Socio-cultural protection of endemic trees in humanised landscape

Culturally protected forest patches or sacred groves have been the integral part of many traditional societies. This age old tradition is a classic instance of community driven nature conservation sheltering native biodiversity and supporting various ecosystem functions particularly hydrology. The c...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Biodiversity and conservation 2014-07, Vol.23 (8), p.1977-1994
Main Authors: Ray, Rajasri, Subash Chandran, M. D, Ramachandra, T. V
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agricultural land
Analysis
Animal, plant and microbial ecology
Applied ecology
Biodiversity
biogeography
Biological and medical sciences
Biological diversity
Biological diversity conservation
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Climate Change/Climate Change Impacts
Conservation Biology/Ecology
Conservation, protection and management of environment and wildlife
Ecology
Ecosystems
forests
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
General aspects
groves
hydrology
indigenous species
islands
land use
Landscape ecology
landscapes
Life Sciences
natural resources conservation
Nature conservation
Original Paper
Plantations
Protection and preservation
surveys
Trees
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Summary:Culturally protected forest patches or sacred groves have been the integral part of many traditional societies. This age old tradition is a classic instance of community driven nature conservation sheltering native biodiversity and supporting various ecosystem functions particularly hydrology. The current work in Central Western Ghats of Karnataka, India, highlights that even small sacred groves amidst humanised landscapes serve as tiny islands of biodiversity, especially of rare and endemic species. Temporal analysis of landuse dynamics reveals the changing pattern of the studied landscape. There is fast reduction of forest cover (15.14–11.02 %) in last 20 years to meet up the demand of agricultural land and plantation programs. A thorough survey and assessment of woody endemic species distribution in the 25 km² study area documented presence of 19 endemic species. The distribution of these species is highly skewed towards the culturally protected patches in comparison to other land use elements. It is found that, among the 19 woody endemic species, those with greater ecological amplitude are widely distributed in the studied landscape in groves as well as other land use forms whereas, natural population of the sensitive endemics are very much restricted in the sacred grove fragments. The recent degradation in the sacred grove system is perhaps, due to weakening of traditional belief systems and associated laxity in grove protection leading to biotic disturbances. Revitalisation of traditional practices related to conservation of sacred groves can go a long way in strengthening natural ecological systems of fragile humid tropical landscape.
ISSN:0960-3115
1572-9710
DOI:10.1007/s10531-014-0699-1