Tree Diversity and Carbon Stock in Bolbum Community Forest and Brahmakumari Global Religious Forests of Rupandehi, Nepal

Abstract

Forests are one of the most important natural resources of the ecosystem which contribute in biodiversity conservation as well as play significant role in maintaining the earth’s climate by sequestrating atmospheric carbon. Tropical forests are rich in biodiversity and store large amount of carbon than elsewhere. The studied Bolbum Community forest (BCF) and Brahmakumari Global Religious Forest (BGRF) lie in tropical region at an altitude 120 to 300meter in Rupandehi District of Nepal. The main objective of the present study is to assess and compare Tree diversity and carbon stocks in two different management regimes namely Community forest and Religious forest. Stratified random sampling technique was used for assessing tree diversity and carbon stock in both forests. The allometric equation Biomass-diameter regression (Model II) developed by Chave et al., (2005) was used for estimation of carbon stock of tree species and tree species diversity by Simpsons and Shannon-Wiener indices. The carbon stock value was found to be 27.15 t/ha in BCF and 40.94 t/ha in BGRF. Community forest found to have lower value of tree carbon stock than the carbon stock of Religious forest. But in case of tree diversity it was recorded high in BCF (25) than in BGRF (20). Shorea robusta was found to be the single dominant species in BGRF with higher basal area (102.24 m²/ha) and contributed 56 % of the carbon stock. The basal area of Shorea robusta and Anogeissus latifolius were found to be 16.42% and 14.6% respectively in BCF. The contribution of carbon stock of two co-dominant tree species in BCF are 32% of Shorea robusta and 26% Anogeissus latifolus. Higher value of basal area in both forest types in the present study suggests that both the forests are in a mature developmental phase. There was significant (P=0.05) positive relationship of carbon stock with basal area and DBH in both forest types.