Forestry and Wildlife Management

News and information on wildlife and protected areas from India and South Asia. Published by Kalpavriksh and the Centre for Policy Studies (CPS), IIT Bombay with support from the Duleep Matthai Nature Conservation Trust. In it's 28th year of non-stop publication.

Diversity and abundance of herpetofauna are an integral part of a healthy ecological food web and indicators of environmental changes. Hence a study was conducted in Dantan I, Paschim Medinipur, West Bengal, India, from January 2020 to January 2021, with an aim to determine the diversity and prepare a checklist of herpetofauna in this area. There is hardly any comprehensive work on herpetofauna in this region. The present study provides baseline information about herpetofauna diversity in this area. A total 34 species of Herpetofauna were observed. These included 23 species of reptiles from 2 order (Squamata and Testudineus) and 8 families, represented by 14 snakes species (4 venomous and 10 nonvenomous), 1 turtle and 8 lizards. Amphibians were represented by 11 species under order (Anura), 5 families have been included in this first-ever comprehensive checklist from the area. Such studies are essential from time to time to monitor the increasing impact of anthropogenic global environmental changes and frame policies accordingly to safeguard these precious organisms and prevent biodiversity degradation.

Extensive areas of trees and shrubs are being planted for land rehabilitation and wood production on previously cleared agricultural land in Australia. Environmental benefits are a major incentive for this change in land management, but data concerning the response of biodiversity to new plantings are scarce and are needed to direct restoration efforts and to underpin policy development.
This report outlines a large-scale study to guide future planting schemes for biodiversity recovery in agricultural landscapes. It documents and compares the occurrences of more than 180 species of birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians sampled at 136 sites representing eucalypt plantings in two broad age-classes, nearby remnants of native forest and woodland, and cleared or sparsely-treed paddocks. The study design also enabled comparison of the occurrences of these species across a range of patch-sizes of both revegetation and existing remnant vegetation. Comparisons were also made of the occupancy of young plantings by birds and bats in two landscape types, which differed mainly in their proportions of retained native vegetation. The role of vegetation type and condition, and management history, in influencing the occurrences of species in plantings and remnants is discussed. The report concludes with recommendations for restoring habitat for wildlife on farms, in the context of improving conservation outcomes from eucalypt plantings that are established for multiple purposes.
This project was funded by the Natural Heritage Trust and the Joint Venture Agroforestry Program (JVAP). JVAP is supported by three R&D Corporations — Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation (RIRDC), Land & Water Australia, and Forest and Wood Products Research and Development Corporation (FWPRDC), together with the Murray-Darling Basin Commission (MDBC). The R&D Corporations are funded principally by the Australian Government. State and Australian Governments contribute funds to the MDBC.

This project documented the capacity of young eucalypt plantations to restore habitat for fauna within a highly fragmented, and ecologically degraded, agricultural landscape. The study compared fauna occupancy within 4-6 year old eucalypt plantations and paddocks used for grazing and intensive cropping with remnant forest and woodland in the region. The study sought to validate inferences from a previous study in another region about the importance of plantation age and size and proximity to remnant vegetation. It also sought to calibrate forestry-type plantations with eucalypt plantings established primarily for broad environmental benefits. The study assessed opportunities for improving habitat for fauna in agroforestry plantations. It also documented the capacity of eucalypt plantations to provide critical resources for breeding and year-round occupancy for a range of vertebrate species.
We found that the responses varied across the different taxonomic groups of fauna investigated. Young (4-6 year old) eucalypt plantations had a surprisingly similar avifauna to that recorded in remnant forest and woodland in the Liverpool Plains region. Eucalypt plantings clearly lack certain resources and habitat components that are important for many fauna. A rigorous field experiment was established to test the effect of supplementing plantings with nest boxes and ground cover. Initial inspections to document the use of these resources found that the addition of nest boxes provided otherwise missing tree hollow resources for two species of bats, two species of marsupials, two species of parrot and tree frogs. Invertebrates also made extensive use of all kinds of boxes provided. Nest box uptake by some species such as Sugar Gliders was limited by proximity to remnant populations. The addition of cover boards greatly increased the counts of reptiles in plantings compared to those without added cover, further indicating that lack of cover is the main restriction on the use of plantings by reptiles. Both forms of habitat supplementation (nest boxes and ground cover) will require further inspections and surveys in coming years to fully test the hypotheses of the experiment.
Recommendations to improve the biodiversity values of eucalypt plantations need to consider the varying requirements of different fauna groups. Birds benefit from a high stocking rate of trees in plantations, but many bats are unable to forage in dense vegetation. A practical recommendation to balance the needs of these two groups could be to plant at a high density to minimise weeds and optimise tree growth and form, but then to thin some patches non-commercially within the plantation to create gaps. Consideration could also be given to alternate planting of eucalypts and fast-growing acacias, with the latter self-thinning creating gaps in the plantation and increased ground cover with fallen dead wood. The aim would be to maximise structural complexity at the patch scale. Our results suggest the floristic composition (i.e. a few commercial species of eucalypts) compared to richer environmental plantings has less effect on fauna than structural components.
The composition of biodiversity inhabiting eucalypt plantations is influenced differentially by the surrounding landscape. Birds and less mobile terrestrial fauna benefit enormously when plantations are established close to existing remnants. The landscape scale is of less importance to bats, but the retention of remnant trees on farms, even when scattered in the landscape, is vital for bats. Plantation patch area appeared to be less important for birds than proximity to remnants.
Artificial ground cover and nest boxes are predicted to benefit a wide range of fauna, but the extent is yet to be fully revealed.