| dc.description.abstract |
"Our study is unique, in that unlike other studies in this area of Nepal we focus on measuring species diversity not just in the RCNP but also in other forested areas in Chitwan. Furthermore, the project is longitudinal in design and we will be returning to the same flora plots at future dates to collect new data. In time, this will allow us to record the rate of change in common land use and land cover in Chitwan and the forest ecosystems surrounding the populated areas. For this paper, we use data from a study sample of 128 forest and grassland plots
taken from forested areas in Chitwan, including inside the adjoining protected areas of the RCNP. We parallel this by examining the ground cover and flora diversity measures from 145 study plots from common lands in different settlements in Chitwan. We compare diversity measures collected for both forest and common land with population densities and proximity to the main urban area in the district (Narayangarh)." |
en_US |