TITLE:
The Assessment of Carbon Stocks in the Oak Scrub Forest of Sheringal Valley Dir Kohistan
AUTHORS:
Alamgir Khan, Adnan Ahmad, Ziaur Rahman, Siraj-ud-Din, Rahmatullah Qureshi, Juma Muhammad
KEYWORDS:
Sheringal, Oak Scrub Forest, Biomass and Carbon Stocks
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Forestry,
Vol.5 No.5,
June
8,
2015
ABSTRACT: The
present study estimates carbon stocks (C-stocks) of the Oak scrub forest of
Sheringal valley through field inventory. Stem density (haǃ), tree
height (m), basal area (m2·haǃ), stem volume (m2·haǃ),
stem biomass (t·haǃ), total biomass (t·haǃ), and total
C-stock (t·haǃ), were calculated. Stem density varied between
80±8.16 to 510 ± 42 trees haǃ, with a mean value of 226 ± 7 tress
haǃ. The average tree height, basal area and stem volume were 5.47
± 0.76 m, 12.82 ± 0.25 m2·haǃ and 46.37 ± 0.85 m3·haǃ respectively. The total calculated stem biomass was 32.46 ± 0.60 t·haǃ and total tree biomass was 51.61 ± 0.60 t·haǃ. The calculated
C-stocks in the Oak scrub forest ranged from 2.005 ± 1.32 t·haǃ to
63.1 ± 3.34 t·haǃ and the mean C stocks was 25.80 ± 0.47 t·haǃ.
The results of the study confirmed that the Oak scrub forest acts as a valuable
sink of carbon, but this valuable storage factory of carbon faced the problems
of excess uses for fuel wood, forage, domestic uses (mostly for construction)
and unscientific management. Proper scientific management and proper
utilization of the forest can be significant measures to enhance the potential
of the forest to stored and sink more carbon and can be included for CDM and
REED++ under Keyto protocol.