Intensive multiple-use forest management in Kerala FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANI~AfjR~ Of<"I"I:IE UNITED NATIONS Intensive multiple-use forest management in Kerala , , , 7/. , \; '" ,, . , .. t •• ;" ; \~'. , ' ',' '\ ,:', " , . ':"",- .' . Forest Resources Development Branch . ,J ~ Forest Resources Division Forestry Department , " '. ' , .. The designations employed and the presentation of material In this publication do not Imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Food and Agriculture Organization 01 the United Nations concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of ItS authorities, or concerning the delimitation of ItS frontiers or boundaries. M-36 ISBN 92-5-102173-2 All rights reserved. No part of thiS publication may be reproduced, stored In a retneval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photOCOPYing or otherwise, without the prior permiSSion of the copyright owner, Applications for such permission, With a statement of the purpose and extent of the reproduction, should be addressed to the Director, Publications DiVision, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Via delle Terme dl Caracalla, 00100 Rome, Italy, © FAD 1984 - iii - PREFACE Traditionally, the main objective of management of productive forest has been a sustained yield of commercial timber and problems in forestry have mostly been examined in this context. However, the evolution of forest nlanagement in the tropics has mainly been influenced by social, economic and political factors as a res~lt of increasing populations and their needs for agricultural land to provide for these basic necessities. In view of this, it has become important to look for forest management options that not only will provide industrial timher but also other forest products that reflect the needs of the popUlation living in or close to the forest. In order to examine existing multiple-use forest management systems in the tropics, a series of studies were carried out under the auspices of FAD in various countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America during the years 1983 and 1984 and a synthesis of the findings is about to be published. However, the study from Kerala (India) is specially valuable because of the long history of forest management in this State and the efforts made to introduce truly multiple-usc forest management. This study may help to clarify the complex issues of multiple-use forest management of tropical forests and it is why it is published herewith in its entirety. FAD wishes to acknowledge the excellent work carried out by the Kerala Forest Research Institute and by Dr. C.T.S. Nair in particular. J.P. Lanly Director Forest Resources Division Forestry Department - v - TABLE OF CONTENTS SUMMARY vii INTRODUCTION CHAPTER 1 KERALA: THE BACKGROUND 3 1.1 Location and Locality Factors 3 1.2 Socio-economic Conditions 3 1.3 Land Use Pattern R 1.4 Forestry: An overvi~w 11 1.5 Forest-based Industries 17 1.0 Summary and Conclusions 20 CHAPTER 2 TIlE STUDY AREA 21 2.1 Locality Factors 21 2.2 Population 21 2.3 Land Use 24 2.4 Industrial Development 25 2.5 Forests and Forestry 25 2.6 Demand on Forests 37 2.7 Summary and Conclusions 40 CHAPTER 3 HISTORY OF FOREST MANAGEMENT 43 3.1 Pre-1947 Era 43 3.2 Post-1947 Period 50 CHAPTER 4 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF FOREST MANAGEMENT 55 4.1 Objectives and Priorities 55 4.2 Plans and Programmes 57 4.3 Forest Administration 59 4.4 Forest Law 61 4.5 Summary and Conclusions 62 - Vi - CHAPTER 5 MANAGEMENT OF EVERGREEN FORESTS 63 5.1 Objectives of Management and Organisation 63 5.2 Management for Wood Production 64 5.3 Management [or Non-Wood Products 75 5.4 Watershed Protection 79 5.5 Discussion and Conclusions 79 CHAPTER 6 MANAGEMENT OF MOIST DECIDUOUS FORESTS AND TEAK PLANTATIONS 87 6.1 Management Objectives 87 6.2 Organisation 87 6.3 Management of Teak Plantations 89 6.4 Matchwood Plantations 100 6.5 Multiple-Use Management in Teak Plantations lU2 6.6 Treatment of Unconverted Areas 107 6.7 Teak Plantations 10c) 6.8 Summary and Conclusions 110 CHAPTER 7 CRITICAL EVALUATION OF FOREST MANAGEMENT 111 7.1 Targets vis-i-vis Performance 111 7.2 Constraints in Multiple-Usc Management l1'i 7.3 Relevance of Multiple-Usl? 122 7.4 Summary and Conclusions 124 CHAPTER 8 CONCLUSlONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 125 8',1 To the Future: Pessimism or Guarded Optimism? 12'i 8.2 Multiple-Use Management: What can be done? 127 APPENDIX I 131 GLOSSARY 133 REFERENCES 135 - v~~ - SUMMARY Growing awareness of the protective, productive and social functions of tropical forests has emphasized the need to develop appropriate systems for their tnanagement. An understanding of existing practices is essential to identify more viable systems of manage­ ment. To gather necessary background information, the Food and Agriculture Organisation initiated case studies in four representative tropical regions. This report is an outcome of one such study and deals with the management of rainforests (evergreen forests) and teak plantations in Kerala State, lndia. The main findings are summarized below. 1. Kerala is the most densely populated State in the country. The per capita income of the State ~s lower than that of the rest of India. 2. Primary sector comprising agriculture, forestry, fisheries, etc., accounts for a major share of the net state domestic product. 3. The industrial sector is poorly developed and is dominated by agro-based industries. 4. Forests occupy about 24 percent of the geographical area of Kerala. All forests in the State are under public ownership. 5. Growing demand for land and products has led to the diversion of forest Jand for other purposes and this has progressively reduced the area under forests. 6. The two major types of forests that occur in the study area are evergreen forests and moist de~iduous forests. Easily accessible evergreen forests are worked for wood produ~tion under a sele~tive felling system. Moist deciduous forests are converted into teak plantations by clear-felling and they represent an extreme degree of modification. 7. Management practices adopted in the case of evergreen forests envisage watershed protection and wood production. To facilitate this, zoning is done by constituting working circles on the basis of marketability of species, accessibility, topography, etc. This zoning is primarily guided by short-term priorities. 8. Exploitable girth, felling cycle, number of trees prescribed for removal are worked out purdy arbitrary without understanding the dynamics of the forest ecosystem. In the study area 8 to 12 trees/hectare above a girth of 180 cm are removed and the felling cycle has been fixed as 15 years. 9. Accessibility and demand seem to be the guiding factors that determine the intensity of selection system. Although nearly 30 species are listed for felling, in practice, a disproportionately large number of trees arc removed from among the few species having high demand. 10. Natural regeneration ~s defi~ient in the evergreen forests. Despite spe~ific prescriptions, efforts to promote regeneration get very little attention. The scheme of intensification of management taken up with the objective of augmenting regeneration covers only less than 5 percent of the felled area and the expenditure on this accounts for only 0.3 percent of the annual expenditure. - Vlll - 11. Areas which are inaccessible and which cannot be worked profitably are lumped together under protection working circle with the avowed objectives of securing watershed pro­ tection, soil conservation, etc. 12. With improvement in accessibility, area originally included under protection circle tends to shrink on account of its transfer to selection and sometimes conversion working circles. 13. Non-wood products obtainable from evergreen forests include reeds, canes and minor forest products. Present management attempts to regulate exploitation and no effort is made towards augmenting their future availability. 14. Although cardamom is cultivated in the evergreen forests for enhancing revenue, in the long run it adversely affects regeneration and leads to degradation of the forests. 15. Although watershed protection is mentioned as an objective in the working plans, no prescriptions exist and no definite steps are taken to enhance the protective values. 16. Most of the teak plantations have been established in areas which originally supported mixed moist deciduous forests which, although not as rich in plant diversity as the evergreen forests, contain a largE' number of commercially valuable species. 17. The mixed moist deciduous forests are converted into plantations of teak with the ostensible justification of increasing the value of the forests. However, very often such conversion seems to be motivated by the large revenue that can be realised during clear-felling. 18. Teak plantations are raised under the taungya system in which cultivators undertake all the post-planting operations for a period of about 2 years. Taungya reduces the cost of establishment, but causes site deterioration. 19. A rotation of 70 years is prescribed for teak" plantations with the Objective of pro­ ducing quality logs. Thinning is carried out at the 4th, 8th, 11th, 20th, 30th and 44th years. The first two thinnings are systematic, while others are selective. 20. Both with and without taungya, teak plantations give a very high net present value, primarily due to (a) the low establishment cost, (b) early returns from thinnings and (c) high revenue from final felling on account of the steep price increment curve. 21. Converting moist deciduous forests into teak plantations represents a trend towards intensive single-use management. 22. Multiple-use management has been limited to the practice of taungya and the half­ hearted attempts to raise cocoa and pepper. Both have failed to fulfil the object­ ives for which they have been introduced.