Strategy for Sustainable Afforestation

We are living in an era of dwindling natural resources and environmental deterioration. Global biodiversity is being lost at accelerating rate. Urbanization, industrialization and other human activities have resulted in deforestation and pollution causing great threat to the environment. It contains many interesting and valuable plants from scientific point of view, apart from the economically important ones. Now the realization has come all over the world that survival of mankind is not possible without forests, which is an important ecosystem of our planet earth. Forests with their myriad of flora and fauna are rich sources of gene pool. So conservation biologists have increased efforts to understand its decline and encourage its conservation. Genetic conservation started with biosphere reserves, sanctuaries and national parks all over the world as a part of the conservation strategy. The importance of preserving diversity is to maintain ecological balance, economic use of species and genetic material for evolving new varieties in agriculture, horticulture, veterinary and medical fields, proper maintenance of life system, preserve aesthetic and religious values, know the socio-economic value of a particular area and to preserve its culture and nature. This necessitates making inventory of diversity of the country and the monitoring. The proximate causes of biodiversity loss may be anthropological, biological, social, economic or political, but because of their direct and indirect benefit we cannot afford to loose the biological diversity. Soil evaluation has become important due to worldwide problem of conserving biological diversity. Although soil is formed by the result of weathering of parent rock, effect of climate, topography, plants, animals and age of land forms. All the factors affect the formation of the soil in several ways. The close relationship between geology, soil and vegetation is clearly visible by the effect shown by parent material and strong biological activity on soil formation and characteristics. Geological studies have special importance in forestry where tree growth lasts over a long period and depends to a large extent on the minerals as a source of nutrients in the soil. The knowledge of mineralogical behavior of soils at good natural sites and at degraded sites opens at possibilities of optimal management inputs to augment production of the biomass from good site as well as from degraded site after suitable amelioration. In the present intensified programme of raising large scale plantation, especially of fast growing species, the fertility potential depends largely on the mineralogical composition of the soil. The underlying parent material plays a vital role in determining the success or other-wise of the plantations especially over a number of rotations in a given year. Geological studies have been helpful in understanding the ecological status of forest growth and in investigating the various problems like deterioration in growth, quality, loss of vigor, mortality etc. in forest crops often caused by nutrient deficiency and other soil factors, some of which are related to mineralogical composition. Diagnostic support to determine the interrelationship between geology, soil and vegetation and worked out potential productivity of soil as a useful tool for sustainable management of degradated sites. Soil is being enriched through nutrient contribution from minerals. Such evaluation helpful for the managers and land users to have a thorough knowledge about the content and nature of minerals present in the soil in diagnosing the fertility status and other soil-plant-parent material relationship in forestry. It is useful to work out proper requirement of nutrients for a particular species for a sustainable activity on such sites. In order to implement and enhance the potential use of soil mineralogical evaluation, some guidelines are proposed for eco-rehabilitation of natural forest sites as well as degraded land. A detailed soil and vegetation survey should be carried out and site matched species as per mineralogical studies should be identified and planted. A comprehensive study of different geological parameters of the sites should be conducted. Mineralogical evaluation should be carried out occurring under different conditions of soil, climate and geology to bring out suitable remedial measures for sustainable afforestation.