This "FAO Conservation Guide" is one of a series of readings which provide methods, practical examples and case studies of conservation and land protection from various regions of the world. The emphasis of the series is on protection forests, rangelands, steep terrain and other areas where the returns from land use are marginal, where degradation is a problem or where resource protection is (or should be) a major objective. The main emphasis is on techniques which may be useful for developing countries.
This series has been prepared by the Forest Resources Division, Forestry Department, in close cooperation with the Land and Water Development Division, Agricultural Department, FAO.
The "FAO Conservation Guides" are:
| Number 1: | "Watershed Management Guidelines". This collection of papers reviews the concepts of watershed management and conservation and illustrates practical methods for: erosion and degradation surveys; erosion prediction; gully correction; some remote sensing techniques for watershed management; forest road protection against erosion; environmental impact evaluations; terracing; steep slope restoration; and protection against landslides. |
| Number 2: | "Hydrological Techniques for Upstream Conservation". This group of papers reviews some aspects of forest hydrology and other essentially "upstream" questions of hydrology related to conservation work. There are examples of: field runoff estimation; torrent control; infiltration estimation; snow surveys for water in the mountains; evaluation of mountain land degradation; recycling of wastewater in forests; stream water quality evaluations; transpiration; and surveys of sedimentation in reservoirs. |
| Number 3: | "Conservation of Arid and Semi-Arid Zones". This selected group of papers reviews desertization and presents examples of shelterbelt establishment, dune afforestation, erosion evaluation, terracing for slope afforestation, restoration of rangelands, rainfall harvesting and other techniques. |
| Number 4: | "Special Readings in Conservation Techniques". These papers are an assortment of readings which are more specialized or research oriented. The topics covered are: guidelines for controlled fires for forest conservation; concepts of snow management in high mountains; a case study of mulches for soil restoration; and research techniques for soil temperature estimation. |
| Number 5: | "Avalanche control handbook". Methods of determining depth of snow cover and avalanche risk areas are combined with various stop gap techniques diverting blocking and retaining avalanches; snow stabilization at the avalanche break-off point; and deflecting structures. |
| Number 6: | "Torrent control terminology", French, German, English, Spanish, Italian. This terminology bulletin, by the FAO Working Party on the Management of Mountain Watersheds (European Forestry Commission), includes the definition of technical terms in the three first languages and their translation into the remaining two, an index of terms in each language and illustrations of various aspects of torrent phenomena and torrent control. |
| Number 7: | "Environmental impact of forestry: Guide to the evaluation of impact in the developing countries." This notebook deals with all forestry activities (cutting, road construction, reforestation, sawmills, etc.) except pulp and paper manufacture. It identifies environmental actions and impacts, indicates possible prevention and restoration measures and proceeds to evaluate the alternatives by means of checklists or formal evaluations of environmental impact. (In preparation) |
| Number 8: | "Development of upland watersheds: participation of mountain peoples". This paper focuses on the role of mountain communities in the design and implementation of watershed management programmes, in short their moral commitment to and physical and material participation in these programmes. |
