Forest conservation entails both halting destruction and protecting the state of the forest's vegetation. Monitoring forest cover and restoring degraded forests are critical ecological aspects for India's forestry sector's long-term growth. Cropland expansion and intensification are the primary approaches for increasing agricultural productivity in response to increased biomass demand, but they are also major drivers of biodiversity loss. We evaluated the ecosystem carbon (C) stock and sequestration potential for dry deciduous forests while assessing the drivers of forest degradation in Central India to advance scientific knowledge and minimize the anthropogenic C emissions from prevalent agriculture intensification in the region. A multi-criteria optimization approach was used to identify the priority areas forrestoration and quantify the magnitude of drivers of biodiversity loss in the region by investigating the links between forest carbon stock, agriculture intensification, and altering forest structure at various degrees of forest disturbance. The total existing carbon stock of trees in study area during March 2020, was 199.12 Mg C ha⁻¹. Overall carbon stock of these forests showed a significant correlation with disturbance levels (r = 0.50). Changes in vegetation especially to intensive agriculture practices have resulted in loss of carbon stocks and will cause large-scale forest decline if not addressed immediately. Considering the rapid loss of forests in situation where India has to fulfill Nationally Determined Contributions to UNFCCC, Forest Landscape Restoration becomes priority and needs specialized efforts with enhanced funding to reduce and halt loss of forests.

中文翻译：

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农业集约化对森林退化和树木碳储量的影响；促进印度中部恢复的多标准优化

森林保护需要停止破坏和保护森林植被的状态。监测森林覆盖率和恢复退化的森林是印度林业部门长期增长的关键生态方面。农田扩张和集约化是提高农业生产力以应对生物质需求增加的主要方法，但它们也是生物多样性丧失的主要驱动因素。我们评估了干燥落叶林的生态系统碳 (C) 储量和封存潜力，同时评估了印度中部森林退化的驱动因素，以推进科学知识并最大限度地减少该地区普遍的农业集约化造成的人为 C 排放。通过调查森林碳储量、农业集约化和在不同程度的森林干扰下改变森林结构之间的联系，采用多标准优化方法来确定优先恢复区域并量化该区域生物多样性丧失的驱动因素的大小。2020 年 3 月研究区树木的现有总碳储量为 199.12 Mg C ha^-1。这些森林的总碳储量与干扰水平显着相关（r  = 0.50）。植被变化，尤其是集约化农业实践导致碳储量损失，如果不立即解决，将导致大规模森林衰退。考虑到在印度必须履行对 UNFCCC 的国家自主贡献的情况下森林迅速流失，森林景观恢复成为当务之急，需要通过增加资金投入专门的努力来减少和阻止森林流失。