Study On Plant Diversity Of Moso Bamboo Stands And Its Protection Strategies

This dissertation made an integrated study through position observation, literature reviewand sample surveys on the relationship between plant diversity and level of management ofdifferent types of the Moso bamboo forests in the major bamboo producing areas in FujianProvince, Zhejiang Province and Hunan Province, and studied biodiversity related Chineselaws, policies, technical standards and codes, and proposed, on the basis of over2-year-longresearch and data analysis, strategies and policy recommendations for protection of plantbiodiversity in the Moso bamboo forests from technical and policy perspectives:I. From the perspective of protection techniques:1. Mixed Moso bamboo forest is a soundsilvicultural approach to protection of biological diversity and maintenance of long termproductivity. It is proven that mixed Moso broadleaved stands have good soil self fertilizationcapacity and play an promotional role in facilitating stand growth. The intensively managedMoso stand requires a lot of nutritional supplements to sustain stand productivity due to slowunder canopy growth, poor self fertilization capacity of the soil and serious water and soilerosion, despite of the high productivity of the stand in a short run. In this connection, it isrecommended that appropriate percentage of broadleaved trees be retained when the lowyielding pure Moso stand is transformed. For the degraded pure Moso stand, it isrecommended that certain percentage of under canopy young trees (300trees/hm2) of zonalconstructive species be retained wherever possible to promote succession from pure Mosostand to mixed forest, so as to enrich biodiversity in the Moso bamboo stand and maintain longterm site productivity.2. The number of under canopy plants in Moso stand is negativelycorrelated to the intensity of management of the stand. Due to human interference, the higherthe level of management is, the smaller the number of plants and the poorer the biodiversity are.Their diversity indices follow the same pattern with obvious differences from region to region.Therefore, it is recommended that the intensive management approach applies only to bambooshoot oriented Moso stand, whereas in the timber oriented Moso stand, intensity ofmanagement should be reduced, in order to keep balance between the ecological benefits and the economic benefits.3. As far as tending is concerned, the reclamation tending methodseriously constrains growth of under canopy vegetation, reduces plant biodiversity, bringsdamage to the habitats of animals and other living organisms, and easily causes soil and watererosion, and it is thus recommended that the reclamation tending method be used only in theintensively managed bamboo shoot oriented Moso stands on gentle slopes while the chaoppinghill tending method has relatively little impact on the under growth biomass comparing to thereclamation tending method and thus is recommended for the timber oriented Moso stands.4.Application of pesticides in the Moso stands has serious impact on the under growth within thefirst5years. But afterwards, the under growth in the Moso stands can restore to its originallevel of richness through natural succession. Hence, it is recommended that pesticides shouldbe used with caution and the interval should be long.5. Performance of the under growth is anindicator to assess the nutritional status of the Moso stands. The under growth can increase theorganic contents of the soil. When the under growth biomass reaches4tons per hectare, thesoil nutrients in the Moso stands will be improved and the site productivity be sustained.II. From the policy perspective:1. China has promalgated some laws and regulationsconcerning conservation of bamboo plant biodiversity. However, legal positioning of bambooand bamboo forests is not appropriate and there is neither special law or regulation that givesdue consideration to the special feature of bamboo. It is thus recommended that the competentState departments make timely revision and improvement on relavant laws and theirimplementing rules to properly position bamboo resources to safeguard applicability andseriousness of laws and regulations.2. Biodiversity protection is a social system engineeringand requires involvement of all walks of life. Therefore, the State and local governmentsshould develop practical and feasible strategic goals and implementation plans for biodiversityprotection, encourage information disclosure and secure talents, funds and preferential sectoralpolicies.3. Efforts should be made to promote multi-functionalities and classified managementof the Moso stand. Firstly, for the Moso stands for public benefits, regeneration cutting ofmatured bamboos should be allowed if it helps enhance the ecological functions and socialbenefits of the stands. Secondly, for the existing commercial Moso stands in provinces wherethere is still the annual quota of harvest, efforts should be made to improve mechanisms to allow forest owners to adjust volume of cut by themselves and record their harvest in the localforestry authority under the precondition that the overall cut is under control. At the same timewhen the major function of timber oriented bamboo stands is brought into play, concern shouldalso be given to other functions of these bamboo stands, encourage use of local bamboospecies and transformation of pure bamboo stands to multi species mixed stands to establishmosaic type of landscapes. Thirdly, efforts should be made, according to local conditions andneeds, to facilitate development of fast growing commercial bamboo stands, increase the unitvolume of production and market share of the commercial Moso bamboo stands, so that loss ofbiodiversity in small commercial bamboo stands provides opportunities for biodiversityprotection in a much larger area of Moso forests. Fourthly, in consideration of the fact that thecurrent rate of compensation for the ecological benefits of the bamboo forests for publicwelfare is not sufficient to encourage local agencies and farmers to abandon the practice ofintensive management of pur bamboo stands, the State and local authorities should strive toimprove the current policies to satisfy practical needs by gradually increasing the area and unitrate of compensation for the ecological benefits of bamboo forests, in order to encouragemanagers and farmers to manage bamboo forests in a sustainable manner. Fifthly, effortsshould be made to enhance the technical supporting system, improve coordination amongresearch organizations and their management agencies to avoid low level duplication ofresearch topics, promote research on techniques for bamboo biodiversity protection, anddevelop and revise in a timely manner technical standards and codes for bamboo biodiversityprotection. Sixthly, efforts should be made to enhance publicity and education about bamboobiodiversity protection:(1) enrich means of publicity and education on bamboo biodiversityprotection to enhance impact;(2) enlarge coverage of publicity and education on bamboobiodiversity protection to include not only the general public but also government agencies atall levels;(3) enhance training of personnel for publicity and education to raise theircompetence.