Abstract
Natural regeneration of forest is an important factor for sustainable forestry in Northern Pakistan. In natural forests, the coniferous forest has higher regenerative capacity which enhances their significance for developing countries like Pakistan with rapid depleting forest areas and lack of resources to fund any afforestation campaign. Ayubia National Park is taken as case study to study natural regeneration of forests. The paper explores the status of natural regeneration of conifers forest in Ayubia National Park, Abbottabad, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which lies in the moist temperate northern zone of Pakistan. Main objective of the paper is to find out the impacts of two vital factors, i.e., slope and aspect, on regeneration of coniferous forests in the study area. One hundred, fixed circular plots on varying terrain slopes, aspects and accumulated snow were selected randomly as sample representation of the whole Ayubia National Park. Five species were selected to ascertain the density, frequency ratio, abundance and distribution pattern of the regeneration in the six forest blocks. There were better growth status and survival rate of regeneration at the south aspect (56%) than the north (44%). As much as 60.8% regeneration was recorded on the rolling slopes followed by 25.2% and 13.98% at steep and normal slopes, respectively. The present natural regeneration was well distributed at south aspects than its growth on north aspects. This phenomenon indicates a negative impact of the anthropogenic activities on forest regeneration at normal terrain. Similarly, steeper slopes also have a negative impact on natural regeneration of the conifers forest.
