Wild het pluak (Termitomyces sp. Amanitaceae)

A large tree in Kham-muang village

Wild no-mai

(2) The forest, which was originally large and contiguous, has decreased in area and become fragmented. The reason for the reduction and fragmentation of the forest is human activities, though on the other hand, people remain attached to the forest for certain reasons. In some case, the remnant forests play a major role in terms of the conservation of biodiversity (cf. Lebbie and Guries 1995, Mgumia and Oba 2003). However, the character of the remnant patchy forests in the Asian and African regions have not been sufficiently studied yet (cf. Yamakoshi 2003).
          It is believed that the ecological characteristics of patchy forests are affected not only by abiotic factors such as climate and soil condition, but also by the history of utilization. Therefore, it is appropriate to study the ecology of patchy forests in order to estimate the effects of human activities on the ecological environment.
           For my pre-doctoral thesis, I conducted an ecological survey of several patchy forests, and discovered that basal area and tree species composition are affected by villagers' ways of utilization and their histories. However, other factors such as how the villagers use forest resources, soil characteristics and the original vegetation of the region have not yet been fully clarified.
          The objective of this research is to clarify the dynamics of patchy forests and to estimate how the ecological environmental has been conserved from the viewpoint of ecological environment, history and people's utilization.