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Forest, People and Profit net equations for sustainability Article: Sh. N.C. Saxena Content Preface Introduction 1. Forest Policy of India 2. Social Forestry on Village Lands 3. Farm and Agro Forestry 4. Joint Forest Management 5. Equity Issues in Forestry Programmes 6. Demand and Prices for Timber and Fuelwood 7. Leasing of Forest Lands to Industries 8. Administrative Issues in Forestry 9. Summary of Main Recommendations Annexure I - India : Policies and Issues in Forest Sector Development Annexure II - List of Participants Appendix I List of Abbreviations Glossary of Terms References List of Tables and Figures Preface With increasing environmental awareness, sustainable development has attained top-most priority on National and International agenda, yet, the integration of sustainability into development planning remains largely a theoretical concern. If the objectives of sustainable development are to be realised, it is imperative that development administrators are exposed to the concepts of sustainable development, grounded in the techniques and methods of achieving sustainability and are sent out to their careers in the field fully conversant with the urgency and the expertise for achieving sustainable development. It is with this objective in mind that the Centre for Sustainable Development was established at the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration in April, 1994. The Centre seeks to create awareness among young development administrators and serving officers on sustainable development issues, conduct long and short term training programmes, network with other National and International institutions with similar interests, document all available research material on relevant issues and generally seek to make a break through in achieving sustainability in field level implementation of development plans. One of the activities of the Centre is to bring out a series of publications on various issues in sustainability which will be of relevance to the layman, the academic and the administrator. Based on extensive literature surveys, field trips and case studies substantiated by the findings from workshops conducted on each subject, each volume will emphasise the current status, guidelines for implementing sustainable concerns, constraints to successful implementation, policy prescriptions, and lessons from experience with an attempt at providing a practical manual on sustainable development administration. A vast array of topics ranging from forests, food and fisheries to watersheds, wasteland management and traditional wisdom will be covered in the series. The first of the series focuses on the much debated issue of forest lands. Retaining the existing forest cover, improving the quality of so-called forest land, bringing back the traditional ethos of preserving forests as part of the Indian heritage and lifestyle and making people part of the greening movement rather than policing the forests, the changing policies over the past century and their impact on the forest cover, the relevance of these policies in the context of liberalisation and structural adjustment are all addressed in this volume. Introduction Twenty three per cent of India's geographical area has been declared as forest land, and is mostly under the control of the government. For almost a century and until 1988, the policy was to use these lands for commercial purposes. Man-made plantations of industrial species were encouraged on forest lands, often by clear felling mixed forests. Even after India became independent in 1947, this policy continued. This policy led to deforestation, which increased rural poverty and unemployment on the one hand, and social unrest and conflict over rights on the other. A shift in thinking has occurred of late as planners recognised the difficulty of excluding people from forests; the importance of forests to people's livelihoods and the effectiveness of communities in local protection and management. In this context, a three day Workshop on 'Policy and Implementation Issues in Forestry' was organised by the Centre for Sustainable Development of the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA), Mussoorie, at Mussoorie from July 4 to 6, 1994. The Workshop deliberated upon the evolution of the policies relating to forests, their implementation, and the problems encountered. It also endeavored to examine the role of voluntary organisations and their relationship with the Government in the forestry sector, involvement of people, particularly women, social forestry and its relationship with ecology and environment, development of the concept of joint forest management, implications of industry managing forests in the context of the new liberalisation policy, and a host of other forest-related issues. The broad objectives of the Workshop were as follows: · To discuss forest legislation and policy with the participants, · To assess the results of implementation of various social forestry projects, · To examine the constraints resulting in poor success of afforestation programmes, · To appreciate the relationship of people, particularly women, with the forest, · To anticipate problems in the implementation of joint forest management, and, · To evolve a viable policy framework for the greening of wastelands and management of CPRs Structure of the Workshop The three days of the Workshop were devoted to presentations followed by discussions both in plenary sessions and in group sessions. The first one and a half days were devoted to five plenary sessions. Each session began with a presentation followed by an open house discussion. The present forest policy and the legal framework were reviewed by Dr. N.C.Saxena, Director, LBSNAA. Shri S.Palit, Chief Conservator of Forests, Government of West Bengal made a presentation on the experience of social forestry on village lands and the involvement of village panchayats in afforestation. Discussion on farm forestry and agro-forestry was initiated by Shri Ranjit Issar, Joint Secretary, National Wastelands Development Board. Prof. K.C. Malhotra, I.S.I, Calcutta, presented a case study from West Bengal on the institutional aspects of joint forest management. Ms. Jaya Chatterjee, SPWD, discussed the role of NGOs in joint forest management. The participants broke into three groups for deliberations in the afternoon on the second day. The groups focused on (a) Administrative Issues, (b) Equity Issues and (c) Leasing and Marketing Issues. Group presentations were made on the last day followed by a summing up and concluding session. The participants were a mix of middle and senior level officers from Central and State Government Departments (both IAS and IFS) who were directly associated with the forestry sector either at the field level, or at the policy level. NGOs were also represented. An Overview Meeting the basic human needs of all who inhabit our earth in a way that fosters harmony between man and nature, is a challenge of our times. The Brundtland Commission Report (1987), the Rio Conference on Environment and Development (1992), and the setting up of a UN Commission for Sustainable Development have all been able to bring a global focus on the urgency of meeting human needs in a sustainable way. The Green Movement across developed and developing nations has stressed the need for evolving a participative system where people themselves shape their own destinies in a manner that future generations may also prosper. All such movements have highlighted the need to meet basic human needs, especially of the unprivileged poor, if conservation and sustainable development have to have a chance. Such global perspectives have made our national policies and priorities highly dynamic and receptive to eternally changing issues in the management of sustainable development. The national policy on forests and forest dwellers has also witnessed maximum responses to global concerns. These responses have been conditioned by the concerns emanating from depleting forest resources, meeting fuelwood and other energy needs of the people, the promotion of social, agro and farm forestry as a commercial venture, and JFM responses in the naturally regenerating forest regions. From a policy of policing against/ from the forest dwellers, we are now shifting to policing by the people. At a time when we have again started looking upon the forest dweller as a friend of the forests, it is imperative to evolve such community participation and sharing of forest products which results in empowerment of the people together with sustained growth of our forest cover. The advent of the British, their Empire building, and the network of the Indian railways, systematically put pressure on forests. Forests started being looked upon as a renewable asset that required management, in order to systematically meet the timber needs of the colonial masters. The process of alienating the forest dweller from the forests was given legitimacy by the Indian Forest Act and the administrative processes that were unleashed on forest regions after its inception. Villages were established in deep forest regions to facilitate the labour needs in extracting timber at a pace never witnessed before. The Forest Act, the Forest Working Plans, the Survey and Settlement Operations in the forest regions, were all aimed at limiting the rights of the people and transferring ownership of forests to the state. The categories of Reserved, Protected and Village Forests, the powers of a Forest Settlement Officer to change the