Forests and forestry science in Armenia: research needs ... · PDF fileForests and forestry...
Transcript of Forests and forestry science in Armenia: research needs ... · PDF fileForests and forestry...
Forests and forestry science in Armenia: research needs and areas
H.Y.SAYADYAN Dr. of Science (Geography)
Prof. of Forestry and Agro-Ecology Departments Armenian National Agrarian University
E-mail: [email protected]
KAZAN, 18-21 November, 2014
Armenian Forest Estate
State Forest Estate
459.900
Forests soil
392.300
Non forests soil
67.600
Forested areas
334.100
Non-forested
areas 58.200
•Arable land -1100ha
•Hay-making area-5800ha
•Pasture lands-29.900ha
•Water surface-500ha
•Vineyards and fruit orchards-
2900ha
•Roads -700ha
•Settlements-2800ha
•Sandy areas-600ha
•Other land-uses-23.300ha
•NWFP-700t(pear),
150t(apple),600t(cornelian
cherry), 60t (nut)-Ijevan
• Artificial plantings-36.900ha
• Canopy un-closed plantings-
13.400ha
• Forest nurseries-300ha
• Scarce forest areas-1900ha
• Cut, non-reconstructed areas-
200ha,
• Open lands-16.700ha
ARMENIAN FORESTS
Oak
35%
Beech
29%
Hornbeam
17%
Pine
5%
Juniperous
3%
Other
11%
•Area-334,100ha (around 11 %)
•standing volume- 41,74 mln.m3
•mean annual growth - 0,45 mln.m3
•loggings -0,7-1,0 mln (1992-2000s)
•mean resources per ha - 125 m3
•mean annual growth - 1,3 m3
•mean bonitet - III-6
•mean canopy closure - 0,53
•mean age - 99
Tree Species Structure
Illegal cuttings in
Dilijan Nat.Park
Fire trace
HIGHLIGHTED ISSUES IN ARMENIAN FORESTRY TO BE ADDRESSED
•Inappropriate management structure and week responsibility for national forest resources, •Former extensive conservation practice vs. current wrong management approaches •Inappropriate FLEGT and REDD activities
•Deforestation due to illegal logging, overgrazing, dry climate ,
•Lack of struggle against pests, insects and fungi in the forestry,
•Degradation of xerofil bushes specially in southern aspects,
•Illegal and irregular cuttings specially during last 2 decades
•Lack of transparency and participatory approach, lack of
will to work and to use funds and resources together, lack
of professionals
Overgrazing everywhere in Armenia
The planet’s 25 most diverse and endangered hotspots (IUCN)
NEED 1. Address high conservation value of Armenian forests:
Valuation of forest ecosystem services!
DIFFERENT LANDSCAPES ARE HOSTING VERY DIVERSE FLORA AND FAUNA
Specially protected areas in Armenia
Khosrov state reserve, 1958
(Funded in 4th cent. A.D.)
Specially protected areas occupies
around 11 % of national territory
with the water surface of lake Sevan
Erebuni state reserve Wild relatives of cereals,1989
Shikahogh state reserve, 1958
•5 National parks
•3 State reserves
•23 State reservations
•Several natural monuments
•The project to establish
First Bioreservat in
Armenia is on-going
(supported by KfW
foundation)
Dilijan National
Park
Caucasian mesophile forest
ecosystems, 2002
STRUCTURES RELATED TO FOREST SECTOR AT MINISTRY OF
AGRICULTURE
Ministry of Agriculture
Forest Monitoring
Centre Armforest
Forest
Policy
Reforestation
and inventory
Developm
programs
Armforest is composed by central office
in Yerevan and 22 regional forest
enterprises. Armforest is responsible for
overall management of forest estate.
Forest monitoring centre is young
structure, where there is high
demand to skilled professional
foresters
In Armforest central office staff is 52 and
in regional forest enterprises 1135-1175
both permanent and seasonal employees
Plant breed.,
forestry and
plant protect
Agency
NEED 2. Improve the governance and management of Armenian forests!
STRUCTURES RELATED TO FOREST SECTOR AT MINISTRY OF
NATURE PROTECTION
Ministry of Nature Protection
Bio-resources managment agency
Forest Research-
Experimental Centre
National parks,
reservations, arboreta
Inspectoriate
• Forest Inventory
• Forest Management Plans
• In-serviceTraining
• Research works
• Field Experiments
Protection and management
of 25% forest area of Armenia
Inspection of
utilization of
natural resources
Out of 192 employees only 11% have some formal forest education
NEED 3. IMPROVE FORESTRY EDUCATION AND RESEARCH ITSELF
PREVIOUS EDUCATION AND RESEARCH (before 1991)
• Formal education and training of few Armenian foresters in Russia, Ukrain and Georgia (1930-1991)
• Armenian forest research-experimental station of Vanadzor (1929)
• Forestry courses at Armenian Agricultural Institute (1950s)
• Forestry division in Botanical Institute of NAS RA with experimental stations
• Research works in State forest service on reforestation and afforestation
CURRENT EDUCATION AND RESEARCH (1991 and onward)
• Forestry courses at Armenian Agricultural Academy (1994-2003)
• Establishment of Forestry Depart.at Armenian Agricultural Academy in 2004:
–New education program with stress on forest inventory, reforestation and forest establishment, forest conservation and protection
–Balance between theory and practice
–Corresponding material-technical bases, reference library
•Conduction of limited forestry related resaerch activities on the following areas:
–Global climate change impact of forest extent , forest fires and quality
–Forest management improvement through application of GIS, RS, monitoring
–FLEGT and REDD studies, Illegal logging impact studies
NEED 4, IMPROVE EFFECTIVENESS OF INTERNATION FORESTRY PROJECTS
• Armenian Tree Project (since 1994)
• UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Technical Co-operation Projects (TCP), 1995/1996
• Forest Resources Assessment of Armenia (Swedish Goverment)- 1997-1999
• The assessment of genetic resources of Armenian Forests (Rome-IPGRI)-2000
• Forest Stewdership Council. First steps towards Forest Certification in Armenia (Pro-forest, UK)-2000
• Forest Inventory in Northern Armenia by support of Ntaional Goverment- 2000-2002
• World Bank-IDA-GEF-SIDA-2002-2008 Natural Resources Management and Poverty Alleviation
• (SLU-SIDA)-2002-2007- Forest education project in Armenian Agricultural Academy (now Arm. State Agr. University)
• First community forest in Armenia, Tufenkyan Foundation,
• Reforestation and forest development fund-Govermental decision N891, June, 2004
• Japan Government Reforestation /Afforestation project
• FAO, Forest Nursery re-establishment
NEED 5: PROPER FOREST INFORMATION SYSTEM
Period Forest
covered area
in ha
Forest cover
in % from the
total area
Standing
volume in
1000 m3
Standing
volume in
ha/m3
4000 to 1, B.C. appx. 1050 000 35 - -
XVII - XVIII appx. 530 000 18 - -
1941, Maghakyan 284 379 9,6 - -
1960, Abrahamyan 241 753 8,1 24 839 102,7
1966, National
Forest Inventory
253 000 8,5 29 700 117,4
1977, Makhatadze 273 000 9,2 27 892 102,2
1978, National
Forest Inventory
296 600 9,98 31 140 105
1988, National
Forest Inventory
334 100 11,2 41 740 124.9
2000, Assessment appx. 245 000 8,2 28 000 116,6
2010, FAO, World’s
forests, 2011, ets.
262 000 9,0-12,4 % 31 400 120,0
NEED 6: CASE OF LAKE SEVAN ARTIFICIAL FORESTS SEVAN ISLAND - 1940S
SEVAN PENINSULA-1988
SEVAN ISLAND, 1937
SEVAN PENINSULA, 2010
The island and the monastery of
Sevan during the 19th century
(Paris, 1869, T. Deyrolle)
SECTION OF ARTIFICIAL FOREST SUBMERGED BY RISING WATERS OF LAKE SEVAN
FORESTS AROUND LAKE SEVAN ARE NOT MANAGED PROPERLY
NEED 7: Study of Negative Events Related to Non-regulated Forest Logging and Forest Management (e.g. Landslides)
NEED 8: Study of Negative Events Related to Non-regulated Forest Logging (e.g. high stand forest conversion into low stand forests)
NEED 9: Modeling of Idealized flow of deforestation
NEED10 :REFORESTATION, AFFORESTATION AND GREENING
Estimating the Extent of Forest Cover in Armenia
Using Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper (ETM+) Data
Example of Research work
scattered juniper and oak
orchards mixed with natural vegetation
natural forest
recently
cleared
areas
tree-line
natural forest
recently
cleared
area
FOREST COVER OF ARMENIA FOR IV-I MILLENIUM B.C.
AND 17-18 CENTURIES PERIODS
FOREST COVER OF ARMENIA IN 1990 AND 2000
Methodology
• ERDAS Imagine 9.0 was used to perform classification of the images
• Each pixel is assigned to a class based on information from the bands
Data Processing
• Four sets of images from 2000 and 2001 were downloaded
• “GeoCover” format is already orthorectified
• Each image set consists of six “bands” covering different parts of the electromagnetic spectrum
• Each set of bands was combined into a single scene
Four Landsat scenes cover Armenia
Image Classification
• Decision was made to use “supervised classification”
• Each of the four images was classified separately
• Output is a thematic map of land cover classes
• The maximum likelihood algorithm was used
Jensen, 2005
Image Classification (continued)
• Training samples were
collected using the
“seed tool”
• The training samples
define a signature
corresponding to a
particular class
• Three classes were
defined: forest, water,
and other
Accuracy Assessment
• ERDAS Imagine was used
to generate random points
Soviet-era topographic
maps were used to
assign reference values
to random points
No funds available for
traditional ground-truthing
Path/Row
Date
Class Producer’s
Accuracy
(%)
User’s
Accuracy
(%)
Overall Accuracy
P168R033
Aug 2001
forest
other
80.65
97.46
89.29
94.26
93.33%
P169R032
Jun 2001
forest
water
other
71.43
100.00
99.14
93.75
100.00
95.04
95.33%
P170R031
Jun 2001
forest
other
81.63
98.02
95.24
91.67
92.67%
P170R032
Aug 2000
forest
water
other
80.00
80.00
97.60
84.21
100.00
96.06
94.67%
Statistics generated by Accuracy Assessment Module
Spot checking in the field
showed a high degree of
accuracy at discriminating
forest from non-forest
…into a final mosaic.
Total area was then calculated
Impacts of Socio-Economic Policies on the Forests
Sayadyan H. and R. Moreno-S. 2006. Forest policies,
management and conservation in Soviet (1920-1991)
and post-Soviet (1991-2005) Armenia. Environmental
Conservation 33(1):1-13.
Historical Forest Cover Estimates
Moreno-Sanchez, R. and H. Sayadyan. 2005. Evolution
of the forest cover in Armenia. International Forestry
Review 7(2): 113-127
Concluding remarks and questions
• It’s evident that research works and scientific publications are
important to highlight environmental problems, particularly for the
forests and attract attention at list some part of society
(scientists, NGOs, sometimes authorities and local
administration)
• The open question is: How to make large public involved in vitally
important forestry issues and “struggle” for their rights of healthy
and safe environment?
– E.g. Governments’ sometime easily allocated forest patches to
foreign companies under mining industry (copper, gold, iron,
uranium) or construction purposes
• How to make large public to have a feeling of “ownership” of
country’s forest resources and escape from the “Tragedy of
commons” inherited from recent historical past?
THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION