0838-C1
Yogesh D. Jadhav 1
Tropical forest ecosystems constitute an integral part of life support system of more than 70 % of the population of India. These forests possess a stark uniqueness as regards their composition and resilience to natural changes. They receive maximum solar radiation and exhibit complex and intricately interdependent survival systems. Due to a wide range of species diversity, they are the storehouses of endemic genepools. India ranks sixth among the 12 megadiversity countries of the world. The forests are characterised by mixed dry deciduous species. These forests are abundant in a variety of species yielding seasonally viable non-wood forest products (NWFPs), which can be mainly grouped into: fruits, flowers, fibres, fodder, barks, seeds, gums and resins, dyes, etc. These NWFPs are valuable sources of sustenance for majority of people living in and around the forests in Central India (esp. Madhya Pradesh in which the research study site is located). Due to heavy population pressures, these forests had been showing a downtrend since past few decades. The phenomenon of unsustainable harvest of NWFPs and excessive collection of small timber has initiated a vicious cycle of forest degradation. This has also adversely impacted the ground and surface water regimes due to which the sustainability of the forests is in danger. But due to people's involvement in a project-based initiative for sustainable forest management, there are signs of hope for these forests. Taking a case study of protected area in the tropical forests of Central India the author proposes a conceptual model for implementing sustainable forest management in Central India.
India is geographically situated in the tropical belt (along the tropic of cancer). Being a developing country it has an agrarian economy and about 72.2% of the population are dependent on agriculture and forests. (Census, 2001). Globally there have been several initiatives for protection of forests and the environment especially after the UNCED at Rio in 1992. India had been playing a substantial role in these initiatives and is a signatory to a number of forestry related international treaties and conventions that singularly indicate to speed up efforts for bringing the forests under sustainable management. India is a producer member country of the International Tropical Timber Organisation (ITTO), Japan and is a signatory to ITTO's Objective 2000, which makes it mandatory to bring the forests under sustainable management regime by the year 2000. Inspite of the policy level initiatives, little has been done as regards the grassroots level implementation of plans. What still remains is capacity building at the grassroots level. The formulated plans could not reap desired results and a need was felt to streamline efforts for setting up participatory monitoring, assessment and reporting systems for forest management through community participation at the grassroots level.
The State of Forest Report published by Forest Survey of India (FSI, 1997) estimated that the recorded forest area of the country is 76.52 million ha, whereas the actual forest cover is estimated to be 63.33 million ha, which constitutes 19.27% of the country's geographical area. The total annual increment of the growing stock is estimated to be 87.62 million cubic metres (FSI 1997). But dense forests (crown density above 40%) constitutes only about 11.17% (showing an increasing trend) and forests with more than 70% crown density exist only over 6% of the country's land mass. It is interesting to note that the total forest cover over the tribal districts (areas dominated by forest dwelling people) as per the 1997 assessment of Forest Survey of India is 41.72 million ha, which constitutes about 65.86% of the total forest cover of the country.
The forests in India are managed by a hierarchical bureaucracy controlled by the respective state governments. The administration of these forests is carried out through a series of national forest policies and working plan documents. The most recent National Forest Policy of India (1988) treats forests as a source of life for the communities. The policy prescribes people's participation in the management of forest resources as a means of achieving sustainable forest management.
The first document on Joint Forest Management (JFM) for institutionalisation of people's participation and encouragement in mainstream forest management was framed in the year 1990 through a government resolution. As a result of this 27 states in the country have adopted it by and have formulated location specific guidelines and micro plans, which have resulted in formation of about 63,000 village level joint forest management committees 4
(JFMCs), who are jointly managing about 14 million ha of forests (MoEF 2000). The maximum number of JFM committees and area under JFM programme is in Madhya Pradesh (the number of JFM committees being 12038 and the area being 5.8 million hectares). The village Mathar, the study site under consideration, is located in the same state.
Depending on the status of the forests in and around the village the committees are categorised in the following manner:
All the families of the village are members for the committee. The executive committee and its office bearers are elected from this pool of members. The committee looks after the activities of the JFMC for a period of one year till a new committee gets elected. Each committee consists of a chairman, a treasurer and a secretary (who is often a field forester from the forest department (usually a beat guard)).
The study incorporates the base set of Criteria and Indicators (C&I) of the Bhopal-India Process (see Annex-1). A Criterion defines the essential elements against which sustainability of forest is assessed. Criterion is defined by indicators (quantitative or Village level People's institutions (JFMC) Forest resources Protection from fire, excessive grazing, hunting and illicit felling, etc. Duties (through JFMCs) Rights (usufruct) Collection of Fuelwood (by headload), seasonal non-wood forest products, grasses, etc. for self consumption JFM resolution (1990) of Government of India Forest department hierarchy 5 Figure 2: Location of village Mathar in Ratapani WLS qualitative), which are monitored regularly to know the effects of forest management interventions over a period of time. The study site coincides with one of the eight project sites of the ITTO funded research project on criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management being implemented by the Government of India.
The village Mathar is situated in Delabadi Forest Range in Obedullahganj Forest Division. It is a part of Ratapani wildlife sanctuary and has an Eco-Development Committee. The sanctuary is situated partly in the districts of Raisen and Sehore and located in the centre of Madhya Pradesh. Ratapani is located on 77 deg 31' 32" and 78 deg 4' 3" east longitudes and 23 deg 6' 17" and 22 deg 49' 47" north latitudes. The total forest area allotted to the 6 Figure 3: Tropical forest sustainability implementation model Figure 4: Village level workshop Eco development Committee (EDC) of Mathar is 4684.541 ha over which the villagers have usufruct rights. The forests in this area are of tropical dry deciduous teak type. The major crop is teak (Tectona grandis) though associates of teak and bamboos are occasionally found in patches. (Figure 2)
Under the aegis of the ITTO project, and through the cooperation from forest department and the project staff a sensitisation workshop (figure 4) was organised at the site based on the basis of tropical forest sustainability model (figure 3). The villagers actively participated in the training workshop. Through training materials and aids, the village communities were introduced to the concepts of criteria and indicators and were brainstormed about the indicators for a good and bad forest. Several indicators were evolved, discussed and recorded. Out of these lists, the villagers were again requested to refine the set of indicators. At the end of the workshop a list of site specific indicators was developed. Village level information was collected through open-ended questionnaires surveys in the area. In this survey the sampling intensity was 10%. The tools of participatory rural appraisal (PRA), focused group discussions (FGD) and time line methods were used. Convenience sampling was resorted wherever no other alternative was available.
The JFMC of Mathar plans its activities and document the proceedings on the basis of a site specific plan. This plan serves as a guiding document for the activities of the
SFM
Figure 5: Local NWFP - `Mahua' flowers
committee throughout the year of its functioning. The executive members are also entrusted the task of having at least one meeting in a month, evaluate previous month's activities and chart a plan of action for the coming month/s.
In order to carry out the activities each JFMC receives a yearly sum of money from the state government in the form of JFMC corpus fund. This fund is used for carrying out the day-to-day activities of protection of forests, conducting meetings and for solving eventualities that arise from time to time. These activities include fire fighting, night watchmanship, weeding, guarding the ANR (Assisted Natural Regeneration) sites, occasional soil working etc. In return the members get privileges from the facility of `Nistar'. This is a facility, which allows the villagers to extract one headload of dead, dying or diseased trees (3D) or woody material from the allotted forest per day. Seasonal flowers, fruits, seeds, medicinal plants, grasses, honey etc. are also allowed for selfconsumption purposes. Controlled grazing of cattle in specified semi-degraded forests is also allowed but through issue of a permit pass from the concerned forest division.
Woody resources: The village is situated in the immediate vicinity of the forest area and the resource use pattern bears intimate relationship with the forest ecosystem. The average number of individuals per family in the village is 7-8. Most of the people are tribals and depend on agriculture for sustenance. Most the houses in the village (85 %) are made of woody material like bamboos, with grass thatched roofs and have medium sized timber poles (15cm girth). The average yearly requirement of timber for house construction and repair purposes per household is about 30 kg dry weight of timber. The people use firewood for cooking fuel. It is either extracted from forests or from individual agricultural fields. The average annual requirement of fuelwood per family (of eight people) is 12 cartloads (roughly equivalent to 18 tons).
Non-wood resources: The villagers extract seasonal fruits, leaves and flowers from the allotted forest area. These include fruits of Aonla (Emblica officinalis) Chironji (Buchnania lanjan), flowers and seeds of Mahua (Madhuca indica), leaves of Tendu (Diospyros melanoxylon), medicinal plants like safed musali (Chlorophytum tuberosum) and a variety of grasses. Most of the NWFPs are used for self-consumption while some are sold in the nearby markets at Raisen and
Obedullahganj. (Figure 5)
There are around 2230 cattle-heads in the village (these include buffaloes, cows, calves, and bullocks).
About 80% of the villagers take their cattle to the jungle for grazing, the remaining 20 % either satisfy their needs through agricultural waste or by stall feeding. The average consumption of fresh grass per cattle per day comes to around 10-12 per kg, depending on its age as well as the type.
Thus the study advocates a people centered sustainability model for tropical forest management based on the site specific criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management through people's participation.
Joint Forest Management is a tool for achieving Sustainable Forest Management. In order to assess the direction of change towards or away from sustainability, it is important to monitor the changes over a period of time. People and forests are interlinked through a range of mutually symbiotic relationships and hence before implementing a forest management program, it is mandatory to take the local communities into confidence. Through a project based approach of criteria and indicators on SFM, the potential of grassroots communities is being successfully utilised for sustainably managing the forests. These sustainability models would serve as a template for further expansion of the concept of C&I in the state and over a period of time, throughout the country.
Development and implementation of criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management in a developing country like India, can be successfully achieved through people's participation through people's participation and the C&I approach.
Limitations of the study
The study was more of a qualitative nature, though quantification has been attempted wherever possible. The major limitation faced in the study was lack of funds to carry out meticulous and scientifically quantifiable experiments. Another limitation was that of lack of time to carry out a more rigorous study. 9
FSI, 1997. State of Forests Report. Forest Survey of India. Dehra Dun, India. IIFM, 2000. Bhopal-India Process for sustainable management of Indian forests, SFM Series. Indian Institute of Forest Management, Bhopal, India. 26p. SFR. 1999. State of Forest report. Forest Survey of India, Dehra Dun India. Web sites referred (MoEF 2000). http://www.envfor.nic.in (Census, 2001). http://www.censusindia.net (for provisional demographic figures on India) Yogesh D Jadhav
1 Mr. Yogesh D. Jadhav, Doctoral Research Scholar, Indian Institute of Forest Management, P.O. Box-357,
Nehru nagar, Bhopal 462003. India. Email: [email protected]