Regenerating India''s forests

By SUSHIL SAIGAL

Deccan Herald March 26^th 2002

Forest management is a significant area that will need to be addressed by India at the World Summit on Sustainable Development scheduled to be held at Johannesburg in September 2002. Very few people know that nearly a quarter of India is classified as forest land, which is owned and managed by the government. In fact, forestry is the second major land use after agriculture. A vast majority of India's population is acutely dependent on forests for meeting basic needs of fuel wood, fodder, timber for housing and agricultural implements, and food and medicines in the form of wild fruits, roots, herbs and so on. Of approximately 5.8 lakh villages in India, 1.7 lakh villages with a total population of 14.7 crore are located in the vicinity of forests.

Unfortunately, over the years more than half of India's forests have got degraded, bringing about an ecological crisis and immense suffering for the forest-dependent people. Initially, the government tried to address this problem by growing fuelwood and fodder plantations near villages so that local residents' needs were met easily and the pressure on forests reduced. The initial attempt was to keep fringe communities away from the forests; but it was soon found that these fringe communities could help in solving the forest degradation problem.

A new forest policy was issued in 1988, which declared meeting the local communities' needs as one of the main objectives of forest management. The government realised that fringe communities would have little incentive to participate in forest regeneration efforts unless they benefited directly and had sufficient authority to be effective. Accordingly, a pioneering new programme called Joint Forest Management (JFM) was started in 1990.

JFM is a forest management strategy under which the government (represented by the Forest Department) and the village community enter into an agreement to jointly protect and manage forestland adjoining villages and to share responsibilities and benefits. The village community is represented through an institution specifically formed for the purpose. This institution is known by different names in different states but most commonly referred to as the Forest Protection Committee (FPC). In some states, panchayats can also enter into a JFM agreement with the Forest Department. Under JFM, the FPC takes the responsibility of protecting a forest patch from fire, grazing and illegal harvesting. In return, it gets greater access to forest produce and a share in income earned from that forest patch.

Positive impact

The JFM got real impetus following the Central government's directive to all state governments on June 1, 1990, recommending the involvement of local communities in the management of degraded forests and including NGOs as facilitators in the process. In the ensuing years, a number of state governments passed their own enabling resolutions and started JFM programmes. Besides declaring the government's intention in favour of JFM, these resolutions specified details regarding composition of village institutions, areas to be adopted and rights and responsibilities of the partners.

Currently, 27 states have JFM and over 63,000 FPCs are managing around 14 million hectares of forest land. The area under JFM is now comparable to the area under national parks and sanctuaries. The JFM programme has led to several positive impacts. In the past few years, the overall forest cover of the country has increased by 3,896 sq km. One main reason cited for this improvement is successful implementation of the JFM programme. In areas under JFM, incidents of illicit tree felling have declined.

Greater goal

JFM programmes have increased the income of participating communities at several places. In Andhra Pradesh, over 40 million persondays of work were created through JFM- related activities between 1994 and 2000. In Maharashtra, approximately one million rupees is spent on the microplan of each FPC constituted. A significant proportion of this is wage component, which primarily goes to the FPC members. In Harda division of Madhya Pradesh, irrigation facilities developed under JFM have increased the crop yield by two to five times. In Gujarat, better availability of grass and tree fodder after the initiation of JFM has led to increase in milk production in several villages. In some states, FPCs have started earning through sale of produce from their forest patches. In West Bengal, even though the sharing percentage is one of the lowest in the country (25 per cent), it is estimated that on an average each FPC has received about Rs 70,000 as share in timber revenue. Income from non-timber forest produce (NTFP) is even greater. Women in several FPCs in West Bengal are able to earn between Rs 4,500 and 6,000 annually through sale of sal leaf plates.

In several places, JFM has helped reduce areas under illegal encroachment. For instance, in Andhra Pradesh, nearly 12 per cent of the encroached forestland (38,158 ha) has reportedly been vacated following the initiation of the JFM programme. The JFM programme has led to considerable involvement of NGOs in the forestry sector although there is significant variation from state to state. Over 250 NGOs are involved in the JFM programme in Andhra Pradesh alone.

Considering the success of the JFM approach in the past decade, the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests has decided to focus on it to achieve the national target of 33 per cent tree cover by 2012. It has been decided to merge all existing schemes of the National Afforestation and Eco-development Board into a National Afforestation Programme, which will be implemented through the JFM approach from the Tenth Plan onwards. The JFM programme has indicated that it is possible for the government and communities to sustainably manage India's forests. However, there are a number of outstanding issues such as providing a firm legal ground to the programme, defining the role of panchayats, developing JFM-compatible models, recognising communities' own efforts, and reorienting Forest Department officials, which will need addressing before JFM gets institutionalised in the country.

(By arrangement with the Centre for Environment Education''s News Feeder Service (CEE-NFS). CEE is coordinating India''s consultative process towards the World Summit on Sustainable Development)