About 53 scientists and students from ICAR institutes and state agricultural universities attended the interaction lecture

The Department of Forestry and Natural Resources, Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), organised an online lecture on ‘Ecosystem Services of Forest Plantations and Agroforestry Systems’ to give emphasis on intangible benefits. About 53 scientists and students from ICAR institutes and state agricultural universities attended the interaction lecture that was held under the ICAR development grant.

Dr SK Chauhan, Prof and Head, Department of Forestry and Natural Resources, welcomed the guest speaker Gitanjali, IFS, and participants in the programme.

Gitanjali, joined from Helsinki, Finland and made a presentation on quantification of ecological services of plantations. She emphasised on provisioning, regulatory, cultural and supporting services of the plantations, which are very beneficial but have least been attempted. In recent years, some emphasis has been placed on carbon trading, otherwise, other intangible services (water, soil, biodiversity, oxygen, etc.) have least been quantified and no monetary values are attached, she added.

Dr Dipankar Saha, an Ecologist from ICAR institute, proposed a vote of thanks.