Here’s how machine learning could help in choosing the best policy for forest management
Forests, with their rich biodiversity, play a critical role not only in the ecology of a region but also in social systems that involve humans. In India, different forest management policies are in place to protect and promote the sustainable use of forest resources. Community-based forest management, where local communities govern the use of these resources to improve their livelihoods and monitor vegetation growth to maintain healthy ecosystems, is one such policy. How well do such management policies work? A recent study by researchers from the University of Illinois, USA, has used artificial intelligence to evaluate the forest management policies in Himachal Pradesh, India.
The researchers of the study, published in the journal Environmental Research Letters, have analysed the impacts of two forest management policies followed in the Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh. The first policy, called cooperative forest management, involves the formation of a federation of forest cooperatives with financial and technical support provided by the state government. The second policy, called joint forest management, has communities involved in forest regeneration and protection. A critical difference between the two is that the latter does not allocate forest property rights to communities, or the right to derive revenue from forest resources claimed by the state.
The application of machine learning algorithms in formulating forest management-related policies is currently limited. This could be due to insufficient availability of data, the complexity of socio-ecological contexts such as on forest management policies, the high number of villagers, farmers, land holdings, the area under plantations, and the restricted ability of machine learning to process ‘big data’ and detailed data that can form forest policies.
In this study, the researchers started with a hypothesis that joint forest management policies will be less conducive to vegetation growth in the long run, as compared to cooperative forest management.
