Restoring Forest Cover on Degraded Land: Three Dimensional Plantations

摘要

It has been the custom in forestry to carry out plantations on level stretches of land. Plantations have generally been laid in a 2 dimensional grid to product homogenous cropping, particularly for the exploitation of timber. This follows the "normal" human inclination for order.This conventional order may not always apply in all situations. For example, plantations in barren scrub or wasteland have a very different purpose, to reclaim land that is fast degrading, losing its forest cover, and finally its topsoil. Are conventional plantations the optimal way for reclaiming forest land? We propose an unconventional method for reviving forest cover that does not require the capital and labor intensive input needed for conventional plantations or social forestry. The method is based, instead on exploiting specific natural conditions.