[en]+[zh]Study on Forest Landscape Restoration - ITTO

6 Analyzing landscape pattern at region level
6. 1 Landscape elem<strong>en</strong>ts classification
Any individual application of FLR will be a flexible package of site-based
techniques, whose combined contribution will deliver significant landscapelevel
b<strong>en</strong>efits. Site-based techniques within the context of an FLR program
mainly refer to site-level strategies and their associated silvicultural techniques
for restoring degraded primary forest, managing secondary forest, rehabilitating
degraded forest land or restoring forest functions on agricultural land.
According to relevant definitions of differ<strong>en</strong>t forest and non-forest conditions,
combining the resolution of collected RS images and the classification of
national land uses, landscape elem<strong>en</strong>ts classification system of Lingshui County
was established in the view of FLR. There are totally 13 landscape elem<strong>en</strong>t
types: primary forest, degraded primary forest, secondary forest, degraded
forest land, rubber plantation, Casuarina equisetifolia plantation, trees around
villages, other plantation, other forest land, resid<strong>en</strong>tial quarters land, gard<strong>en</strong>
plots, agricultural land and other land, as outlined in Table 6. 1.
Table 6. 1
Landscape elem<strong>en</strong>t system of Lingshui Li Autonomous County
No.
2
3
Class
Primary Forest
Degraded
Primary Forest
Secondary Forest
Description
Forest which has never be<strong>en</strong> subject to human disturbance, or has
be<strong>en</strong> so little affected by hunting, gathering and tree-cutting that its
natural structure, functions and dynamics have not undergone any
changes that exceed the elastic capacity of the ecosystem.
Primary forest in which the initial cover has be<strong>en</strong> adversely affected by
the unsustainable harvesting of wood and! or non-wood forest products
so that its structure, processes, functions and dynamics are altered beyond
the short-term resili<strong>en</strong>ce of the ecosystem; that is, the capacity of
these forests to fully recover from exploitation in the near to medium
term has be<strong>en</strong> compromised.
Woody vegetation regrowing on land that was largely cleared of its original
forest cover (ie carried less than 10% of the original forest cover).
Secondary forests commonly develop naturally on land abandoned after
shifting cultivation, settled agriculture, pasture, or failed tree plantations.