Carbon sequestration potential of community forests: A comparative analysis of soil organic carbon stock in community managed forests of Far-Western Nepal

Abstract

Assessment of soil organic carbon (SOC) pool is an essential pace for understanding the carbon sequestration potential (CSP) of the soil system as a mitigation strategy and also investigate that they act as a source or sink for the atmospheric CO2 subject to the level of saturation. Improved CSP has been recognized as one of the possible solutions for mitigating climate change. The CSP of soil system for the community forests (CFs) in Nepal is not well recognized. Therefore, a study was conducted in two community-managed forests viz Ganesh (degraded) and Ramnagar (non-degraded) CFs situated in the Kanchanpur district of Nepal to quantify the SOC and Bulk density (BD). For determining SOC, systematic sampling with a sampling intensity of 0.5% was used for collecting altogether 189 soil samples from both the CFs. In addition, the soil samples from varying depths (0-10, 10-20, and 20-30 cm) of each soil profile were collected from each sampling plot. The mean SOC observed upto 30 cm soil depth in Ganesh and Ramnagar CF was 42.55 ± 3.10 t ha-1 and 54.21 ± 3.59 t ha-1 respectively. While, maximum SOC was noticed at 0-10 cm whereas minimum at 20-30 cm in both the CFs. Moreover, SOC decreased and bulk density increased with increasing soil depth in both the CFs. SOC and BD was negatively correlated in both CFs. The total SOC pool exhibited a significant (p<0.05) difference between the two CFs. Hence, the outcome of study shows that the both CFs has enormous potential to sequester the atmospheric concentration of CO2 into soil. With this concern, the participation of local people in sustainable management of community forests enhance the soil quality and meets strategy to mitigate the climate change.

Keywords

• bulk density
• carbon sequestration potential
• community forest
• soil depth
• soil organic carbon