Restoration Priority Index Development of Degraded Tropical Forest Landscape in Batang Toru Watershed, North Sumatera Indonesia

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Vol. 21 No. 2 (2014)
Research Paper
September 15, 2014
November 28, 2014

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Forest degradation has been important in the context of global issues since it contributes to the global climate change significanly.  Forest degradation of tropical rain forest area reduces global biological resources and has impact on occurence of poverty in community.  It also increases forest fragmentation and decreases forest connectivity as wildlife habitat.  To improve the connectivity, landscape restoration approach is used.  This paper describes the forest landscape restoration priority index to decide where the site gets restoration priority.  Restoration index is constructed by four factors indices that are index of forest degradation, forest connectivity, forest fragmentation, and socio economic of forest communities. Batang Toru forest landscape was getting pressure during the period 1989-2013.  Forest landscape fragmentation degree increased in the period 1989-2013, while the degree of connectivity tends to increase.  Forest connectivity index effects the restoration index more than other.  It implies that connectivity of Batang Toru forest landscape needs to be maintained and enhanced. It will provide proper habitat and reduce loss of biodiversity. Restoration index classifies Batang Toru forest landscape into low, medium and high priority for restoration. Sub-watershed of Sarula has high restoration index value so that it must be restored firstly.