Department of Forestry

Drawing from the Millennium Ecosystem Services, planted forests have been increasingly important for provisioning services of wood fiber and commodity production, and have emerged as a unique regulating Nature-based solution (NBS) for climate change adaptation and mitigation. Forest plantations account now for at least 30% of global industrial roundwood production and their contribution can be further increased, while reducing pressures on natural forests. Planted forests have been proposed as one of the most efficient and cost-effective means to store more atmospheric carbon and reduce adverse impacts of climate change in the short- to medium-term, along with improved forest management and reduced emissions from forest area loss.Increasing the amount and productivity of planted forests is a crucial method to meet increasing timber and climate demands by capturing carbon in forests and subsequent wood products and providing short-run terrestrial energy. They also can help adapt to forest species migration by purposeful introduction of forest species adapted to new climate in a warmer planet, and provide additional forest biodiversity, soil health, and water quality and quantity benefits.Increases in planted forests to achieve their promise for economic provisioning and climate regulating services mandate that a host of technical, research, policy issues must be resolved quickly. These include technical questions such as (1) the trends and magnitude of planted forests extent needed to increase production and climate roles; (2) the relative benefits of plantations versus natural forest restoration or retention for carbon storage; (3) questions of where such plantings can occur and how to deploy well-performing species to new regions; (4) the technical capacity required to produce seedlings; (5) the rapid development of forest products research and development of engineered forest and mass timber products, and (6) the environmental benefits and impacts of planted forests.Massive expansion of planted forests must also resolve issues such as (7) rural land tenure status and rights in developed and developing countries, (8) regulations promoting or limiting intensive public forest land management, (9) infrastructure requirements and development; (10) cooperation, partnerships, and policy implementation, (11) investment opportunities, costs, returns, and incentives required to attract private landowners and outgrowers to plant forests, and (12) the effects on local and global timber markets.These substantial questions must be resolved or planted forests will not achieve their potential to produce desirable wood fiber and products supplies, realize bioenergy opportunities, or store and offset vast amounts of global carbon emissions. This research tackles these questions while assessing historical trends and current status of planted forests worldwide and identifying the best practices for the development of planted forests for landscape restoration, climate change mitigation, and range of environmental, social, and economic co-benefits.

Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate accounting practices as intertwined technical, social and ethical mechanisms in a large-scale afforestation project in Pakistan – the Billion Tree Afforestation Project (BTAP). The study examines how accounting mediates accountability, participation and ethical stewardship in environmental governance, as well as the challenges faced and how they are overcome. Design/methodology/approach An interpretive extended case methodology, guided by Carnegie et al.’s (2021) tripartite conceptualisation of accounting, complemented by institutional and stakeholder perspectives, is used. Thematic analysis is used to analyse data from 29 semi-structured interviews, alongside project documentation, archival material and field observations. Findings Accounting in the BTAP operated simultaneously as a technical practice, social process and moral framing. Technically, it enabled monitoring and accountability and supported legitimacy claims, yet it also exposed tensions between bureaucratic demands for precise reporting and field-level realities. Socially, accounting structured participation and trust, but participatory arrangements sometimes became tokenistic when decision authority remained centralised. Morally, religious and ethical narratives helped mobilise stewardship, while at times redirecting attention away from institutional accountability. Together, these dynamics show accounting's performative, contested and potentially transformative role in environmental governance. Originality/value The study extends sustainability accounting theory by theorising how technical, social and moral dimensions interact and generate tensions in practice. It reframes technical accounting as a fragile credibility practice, social accounting as a negotiated arena of participation and power, and moral accounting as ethically charged yet ambivalent. In doing so, it develops accounting as a multi-dimensional social technology that mediates legitimacy, authority and accountability in sustainability governance.

The present research study envisages genetic variability, correlation and multivariate diversity analysis in bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). 75 germplasm lines plus 5 checks (HD 2851, HD 3086, RAJ 3765, DBW-187 and PBW 343) were evaluated in an Augmented Complete Block Design. Fifteen quantitative traits were studied. ANOVA indicated significant variation among genotypes for all traits, supporting the presence of exploitable diversity. Significant Variation was observed for biological yield per plant and grain yield per plant whereas phenological traits exhibited less variation. Grain yield per plant showed significant positive correlations with biological yield, productive tillers, grains per spike and 1000-grain weight, and a significant negative correlation with days to 50% flowering. Principal component analysis retained six components explaining 64.27% of total variation. Hierarchical clustering grouped genotypes into seven clusters; the maximum inter-cluster distance occurred between clusters IV and VI (D = 4.48), indicating wide divergence. Overall, the results illustrate how variability, correlation, PCA and clustering can guide trait prioritization and parent choice in wheat breeding.

Invasion of native communities by introduced species is known to depend on the introduced species' traits, biotic resistance and propagule pressure. Each of these factors has been studied individually, but the interactions between them need further attention. For example, propagule pressure is considered an important predictor of invader success, but its effect is likely mediated by native composition and invader traits. Similarly, biotic resistance arises through the effects of local community assembly processes on native‐exotic interactions, but is generally studied using native diversity alone. Here we examined interactions between propagule pressure and native community assembly processes in determining exotic species abundance, using spatially‐explicit community assembly simulations. Unlike most previous studies on propagule pressure, we focused on long‐term abundance of the focal introduced species, rather than the probability of establishment, as the former is more strongly associated with invasive species' impacts than the latter. We found that the abundance of a generalist invader in simulated communities varied widely with the characteristics of the native community, particularly the degree of native niche specialization. Similarly, the sensitivity of invader abundance to propagule pressure strongly depended on the community context. But despite the importance of native community characteristics in general, native richness in particular was an unreliable predictor of invasibility. The frequently‐invoked negative diversity–invasibility relationship was only seen when the native community showed strict limiting similarity without character displacement. This likely explains why empirical evidence for the negative diversity–invasibility relationship is mixed, as previous community assembly research suggests that natural communities do not always show limiting similarity. Thus, these results provide a fuller and more nuanced understanding of the role of propagule pressure and native diversity in biological invasions.

Astaxanthin (AST) has been widely studied for its potential antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects; however, its application is limited by poor water solubility and low bioavailability. To address this, zein and chito-oligosaccharides composite nanoparticles (ZCNps) were constructed using antisolvent precipitation for efficient AST delivery. At a zein to COS mass ratio of 10:1, AST-loaded ZCNps (ZCANps) achieved an encapsulation efficiency of 81.23% and drug loading of 4.18 mg/g. Structural characterization confirmed that AST was successfully encapsulated in an amorphous state, stabilized by hydrophobic interactions and hydrogen bonding. ZCANps demonstrated stability under a wide range of conditions, including pH levels of 2-8, NaCl concentrations of up to 50 mmol/L, temperatures of up to 80°C, and storage for 8 weeks at 4°C. Additionally, ZCANps provided 62% UV-light protection for AST. Compared to free AST, the encapsulated form showed significantly enhanced antioxidant activity and bioaccessibility. These results highlight ZCNps as a delivery system for improving the stability, bioavailability, and functional properties of AST in food applications.

Virgin oriental beech ( Fagus orientalis L.) forests of the Hyrcanian region in northern Iran are among the last remnants of temperate old-growth ecosystems worldwide, yet their ecological benchmarks remain poorly defined. We conducted an integrated, multiscale assessment of three virgin 1-ha pure oriental beech stands located in the Hyrcanian forests of Guilan Province, with 60 randomly distributed plots capturing a suite of 62 structural and functional indicators. These encompassed forest structure, herbaceous diversity, humus chemistry, and soil physical, chemical, and biological properties, together with fine root traits. Results revealed exceptionally high basal area, abundant large-diameter trees, and broad crowns that collectively typify structurally mature, late-successional stands. The understory was dominated by shade-tolerant, Euro-Siberian taxa, highlighting long-term ecological continuity with minimal disturbance. Humus layers stored substantial carbon and nitrogen, while soils showed moderate fertility and evidence of constrained phosphorus availability, indicated by low microbial P and enzymatic activity. Fine root traits suggested conservative strategies optimized for stable nutrient acquisition under mature closed-canopy conditions. Multivariate analyses identified two dominant nutrient pathways: (i) a tightly coupled humus–microbial–soil C–N continuum that stabilizes long-term fertility, and (ii) a partially decoupled P cycle driven by enzymatic and fine root processes. This study provides the first quantitative, multiscale ecological indicator ranges for virgin oriental beech forests, establishing a comprehensive benchmark for these globally rare ecosystems. The integration of structural, biological, and chemical indicators provides a functional reference framework for detecting nutrient imbalance, soil degradation, or canopy disturbance in managed beech forests. These reference values support forest managers in identifying early signs of structural or functional degradation, designing long-term monitoring programs, and evaluating restoration success. For policy makers and silviculturists, these benchmarks provide measurable targets for adaptive management, biodiversity conservation, and ecosystem-based planning under changing climatic and anthropogenic pressures. More broadly, these results emphasize the importance of preserving intact forest systems to better understand how ecosystem structure and nutrient dynamics co-evolve under minimal human disturbance, with direct relevance for temperate beech forest management worldwide.

Increasing numbers of animals are captured every year for the deployment of bio-loggers to collect data for scientific research. This usually requires immobilisation and handling by researchers, sometimes repeatedly on the same individuals, and has the potential to change the spatial behaviour of captured animals, such as avoiding humans and human infrastructure. This is especially relevant for species like lions ( Panthera leo ), which are among the most studied carnivores and at the same time globally one of the most sought-after species for wildlife-viewing tourism. Here, we used habitat-selection functions to examine habitat selection of lions after being chemically immobilised, some of them repeatedly, by darting from a car. Our study focused on the central part of the Etosha National Park, Namibia, a protected area with a large, but spatially and temporally regulated tourist presence. We found that captured lions did not avoid tourist camps, roads or waterholes, despite high numbers of tourists at these sites. Lions also did not change their habitat selection in relation to tourist infrastructure dependent on how many times they were darted (once vs twice) nor with time since darting. Our study indicated that in a protected area with strictly controlled tourist movements (restriction to tourist roads and daytime periods), tourism has a minimal impact on the movement of lions. Furthermore, repeated darting and chemical immobilisation did not seem to reduce lion-viewing possibilities for tourists during our study. These findings are crucial for shaping more effective policy, research and visitor management strategies. Implementing similar measures in other protected areas such as a zero-tolerance policy for off-road driving and restricting tourist activity to daytime hours (i.e. when carnivores are less active) can help minimize the effects of tourism on wildlife.

A river is a naturally occurring freshwater flow that, under the influence of gravity, flows downward from higher terrain and ends in another river, lake, sea, or ocean. Water samples taken from the River Mandakini at several points in the Chitrakoot District were evaluated for their physico-chemical characteristics. The following physical-chemical characteristics were measured: color, odor, temperature, pH, TSS, TS, TDS, velocity, transparency, DO, BOD, presence of fish, and total hardness. At latitude 24052'N and longitude 800 41'E, in the Majhgawan block of Madhya Pradesh's Satna district, the river Mandakini begins close to the village of Kalhura. These factors aid in comprehending the physical attributes, chemical makeup, and possible pollutants found in water. The study will concentrate on gathering water samples from different bodies of water and measuring and assessing important physicochemical properties using standardized laboratory procedures. A thorough grasp of the present condition of surface water quality, including the existence of contaminants, changes in the composition of the water, and posssible contamination sources, will be provided by the analysis. This study will help stakeholders, water resource managers, and policymakers make well-informed decisions.

Broccoli (Brassica oleracea L. var. italica Plenck) is a highly valued vegetable in Nepal. Head size and quality of broccoli largely depend on temperature and genetic potentiality. Hence, location specific varietal selection is crucial. Two experiments were conducted to evaluate the growth, yield and postharvest quality of broccoli varieties in Sindhuli and Kailali districts of Nepal during October, 2024 to February, 2025. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design with four replications. The five broccoli varieties studied were Calabrese, Chitwan Local, Centauro, Everest Green and Green Pia. Results revealed that in Sindhuli significantly the maximum plant height (75.27 cm), number of leaves (13.44), earliest head initiation (43.50 days) and maturity (58.5 days) were observed in Calabrese; however, head diameter (19.17 cm) and yield (21 mt/ha) were maximum in Everest Green which was at par with Centauro (19.45 mt/ha). In Kailali, maximum number of leaves (11.7) and leaf area (327.72 cm2) were observed in Chitwan Local; highest plant height, earliest head initiation (41.5 days) and maturity (53.75 days) in Calabrese; maximum head diameter (17 cm) in Green Pia and yield (19 mt/ha) was maximum in Everest Green which was statistically at par with Green Pia and Centauro. TSS, TA% and pH differed in Sindhuli but remained similar in Kailali. Green Pia had the longest shelf life in both the locations. Thus, Everest Green and Centauro in Sindhuli, while any variety among Everest Green, Centauro and Green Pia in Kailali proved to be promising to maximize the yield.

Purpose This paper investigates the convergence of Green Management and Digital Transformation within the Greek Forest Services, aiming to develop and validate an integrated framework that illustrates how the synergy of environmental and digital practices can enhance sustainability, organizational culture, and public sector performance. Design/methodology/approach A pragmatic mixed-methods approach was adopted, based on post-positivist principles. A nationwide survey was conducted with employees and executives of the Forest Services. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, factor analysis, and hypothesis testing. The empirical findings were interpreted through a theory-informed framework grounded in strategic and institutional literature. Findings The results reveal strong interconnections among internal communication, digital readiness, cultural orientation, and staff engagement. Green Management is positively associated with employee satisfaction, while Digital Transformation contributes to operational efficiency but requires cultural assimilation and infrastructure modernization. The validated framework comprises four pillars: (1) Knowledge and Acceptance, (2) Organizational Culture and Behavior, (3) Digital Efficiency, and (4) Strategic Challenges and Opportunities. Research limitations/implications The research is context-specific to Greece and forestry governance, which may limit generalizability. Nevertheless, it offers a theory-driven and empirically grounded foundation for future studies on integrated public sector innovation. Practical implications The proposed framework can serve as a strategic tool for policymakers and public managers to guide reforms that combine sustainability and digitalization, especially in environmentally focused services. Originality/value This study contributes to the emerging discourse on sustainable digital public administration by empirically validating a novel framework that integrates green and digital strategies. It addresses a literature gap by focusing on forestry governance, a sector often overlooked in digital transition research.