Spatio-temporal variation in forest cover and biomass across sacred groves in a human-modified landscape of India’s Western Ghats

• Published in: Biological conservation 2014-10, Vol.178, p.193-199
• Main Authors: Osuri, Anand M., Madhusudan, M.D., Kumar, Vijay S., Chengappa, Sannuvanda K., Kushalappa, Chepudira G., Sankaran, Mahesh
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aboveground biomass; Animal, plant and microbial ecology; Applied ecology; Assessments; Biological and medical sciences; Biomass; Communities; Conservation; Conservation, protection and management of environment and wildlife; Deforestation; Forest fragments; Forests; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; General aspects; General aspects. Techniques; India; Landscapes; Networks; Parks, reserves, wildlife conservation. Endangered species: population survey and restocking; Remote sensing; Sacred groves; Teledetection and vegetation maps; Trends; Western Ghats
• ISSN: 0006-3207; 1873-2917
• DOI: 10.1016/j.biocon.2014.08.008

•We assessed status of community-managed sacred groves (SG) in the Western Ghats.•Current extent and recent trends in forest cover and biomass were examined.•SG network smaller than officially reported, with biomass declines in recent years.•Local communities perceived encroachment and logging as threats to SG.•Dynamism in conservation status of SG highlights need for rigorous monitoring. Although the potential for community-conserved areas (CCAs) to extend conservation beyond formal protected areas is widely acknowledged, the scarcity of conservation assessments and monitoring hinders the rigorous evaluation of their effectiveness in many regions. In India, which hosts a high density and diversity of CCAs, the need for more assessments of the ecological and socio-economic properties of these systems to guide conservation planning and policy has been emphasised in recent years. We inventoried the extant sacred grove network against official records of 407 groves across 70 villages in the Kodagu District of India’s Western Ghats, and interviewed local communities about their management and conservation. We also evaluated recent trends in aboveground biomass of sacred groves using time-series satellite data from six time-points during the 2000–2010 period, and made comparisons to corresponding trends in nearby State-managed protected forests. Although most of the larger (>2ha) groves officially listed were forested at present, over two-thirds of the smaller groves listed were either not forested or could not be located. Local communities attributed these declines to encroachment and illicit logging. Time-series satellite data revealed aboveground biomass declines of ∼0.5% annually across the sacred grove network over the 2000–2010 period. In contrast, biomass increased during this period at the interiors and edges of State-managed forests in the landscape. Our results highlight that the conservation status of even well-protected CCAs can vary considerably over time, especially given the dynamism in socio-economic, cultural and ecological factors that govern their status. We argue that understanding and addressing this dynamism is crucial to the conservation of CCAs.