Types of Forestry

To improve the environment to safeguard agriculture from the adverse effect of various climatic factors.
To expand the supply of fuel wood for domestic use, small timber for rural housing, fodder for livestock and minor forest produce for local small scale businesses.
To enhance the natural beauty of the landscape and create recreational forests for the advantage of rural and urban populations.
To provide employment opportunities for untrained workers.
To effect the rehabilitation of lands.
Raising the standard of living and the quality of life of the people living in the rural and urban areas.

Types of Social Forestry

Farm forestry

At present, in almost all the countries where social forestry programs have been taken up both commercially and non- commercial farm forestry is being promoted in one form or the other.
Individual farmers are being encouraged to plant trees on their own farmland to meet the domestic needs of the family. In many areas, this tradition of growing trees on the farmland already exists.
Non-commercial farm forestry is the main thrust of most of the social forestry projects in the country today.
It is not always necessary that the farmer grows trees for fuelwood, but very often they are interested in growing trees without any economic motive. They may want it to provide shade for the agricultural crops; as wind shelters; soil conservation or to use wasteland.

Urban Forestry

It is raising and management of trees on private or publically owned lands in and around urban centers for the purpose of improving the urban environment.

Urban forestry includes the management of individuals as well as groups of trees. Urban forestry is also not restricted to trees that have been planted.
Many urban trees may have established naturally, although, in an environment in which competition for land is high, they are unlikely to survive long unless actively cultivated and managed.
Urban forestry also includes the management of forests at the urban fringe.

Rural Forestry

Rural forestry can be divided into:

Community forestry
Agroforestry

1. Community forestry

It is the raising of trees on community land and not on private land as in farm forestry. All these programs aim to provide for the entire community and not for any individual.
The government has the responsibility of providing seedlings, fertilizers but the community has to take responsibility for protecting the trees.
Some others take advantage and sell the timber for a short-term individual profit. Common land being everyone’s land is very easy to exploit.

2. Agroforestry

Agroforestry is defined as a land-use system that integrates trees and shrubs on farmlands and rural landscapes to enhance productivity, profitability, diversity, and ecosystem sustainability. It is a dynamic, ecologically-based natural resource management system that through the integration of woody perennials on farms and in the agricultural landscape diversifies and sustains production and builds social institutions. It combines forestry with:

Production of multiple outputs with the protection of the resource base.
Places emphasis on the use of multiple indigenous trees and shrubs.
Particularly suitable for low-input conditions and fragile environments.
It involves the interplay of socio- cultural values more than in most other land-use systems.
It is structurally and functionally more complex than monoculture.

Benefits of Social Forestry

Increases the biodiversity
Removal of Carbon with trees acting as carbon sinks
Conservation of soil
Benefits on health
Enrichment of the community
Noise Reduction
Conservation of Energy and reduction in the overall atmospheric temperatures
Improving air quality
Social Benefits

Agroforestry

Agroforestry is the interaction of agriculture and trees, including the agricultural use of trees.

Advantages of Agroforestry

The absentee landlords go for agroforestry to retain title of the land and to increase their income.
To manage the agricultural land even without the availability of family labour.
To ensure better land use.
To generate employment.
To conserve soil moisture.
To meet the needs of fuel wood, fodder and timber.
To protect the arable land from wind and water erosion.

Benefits of Agroforestry System

1. Environmental benefits:

Reduction of pressure on natural forests.
More efficient recycling of nutrients by deep-rooted trees on the site.
Better protection of ecological systems.
Reduction of surface run-off, nutrient leaching, and soil erosion through the impeding effect of tree roots and stems on these processes.
Improvement of soil structure through the constant addition of organic matter from decomposed litter.

2. Economic benefits:

Increment in outputs of food, fuelwood, fodder, fertilizer, and timber.
Reduction in the incidence of total crop failure, which is common to single cropping or monoculture systems.
Increase in levels of farm income due to improved and sustained productivity.

Improvement in rural living standards from sustained employment and higher income.
Improvement in nutrition and health due to increased quality and diversity of food outputs.
Stabilization and improvement of communities through the elimination of the need to shift sites of farm activities.

Adverse effect of AgroForestry

Market oriented trees are preferred which damage the ecosystem. Instead of Poplar and eucalyptus, farmers should plant neem, Mahua, Arjun and Acacia.
Fuelwood and fodder trees are generally neglected.
Foreign varieties are soil-moisture and water exhaustive resulting in adversely affecting ground water table of the area.
Land under agroforestry become unproductive as the roots of the tree become so dense that they need intensive labour for their removal.
Trees become habitat for many pests and diseases which affect the crops.
In the field where the trees are planted the productivity per unit area decreases.

Types of Forestry,Types of Forestry