Site Selection, Survey and Treatment Plan - Afforestation, Reforestation and Forest Restoration in Arid and Semi-arid Tropics - page 49

In most multi-purpose long-term afforestation programmes, however, prioritised
selection of sites would first include sites that are of better productivity, are ap-
proachable, and are recognised by the the local people as their own priority sites.
Availability of labour and consent of the local community should always be ensured
before a site is selected for afforestation work.
Size of the land parcel selected for a plantation should be appropriate. Too small
an area in an isolated corner will entail heavy logistic overheads, leading to higher
unit cost. Too large a site will create logistic problems of another kind—such as,
shortage of manpower—since work of afforestation and reforestation in arid and
semiarid areas is often season-bound. Therefore, a large area of land, if available at a
place, should be considered for afforestation in a phased manner. Although no exact
rule may be given as to the right size of a plantation, a plantation requiring more
than 50,000 plants at a time should be considered too large. The amount of labour
required in site preparation, nursery work, and planting operation will be difficult to
arrange, unless the level of unemployment in the area is very high and a large labour
force is available and willing to work.
The traditional or customary rights of local people over the commons lands should
be taken into consideration while selecting a site. Right to pasturage, right to way,
and right to extract fuelwood from the lands could be some of such rights. Selecting
a parcel of land for a plantation might restrict some of these rights. For example,
no thoroughfare can be allowed to pass a plantation or else it will be impossible to
protect the plants. Similarly, no rights of grazing can be exercised for a period of at
least a few years. All these issues must be discussed with the user communities and
a consensus in favour of site selection should be evolved, otherwise the plantation
could be vandalised by local people and will not succeed.
An afforestation programme can include different plantation or regeneration mod-
els, each defined by a specific set of practices and interventions, and geared to meet
a specific set of objectives. For example, silvopastoral plantations, village woodlots,
sand-dune stabilisation, energy plantations, and eco-restoration work in hills and
plains will require different plantation designs (models). In such a case, a site should
be assigned to one or the other of these plantation models. While selecting a site,
the model that will apply will be decided by the aims and objectives set out in the
programme, interests and needs of the local people, and technical and operational
feasibility of the site itself.
Afforestation works in developing country contexts are likely to be highly labour
intensive and employment generating. It is neither possible nor desirable to concen-
trate all work at a particular site, since the large number of workers required may
not be available. It is necessary, therefore, to organize programme implementation
in terms of a number of clusters or nuclei (each cluster can add a plantation site
every 1 or 2 years), so that availability of labour is ensured and a large number of
people benefit from the employment created. Too much scattering of plantation sites
will lead to difficulties in supervision, co-ordination, and logistics. A balance has to
be struck between the centralised and the scattered approaches. Carefully designed
clusters should be identified, so that work can proceed in parallel at all the clusters.
Therefore, a site should be so selected that either it falls in an existing cluster, or
there is enough scope for creating a new cluster of plantations.