Forest Policy

Dr.
 A policy is intended
to guide and
determine present
and future decisions
and actions. It
usually comprises
two elements:
 a set of aspirations,
goals or objectives.
 an outline of a
course of action to
achieve them.
Forest Policy
 Forestry in India is more than just about wood and fuel.
 About 50% of the total revenue from the forestry
industry in India is in non-wood forest products
category.
A national forest
policy is a policy for
society, not for the
forestry
administration.
Elements of NFPs
 Protecting and enhancing the extent and quality of the resource.
 Resources for the benefit of citizens and future generations.
 Enhancing productive capacity, health and vitality.
 Ensuring sustainability of all forest products.
 Formulation of laws and regulations or codes of practice.
 Formal/written or informal/traditional rules.
 Maintaining or enhancing the ecosystem services.
 Managing forest resources to produce the range and mix of goods.
 Development of services demanded by society.
 Contribution directly to national development.

Relation between Policy and law
 Forest policy and forest law are complementary tools:

the policy provides direction, and law establishes
rights and responsibilities.
 Forest legislation can be drafted after policy decisions

are made, not vice versa.
Difference Between Forest Policy and Law
Forest Policy 1894 :
Initiation of control
History of IFP-1894
 Dr. Voelcker’s report on 'Improvement of Indian
Agriculture' 1893 included a special chapter on forestry.
 The first National Forest Policy of India published in 1894

was based on Dr. Voelcker's recommendations.
 Dietrich Brandis, the father of Indian Forestry had a lot of

foresight in addressing the needs of the local forest
dwellers during the preparation of first Indian Forest
Policy 1894.
 Brandis played a key role in preparation of the First Indian

Forest Policy in 1894.
The sole objective
was stated to be the
administration of
state forests for
public benefits.
The policy initiated

the process of
controlling the forest
resource by the state
on a very large scale
 The improvement of Indian
Agriculture
 It mainly concentrate in
agriculture growth
 Supplying small timber for
public benefits
 Diverting forest land to
agriculture purposes.
(Dr. Voelcker)
Forest was used for
1. Small timber-building
2. Wood-fuel
3. Leaves- manure, fodder
4. Thorns – fencing
5. Grass – grazing for cattle
6. Edible products - foods
Shifting cultivation
1. Large area of forests degraded
2. No restriction for Shifting cultivation
3. Loss of soil nutrients
4. Forest used supplying fuel and fodder or grazing for
local consumption
Drawbacks-
 Agriculture over forestry
 No mention about shifting cultivation.
 Less stress on conservation.
No mention about
1. Scientific management of forests
2. Forest conservation
3. Wild-life conservation and management
4. Women involvement
5. Tribal development
6. Forestry Research and Education and training
7. Catchment area management
Forest Policy 1952
Tightening the control
The first forest policy of 1894 was revised in 1952 on basis
of six dominant needs of the country.
Essential needs
1. Need for balanced and contemporary land-use.
2. Need for checking soil-erosion.
3. Denudation in the catchment areas for soil and water
conservation
4. Establishing tree lands- public use.
5. Ensuring increasing supplies of grazing, small wood for
agricultural improvements.
6. Sustained supply of timber–defense, communications
and industry.
The duty of Forest Department
 Establishment of tree lands

 Need for extreme species of commercial importance
 Establish nurseries and seed stores
 Supervise planting of trees, may be necessary for the
development of tree lands.
 Tree awareness among the people by publicity, by
celebrating Vanamahotsava.
Control of Private Forests
 Excessive exploitation of forests for personal use.
 In order to arrest such destruction of forests.
 Proportion of forest areas
 Maintaining one-third of its total area under forests.
 60% forests in the Himalayas, the Deccan and other mountains
 20% forests- in the plains
Wild-Life
 A central Board for Wild-Life has been constituted by the
Government of India in the Ministry of Food and
Agriculture on 4th April, 1952.
Grazing
 Grazing should be regulated
 Continuous grazing in the same area should be
controlled
 Grazing rate should be kept at a minimum in
Protection Forests
Shifting Cultivation:
1. Shifting Cultivation converted to Taungya
Sustained yields:
1. Afforestation schemes to replace inferior trees.
2. Sustained forest operations such as replacement of
what is removed annually
Forest Education:
 Forestry courses are conducted for Forest Rangers,
Superior Officers at the FRI, Dehradun.
Co-operation with industry:
1. Contact between the Forest Department and industries
2. Utilization of the results of research in industrial
benefit.
Forest budgets:
1. Forestry is a long range enterprise
2. Income from supply of large timber for defense and
industry
3. Supply of large-sized timber is of greater importance
to the general economy of the country.
Forest Policy-1988
Basic objectives
 Maintenance of environmental stability
 Conserving the natural heritage and preserving the remaining natural

forests with the vast variety of flora and fauna.
 Checking soil erosion and denudation in the catchment areas of rivers,

lakes, reservoirs
 Checking the extension of sand-dunes in the desert areas of Rajasthan

and along the coastal tracts.
 Increasing substantially the forest/tree cover in the country through
massive afforestation and social forestry programmes, especially on all
denuded, degraded and unproductive lands.
 Meeting the requirements of fuel-wood, fodder, minor forest produce

and small timber of the rural and tribal populations.
 Increasing the productivity of forests to meet essential national needs.
 Encouraging efficient utilization of forest pro duce and maximizing

substitution of wood.
 Creating a massive people's movement with the involvement of women,

for achieving these objectives and to minimize pressure on existing
forests.
Forest Management
 Protection and productivity improvement
 Need of food production
 Conservation of total biological diversity
 Sufficient fodder, fuel and pasture availability in areas
adjoining forest.
 generation of employment and income through MFP.
Forest area divided into

1. Reserved forest
2. Protected forest
3. Unclass forest
Strategies
Area under forest:
 A minimum of 1/3rd of total land area of the country under forest or
tree cover.
Afforestation, Social Forestry and farm forestry:
 Programme of afforestation and tree planting for fuel wood and fodder.
 Plantation alongside of roads, railway lines, rivers and streams and
canals, and on other unutilized lands.
Management of State Forests

 No forest should be permitted to be worked without the Government
having approved the management plan.
 Tropical rain/moist forests, particularly in areas like Arunachal
Pradesh, Kerala, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, should be totally
safeguarded.
Tribal development
 Symbolic relationship between the tribal people and forests.

 Forests development corporations should be to associate the tribal
people
 Employment to people living in and around the forest.
Diversion of forest land for non-forest purpose
 Diversion of forest land for any non-forest purpose should

be subject to the most careful examinations by specialists
from the stand point of social and environmental costs and
benefits.
 Construction of dams and reservoirs, mining and industrial

development, compensatory by afforestation.
Wild-Life Conservation
 Forest management should take special care of the needs of

wildlife conservation
 Necessary to provide for corridors linking to the protected
areas
 Maintain genetic continuity between artificially separated
sub-sections of migrant wildlife.
Special attention in forestry programmes

 Contractors should be replaced by tribal cooperatives
 Protection, regeneration and optimum collection of minor
forest produce
 Development programmes to meet needs of the tribal,
economy in and around the forest areas
Shifting cultivation
 discourage shifting cultivation by alternative avenues of
income, right landuse practices.
 It should be rehabilitated through social forestry and
energy plantations.
Damage to Forests from Encroachments, Fires and

Grazing
 Effective action to check the encroachment.
 Special precautions, Improved and modern management
practices should be adopted to deal with forest fires.
 Grazing and browsing in forest areas need to be controlled.
Forest based industries
 Should raise the raw material
 Provide employment to local people in raising trees and raw
material
 Industry should be encouraged to use alternative raw materials
 It should reduce the pressure on natural forest.
Forest Extension
 To make people conscious of the value of trees, wildlife and
nature.
 Suitable programmes are propagated through mass media,
audio-visual aids and the extension machinery
Forestry Education
 In school and institution curriculum
 Academic and professional qualifications - in forestry
Forestry research
 Increasing the productivity of wood & other forest produce
per unit of area per unit time
 Research related to social forestry for rural/tribal
development
 Development of substitutes to replace wood and wood
products
 Research related to wildlife & management of national parks
and sanctuaries
Personnel Management
Forest Survey and Data Base
Legal Support and Infrastructure Development
Financial Support for Forestry
National Forest Policy,
2018 (Draft)
Empowered Communities, Healthy
Ecosystems, Happy Nation
Improve the health and vitality
of forest ecosystems to meet
the present and future needs of
ecological security and
biodiversity conservation with
empowered and enabled
communities.
Salient Features
 Green tax on citizens
 The draft National Forest Policy (NFP) proposes the
levy of a green tax for facilitating ecologically
responsible behaviour and supplementing financial
resources essential to address forestry woes.
 Draft policy undermines the Forest Rights Act
 NFP ignores Forests Rights Act, 2006, which empowers

local gram panchayats, especially in tribal areas close
to India’s forests, and proposes a joint forest
management-like mechanism to enhance agro-forestry.
Forest management mission to facilitate supply to wood industry
 The policy proposes to launch a new Community Forest
Management Mission.
 The policy recommends contracts between forest-dependent
industries and farmers to fix price and quantity to ensure supply
for the wood industry.
Technology to minimize damage to forests

 The policy states that forest land diversion projects related to
mining, quarrying, construction of dams, roads and other linear
infrastructure need to adopt special caution.
Board to monitor management of forests

 The policy states that a National Board of Forestry and State
Boards of Forestry are to be established to ensure monitoring of
the spread of the forest areas and management of forest cover.
Provisions for responsible tourism
 It calls for developing “sound ecotourism models” with the
focus on conservation while supplementing the livelihood
needs of local communities.
 To reduce the impact wildlife and its habitat.
 To Maximize the income of the local community.
Climate change to emerge as important factor in policy

 Climate change concerns should be effectively factored into
all the forest and wildlife areas management plans and
community ecosystem management plans
Purchase of wildlife corridors

 This policy indicates that CAMPA funds from diversion of
forest land by industry are to be used for purchasing wildlife
corridors from people.
Maintaining urban forests
 The policy also asks for management plans for city
forests, parks, garden and woodlands to nurture and
sustain
 urban health, clean air and related benefits.
Directions of the Policy
1. Nurture healthy ecosystems
 Ensure adequate extent
 Enhance quality and productivity
 Sustain resilience
 Reduce threats
 Restore village common lands
 Encourage forest certification
2. Safeguard forest lands

3. Conserve forests by empowering communities
 A national Community Forest Management (CFM) Mission
shall be launched.
 CFM Committees (CFMCs) should be constituted by the

gram sabha to carry out the local management functions
4.Strengthen wildlife management
5.Promote agro-forestry and farm forestry
6. Facilitate forest industry interface
7. Manage forest catchments and watersheds to revive streams
8.Integrate climate change concerns in forest management
9.Expand urban greens
10. Establish credible measuring, monitoring and evaluation framework
11.Develop a national forest ecosystems management information system
12. Assimilate international commitments

Other Important concerns
 Good governance
 Research and education
 Extension and awareness
 Legal and institutional framework
 Financial support
 Harmonize with other policies and laws
 Implementation and way forward
 Periodic review

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Dr.

 Resources for the benefit of citizens and future generations.

 Enhancing productive capacity, health and vitality.

 Ensuring sustainability of all forest products.

 Formulation of laws and regulations or codes of practice.

 Formal/written or informal/traditional rules.

 Maintaining or enhancing the ecosystem services.

 Managing forest resources to produce the range and mix of goods.

 Development of services demanded by society.

 Contribution directly to national development.

 Forest policy and forest law are complementary tools:

 Forest legislation can be drafted after policy decisions

 The first National Forest Policy of India published in 1894

 Dietrich Brandis, the father of Indian Forestry had a lot of

 Brandis played a key role in preparation of the First Indian

The policy initiated

 Establishment of tree lands

 Conserving the natural heritage and preserving the remaining natural

 Checking soil erosion and denudation in the catchment areas of rivers,

 Checking the extension of sand-dunes in the desert areas of Rajasthan

 Meeting the requirements of fuel-wood, fodder, minor forest produce

 Increasing the productivity of forests to meet essential national needs.

 Encouraging efficient utilization of forest pro duce and maximizing

 Creating a massive people's movement with the involvement of women,

Forest area divided into

Management of State Forests

 Symbolic relationship between the tribal people and forests.

Diversion of forest land for non-forest purpose

 Diversion of forest land for any non-forest purpose should

 Construction of dams and reservoirs, mining and industrial

 Forest management should take special care of the needs of

Special attention in forestry programmes

Damage to Forests from Encroachments, Fires and

 Draft policy undermines the Forest Rights Act

 NFP ignores Forests Rights Act, 2006, which empowers

Technology to minimize damage to forests

Board to monitor management of forests

Climate change to emerge as important factor in policy

Purchase of wildlife corridors

2. Safeguard forest lands

 CFM Committees (CFMCs) should be constituted by the

5.Promote agro-forestry and farm forestry

6. Facilitate forest industry interface

7. Manage forest catchments and watersheds to revive streams

8.Integrate climate change concerns in forest management

9.Expand urban greens

10. Establish credible measuring, monitoring and evaluation framework

11.Develop a national forest ecosystems management information system

12. Assimilate international commitments

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