Environment & Biodiversity

KEY POINTS

·        Forest policy in colonial India focussed on maximising products and revenues for the state.

·        The imperial forest department functioned as sole owner, protector and manager of the forest estate.

·        Unfortunately, post-Independence policy too continued this 'state-managed forestry' approach.

·        In a paradigm shift, the 1988 Forest Policy recognised the multiple roles of forests and prioritised environmental stability over revenue maximisation.

·        The new draft Forest Policy 2018, however, ignores the lessons from the 1988 policy and returns to the state-managed forestry of the 1950s.

Concerns with the Forest policy draft 2018

·        Tribal to Timber – The 1988 forest policy had a local community and ecology-centric approach. From this, the new draft shifts its focus to timber and forest-based industries.

·        The 1988 policy had sections called ‘Rights and Concessions’ and ‘Tribal People and Forests’.

·        These are replaced by ideas of 'Production Forestry', increasing the productivity of forest plantations and facilitating forest industry interface.

·        The importance offered to the rights of local, forest-dependent communities are being diluted. It is substituted by the demand for raw material from forest-based industries.

·        The new policy fails to acknowledge the symbiotic relationship between the tribal people and forests.

·        PPP - The draft proposes a public-private partnership model for Afforestation and reforestation activities.

·        The 1988 policy clearly states that the requirements of the local communities should not be sacrificed for the sake of forest based industries.

·        However, the PPPs in the new policy go against this and will entail more forest destruction.

·        It is a way of granting the private sector access to public resources. The profits and benefits are also thus likely to end up in corporate hands.

·        Community Participation - There is little about decentralised governance in the draft policy.

·        Local communities would have challenged the production forestry model if they had a say in forest governance.

·        Mechanism – The draft policy talks of ensuring synergy between Gram Sabhas and JFM committees for ensuring successful community participation in forest management.

·        But the actual need is to replace JFM committees with statutorily empowered gram Sabhas.