Abstract

Rattan is an economically important non-wood forest produce of Kerala. Once abundant, this resource is shrinking at an alarming pace. To arrest depletion and ensure adequate and sustainable supply of this resource, scientific management is needed. This requires spatial information on the quality and quantity of the resource, which demands a comprehensive resource survey. However, factors such as non-availability of maps of rattan areas, scattered distribution of the resource in remote pockets and hostile habitat conditions make ground survey tedious. The high taxonomic skill required for the identifaction of different rattan species poses difficulties in large scale surveys. The present paper discussess these problems and suggests methods to overcome them. Use of remote sensing is recommended for the preparation of maps of rattan habitats. A stratified multistage sampling scheme is proposed taking into consideration the site parameters influencing structure of rattan