Author(s): Roger A. Williams

Title: Mit­i­gat­ing Bio­di­ver­sity Con­cerns in Euca­lyp­tus Plan­ta­tions Located in South China

Year: 2015

Pages: 1–8

Pub­li­ca­tion type: open access jour­nal article

Lan­guage: English

Source: http://www.scirp.org/journal/PaperInformation.aspx?PaperID=57099&utm_campaign=linkedin&utm_medium=yh#.VYPVa0ZHVm8

Abstract:

China’s grow­ing econ­omy and changes in poli­cies that encour­age afforesta­tion, par­tic­u­larly in the indus­trial sec­tor, have led vast areas in south China to be planted with euca­lyp­tus. These large areas of euca­lyp­tus plant­i­ngs have elicited envi­ron­men­tal con­cerns for two pri­mary rea­sons. First there is a con­cern related to the water demand of euca­lyp­tus, in which it is feared these large areas of euca­lyp­tus will deplete aquifers and cre­ate short­ages in water sup­plies. The sec­ond con­cern is in regard to the reduc­tion in bio­di­ver­sity across large land­scapes, lead­ing to fur­ther eco­log­i­cal demises. This paper pro­poses two ideas to pos­si­bly mit­i­gate some of the bio­di­ver­sity con­cerns. The first is the inter­plant­ing of alder-leaf birch (Betula alnoides), a native but dwin­dling species in south China, to enhance bio­di­ver­sity and encour­age it’s reestab­lish­ment across the land­scape. The sec­ond is to encour­age reten­tion har­vests of alder-leaf birch planted within euca­lyp­tus plan­ta­tions to enhance not only bio­log­i­cal diver­sity but also struc­tural diver­sity across the land­scape. Alder-leaf birch has demon­strated great poten­tial in pro­duc­ing high qual­ity tim­ber and wood for use in fur­ni­ture manufacturing.