Monitoring of Afforestation Activities Using Landsat-8 Temporal Images, Billion Trees Afforestation Project, Pakistan

In context of Bonn Challenge commitment, Pakistan (Khyber Pukhtunkhwa) has implemented forest restoration and afforestation on 0.35 million hectares between 2015–2017. Billion Tree Afforestation Project (BTAP) is an initiative of mass afforestation and forest restoration to meet the Bonn Challenge commitment. The current study is a pilot study to evaluate the success of plantation activities by assessment of regeneration, growth performance and survival rate of plantations raised under BTAP in Malakand Forest Division. Further, four vegetation indices were computed from Landsat-8 image, which include Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index (SAVI), Modified Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index (MSAVI) and Difference Vegetation Index (DVI). A total of 72 sample plots of 0.1 ha were laid out in 11 plantation sites extended over an area of 647 ha in Timargara, Chakdara and Jandool. According to the results, all the selected plantation sites showed good performance in terms of survival rate, mostly above 90%. In terms of species composition, Eucalyptus camaldulensis has the highest share (81%) followed by Robinia pseduacacia with 17% and Pinus roxburghii with 2% share in the plantation. Growth performance was good in all species; Pinus roxburghii attained an average girth of 14.3 cm and height of 3.21 feet, whereas Eucalyptus camaldulensis and Robinia pseudoacacia attained a mean girth of 10.3 and 12.1 cm with the height of 8.6 and 8.2 feet in 27 months, respectively. Further, a good correlation was observed between the volume (m3) and Landsat-8 spectral values. The highest performance (R2=0.63) was recorded by NDVI and SAVI. The temporal changes in spectral values of Landsat-8 images from 2013 to 2018 showed that the plantation was successful at these sites. The study concluded that FLR activities across the Khyber Pukhtunkwa province will rehabilitate and improve the existing forest ecosystems and support local livelihood for climate change mitigation.

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