Significance of provisioning ecosystem services from moist temperate forest ecosystems: lessons from upper Kedarnath valley, Garhwal, India

Forests have been very important natural resource for rural subsistence lifestyle providing variety of and provisioning ecosystem services. Study was carried out in six villages of upper Kedarnath valley at an altitudinal gradient of 1400–2800. Paper examines the nature and extent of provisioning services from forests to hill locals living in nearby villages. Frequent field survey of 151 households from five villages in proximity to forest was conducted using semi-structured questionnaires followed by field surveys. Primary data were collected for basic household’s attributes, fuelwood, fodder, leaf litter and NTFP collection pattern. Simple descriptive methods were used for data analysis. The result shows that fuelwood contributes more than 95 % of total domestic fuel requirement in the study area with more collection during summers but more consumption during winter months due to extensive drop in day and night temperatures. Fodder collection is a major practice adding a lot to women drudgery, and winter fodder deficit is a major issue that leads to dry fodder collection from remote locations. Similarly the average seasonal collection figures were also high for leaf litter ranging from 120 to 89 kg/household/day. Collection of wild edibles is moderate, while for medicinal plants is low in the study area. Resource availability, collection and consumption depend on the family size, distance from forest area and economic condition of the household. More than 95 % of the household’s biomass demands and requirement in the study area are fulfilled completely from forests, while rest are procured from various sources such as agroforests and agriculture.