Gurbachan Singh
GURBACHAN SINGH is former Chief Conservator of Forests of the State of Punjab, India.
Planning and carrying out watershed management is a complex task involving the coordinated employment of many disciplines and considerations in land management. The author looks at the problem in terms of conceiving and creating watershed management organizations in developing countries.
Efficient watershed management in developing countries calls for specialized personnel and a comprehensive organization. It may also require foreign aid. It certainly requires systematic education at the "grass roots" level to make people aware that it is in their own long-term interest to conserve natural resources.
Laws and regulations have too often failed to stop shifting cultivation and in some developing countries of the tropics severe degradation due to such slash-and-burn agriculture has, in fact, rapidly intensified in recent years. It is a serious socio-economic problem that is aggravated by increasing population pressure and the great dependence on agriculture - the land - for providing employment as well as food.
So, too, the degradation of forests by fire is often similarly caused by ignorance and deep-rooted economic evils - and the desire of forest dwellers to create more grass areas for their cattle, to destroy insects and animals harmful to cattle, to drive game into traps, or perhaps to propitiate rain gods during times of prolonged drought.
Wars from time immemorial have destroyed forest resources. Whenever a forest was suspected of harbouring an enemy, it was set on fire. War refugees are also responsible for burning and clearing forests to make way for subsistence agriculture. In southeast Asia, for instance, a prolonged war involving modern technology has been responsible for forest destruction and environmental damage on an unprecedented scale.
Even in comparatively peaceful and developed regions, failure of governments to protect forest areas, or too generous granting of grazing and other rights have caused forests to shrink or to disappear altogether. Politicians will often support immediate popular demands at the expense of the interests of future generations.
Inadequate consideration of geophysical conditions in a region and the population's social requirements, combined with stress on immediate increases in agricultural production or on economic development, and without attention to ecological protection, has often wasted efforts and resources and at the same time led to the creation of imbalances between man and his environment. In general, the concept of comprehensive watershed planning and conservation of natural resources has been missing.
The same often applies to road construction aimed at development of economically backward areas: it often results in the destruction of hillsides and increased erosion.
Developing countries in particular often suffer from serious organizational limitations and a shortage of technically trained personnel and management capable of achieving the multipurpose approach necessary to balanced development and the conservation of natural resources. Generally speaking, these countries have little or no vocational education in forestry, agriculture, animal husbandry, soil conservation and water management. They do little research into the problems affecting watershed conditions.
RIVER SCENE IN WEST AFRICA watershed management is needed to serve the ordinary needs of people
In addition to technical solutions to watershed problems, comparative studies are necessary on such major aspects as social, ethnic, political and power structures, interest in group formation, land-tenure systems, attachment to land, rights and privileges, attitudes to modernization, motivation for achievement and the various kinds of public and individual participation.
Only an interdisciplinary approach holds promise of effectively meeting this challenge.
It is also necessary to diversify the agricultural economy and to create acceptable alternative employment opportunities for the socially backward, unemployed or underemployed population by afforestation, soil conservation, and industrialization. Most important, pious hopes cannot force shifting cultivators to give up destructive practices unless other means of livelihood acceptable to tribal and backward communities are provided.
Appropriate watershed management organizations have been set up in many developed countries: developing countries also need them. Such organizations should be vested with powers and responsibility for the efficient and comprehensive planning and execution of works, must cut across disciplinary and agency boundaries, and should adopt an integrated approach to resources management.
The creation of watershed commissions or authorities at the national level helps governments to obtain an over-all view of a country's needs and to voice these needs in an authoritative manner. Such bodies can draw up plans and policies to achieve broad conservation-oriented development of land and related natural resources in a balanced, coordinated way. Such commissions or authorities need to be headed by individuals of high calibre and administrative experience and to be staffed by professionally qualified foresters, soil scientists, engineers, agronomists, agrostologists, hydrologists, sociologists and economists. Since such trained and experienced staff is generally not available in developing countries, specialized training of personnel is a vital part of the creation of this kind of authority from the start, or before it starts.
A river system from source to sea is an organic whole and must be treated as such; any intervention in one section of it will affect its entire regime, therefore a watershed has to be viewed as a unit of organization and planning. Tributary and sub-watersheds could form sub-units for micro-planning and control. Thus, under the national commission or authority there may be subordinate agencies such as river basin boards or regional watershed authorities.
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The basic cause of watershed degradation is a combination of ignorance and economic backwardness of people, outdated social systems, overpopulation and overgrazing. These lead to: · Cultivation of poor land without adequate soil and water conservation and of land basically unsuitable for sustained agriculture. · Spread of shifting cultivation, involving permanent forest land or reduction of forest fallow periods, with soil exhaustion and grassland replacing forests. · Deterioration in official control and preservation of forests. · Overgrazing of forests and grassland causing disappearance of vegetation and formation of stone screes and ravines. · Road-building and other land-changing public works without conservation. |
Such offices would have to be set up for each river system or for parts of very large or international rivers. As agents of the national organization, these offices would be responsible for comprehensive surveys, problem identification, coordinated planning and execution of works. Various disciplines, social and political groups as well as local authorities would be represented in them.
The subordinate boards might also have to organize demonstration centres for local administrations and the public where land-use adjustment, improved woodland and grassland management, soil conservation, land grading, water control structures, water management, and better farming techniques would be shown and taught. The centres could serve as focal points for the growth of better practices and could provide research results as well under actual field conditions.
Another of their functions would be the training of large numbers of technical personnel under field conditions, which is to say the creation of a cadre capable of commanding the respect of landowners and land users.
Local or regional watershed authorities established under higher authorities could also be useful in decentralizing control of large river basins.
Within watershed areas, forest services should retain responsibility for the conservation, management and development of lands intended as forest reserves and national forests, while soil conservation planning and management activities on wild lands outside forest reserves, on crop land and pastures remain the responsibility of the soil conservation and watershed management service.
It is important that the new organization cooperate closely with the forest service and that it work out cooperative programmes with various state and private services or agencies, universities and research laboratories.
Science, technology and economics are not the only things needed to make a watershed management programme successful. Social and political factors are also very much in the picture. It is necessary to understand the social traditions and attitude of the people and win their confidence and support.
Since land-use adjustment is the key phase of the over-all watershed programme, really effective management can be achieved only when landowners themselves take part in this work. Watershed management organizations should go out of their way to motivate such involvement. It might then be possible to entrust afforestation or pasture development of denuded wild lands and their management to local groups such as soil cooperatives, with official guidance e and financial assistance. It might also be possible to interest village councils or groups of shifting cultivators in alternative land uses. The more isolated dweller!) in hills and forests might be trained in forestry skills.
BRINGING IN A BOREHOLE no forests, no water
Every citizen should have an opportunity for developing an awareness of his country's natural resources, how they affect his life, how to use them, and how to safeguard them for economic and political strength. This should start in the schoolroom and in youth organizations. Nature conservation should be an essential and required part of school curricula. Text-books and lessons should explain in simple language the principles and I benefits of watershed management, forestry and pasture development and the way in which they are interdependent. This, too, can be encouraged by contact between the soil conservation or watershed authority and educators. The press, radio, television, films, exhibitions and demonstrations should also be used for this purpose.
It may be possible to give financial incentives to the inhabitants of watershed areas for creating forest plantations or protecting natural forests. One way to do this is to grant them a share in the proceeds from the sale of forest products. Granting land users permanent rights to land when they adopt conservation practices can be another effective incentive.
What is particularly Important in putting any of these ideas and reforms into effect is the consciousness that new ideas are more acceptable to people when they come not from outsiders but from their own kind of people and especially those with whom they grew up and whom they trust. People, in the end, probably constitute the most important factor in good watershed management.
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