Indian Forest Service Examination Plantation Forestry & Short-Rotation Crops: practice questions

1 · Planted forests worldwide: extent and roles · medium

In the taungya system, which spread from Myanmar to much of tropical Asia and Africa, how is a plantation established?

1. Seedlings are broadcast from the air over burnt forest and left to establish without weeding or tending
2. Coppice shoots of the previous crop are singled and the land is leased to cattle graziers
3. The state buys land from farmers and plants it with exotic conifers under contract labour alone
4. Farmers grow food crops between the young trees for the first years in return for planting and tending them

2 · Planted forests worldwide: extent and roles · medium

A region proposes converting species-rich native grassland in a high-rainfall catchment to pine plantations for pulp. Which concerns should weigh most in the assessment?

1. Loss of grassland biodiversity, reduced streamflow and current users' land rights
2. Shortage of pine seed and the low calorific value of pine wood
3. Excess carbon storage in the grassland soil and frost damage to the remaining grass
4. Grassland fires spreading into the pulp mill and higher pulp prices

3 · Species and clone choice for industrial plantations · hard

A company plans to plant its single best clone over 20,000 ha because it outgrew all others in trials. What is the strongest objection?

1. The clone will lose its superiority after the first rotation because clones revert to the wild type
2. Large clonal blocks always produce lower wood density than seedling stands
3. Trials cannot measure growth, so the reported superiority is meaningless
4. A single genotype over a large area risks catastrophic loss if a new pest or disease to which it is susceptible arrives

4 · Species and clone choice for industrial plantations · medium

Clonal eucalypt forestry is reported to have roughly doubled productivity compared with unimproved seed in some programmes. In which country did this approach begin, in the 1970s?

1. Brazil
2. Australia
3. Portugal
4. Indonesia

5 · Spacing, rotation and productivity (mean annual increment) · medium

A clonal stand yields 120 m³/ha at 6 years, 200 at 8, 240 at 10 and 260 at 12. Of these ages, which rotation maximises mean annual volume production?

1. 6 years
2. 10 years
3. 8 years
4. 12 years

6 · Short-rotation coppice and energy plantations · medium

A coppice is harvested every 3 years, yielding 30 green tonnes per hectare at 50% moisture content (wet basis). What is its annual yield in oven-dry tonnes per hectare?

1. 10 odt/ha/yr
2. 5 odt/ha/yr
3. 15 odt/ha/yr
4. 2.5 odt/ha/yr

7 · Short-rotation coppice and energy plantations · hard

Under which situation is a dedicated bioenergy plantation most likely to give a net climate benefit?

1. Coppice on degraded land, with nutrients returned and wood replacing fossil fuel
2. Plantation established by draining and clearing a tropical peat swamp forest for fast growth
3. Plantation that displaces food crops onto newly cleared natural forest
4. Plantation burnt each year to dispose of residues without energy recovery

8 · Plantations and water, soils and biodiversity · medium

Some countries regulate the water impact of plantations directly. South Africa, for example, licenses new commercial plantations under its 1998 water law as

1. a groundwater recharge scheme
2. a stream flow reduction activity
3. a flood-control structure
4. an irrigation development project

9 · Outgrower and contract-farming schemes · medium

Which feature most often distinguishes successful outgrower schemes from failed ones?

1. Contracts written in technical language only the company understands
2. Prices set privately by the company after the harvest is delivered
3. Clear, fair contracts, transparent floor prices and organised farmers
4. Exclusion of farmers' organisations from all negotiations

10 · Bamboo plantations · medium

Which bamboo is suited to dry areas and widely used for poles in South Asia?

1. Dendrocalamus strictus
2. Dendrocalamus giganteus
3. Bambusa balcooa
4. Phyllostachys edulis