Dehradun: Dr. Renu Singh IFS, Director FRI, inaugurated webinar on “Plant functional traits-based evaluation of Forest Ecosystem Services as chief guest. In the inaugural address, Director said that we have witnessed the degradation of the forests to varying extents due to prevailing environmental changes and anthropogenic pressures and thus functioning of forests is being compromised leading to reduced flow of services.
She said that the Indian Himalayan region harbors highly diverse ecosystems and is critical to human communities since it provides numerous ecosystem services to the mountain people as well as to the communities living downstream so their conservation is essential to support the humankind as well as conserving biodiversity for various ecosystem services.
She emphasized that a database on functional traits for modeling the ecosystem functions is required in order to understand the mechanism of various ecosystem service deliveries from forests Dr. Rajiv Pandey, Scientist & Head, Division of Forestry Statistics, ICFRE delivered a invited lecture on Ecosystem Services Evaluation: Can Plant Functional Trait Mediate the Flow of ES under Current Challenges? He discussed about goals of ecosystem Evaluations, Current Challenges and approaches of plant functional diversity and ecosystem service assessment Dr. Tara Chand Scientist, Forest Ecology and climate change division delivered a lecture on FRI Initiatives on Plant Functional Traits Assessment in Himalayan Temperate Forests in Indian Himalayan region of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh.
Dr. Vijender Panwar, Head, Forest Ecology & Climate Change Division and ENVIS Coordinator, All Head of Divisions, Dean and Registrar FRIDU, Registrar FRI, Officers/scientists, and Technical Staff of the Institute attended the webinar. Dr. Parul Bhatt Kotiyal proposed a vote of thanks.
