Plantation establishment forest landscape restoration for asia pacific forests 2016 04 eng

94 •฀ Planting techniques: Digging, refilling and planting with preprepared seedlings are employed in most dry zone plantations Figure 6. The main reason for digging is to collect scarce rain water. Refilling with soil from elsewhere is also necessary to provide enough nutrients for young seedlings as the physical and chemical conditions of the soil at the site are very poor. Various pittrench sizesdesigns are employed based on slope conditions. The most common trench size on sloping ground is 6 x 1.5 x 1´ with a centre pit of 1 x 1 x 1´, and on flat land is 3 x 3 x 1´ with a centre pit of 1 x 1 x 1´. Following planting, weeding, fertilization, patching and protection from fire, grazing animals and human beings are essential. Watering and fencing are also important for the success of dry zone plantations. Figure 6. Rejuvenating the dry zone through land rehabilitation 5.2.2 Protection of remaining natural forests This strategy is applied to rehabilitate large areas of degraded natural forests in a cost-efficient manner. It is applied in areas where genetic resources such as mother trees and stumps still remain and is carried out in both highly productive and low productive e.g. the Central dry zone or mountainous areas sites. Only government departments such as the Forest Department and DZGD undertake this work. Government expenditure is only about US6.00 per hectare. Major field operations include checking the forest boundary, boundary repair, building of guards’ houses in protected forest areas, clearing of inspection paths, putting up warning notices, assignment of forest guards average of one guard for 250 ha and regular patrolling of the area to protect against fire, grazing, illegal cutting, encroachment and other disturbances. Although the budget looks low on a per hectare basis, when extensive areas of 500 or 1 000 ha are treated, it is still workable and the minimum targets can be met. However, the approach could be made more productive with bigger budgets. The outcomes are quite slow and not very apparent in the first few years. After three to five years the results can be impressive. If such protection is continued, even heavily degraded forest can regrow to its optimum condition in 15 to 20 years. Compared to forest plantation, the long-term results are much more attractive in terms of environmental, ecological, social and economic values. Both local communities and foresters prefer this operation over monoculture plantations. It is a promising strategy to restore degraded forests in an efficient and effective manner. Land preparation Preparing a pit trench Trench digging Nursery