has a cushioning effect that protects against flooding and erosion of river banks , the latter being very important role. Many of these functions may, however, be undermined by inappropriate practices and inadequate management allowing accidental denudation of the land or the existence of gaps in the masses on foot. This degradation, if unchecked, leads to deforestation which, in turn, leads to exacerbate runoff, leaching, destruction of soil structures, to an increasing erosion and eventual desertification.
• Attenuation of local climate and reducing the impact of gas emissions. Through control of the wind speed and air flow, forests influence local air circulation and can thus retain the suspension solid and gaseous elements, and filter air masses and retain contaminants. The forest has a protective effect on human settlements and especially neighboring crops. This capability is exploited for the protection of inhabited areas, especially those adjacent to industrial areas and generally in urban forests.
• Conservation of natural habitats and biodiversity . The forest provides a habitat for flora and fauna and, depending on their health and vitality and ultimately, the way it is managed and protected, it secures its own perpetuation through the functioning of ecological processes under natural circumstances, the many sequences state gradually evolve towards an equilibrium, weather formations and associations that should be the optimum depends on the characteristics of climate and physiography. In Europe, nearly half of the ferns and flowering plants grow in the forest. Due to its size and structural diversity, are more animal species in the forest than any other ecosystem. The forest's ability to provide suitable habitat to its various components are also highly dependent on the composition, density and structure. The composition and structure strongly influence diversity, while the density can improve security.
is recognized that mixed species forests provide better wildlife habitat than pure forests. This should be borne in mind when considering to plantations or forestry management and forest ecosystems profoundly modified.
• recreational and social functions of forests . Apart from these physical and biological functions directly protective forests in general have gained increasingly recreational functions during the past five decades. In the vicinity of cities, tourism has flourished and places of rest and healing, benefiting from the forest environment, in the forested areas of developed or developing countries, holiday homes again attract men into the woods. The management of woodlands in these areas should be more and more oriented towards objectives related to the welfare of the people, leisure services and recreation, protection of man against the effects of urban areas and industrialization. To better meet these needs should be taken options on forestry and forest management by promoting multi-species mass attractive and diversified structure. The forest must have the appropriate equipment, access roads and not disruptive and that will reduce fire risks.
• Protection of forests against anthropogenic erosion. While urban communities are striving to get closer to nature, while the evolution of global and local economies can be a threat for other protective functions of natural forests in the developing world where forests still maintain their functions cultural and religious. It is a challenge for the XXI century forestry also address those needs and preserve the cultural dimension of the protective functions of forests. Efforts should be made to save the tropical rain forests, the training of special plants currently under threat, the boreal forest and some old data in the temperate world, not only to protect and conserving biodiversity that these formations contain full, but also to safeguard the livelihoods and cultures related to these ecosystems. A number of innovative management options and many social forestry initiatives and community have been undertaken to address these issues, along with the preservation of sustainable lifestyles, including tests include extractive reserves in the Amazon and the new partnerships and begin to develop partnerships in countries as diverse as Mexico and Mali, etc.
0 comments:
Post a Comment