PARTICIPATORY FOREST MANAGEMENT

Participatory Forest Management (PFM) is a strategy to achieve sustainable forest management by encouraging the anagement or co-anagement of forestandwoodlandresources by the communities living closest to the resources.

Participatory forestry refers to processes and mechanisms that enable those people who have a direct stake in forest resources to be part of decision making in all aspects of forest management, from managing resources to formulating and implementing institutional frameworks. More specifically, community forestry refers to a component of participatory forestry that focuses on local communities as key stakeholders for sustainability."

CONT….

In the 1980s central governments were increasingly encouraged to devolve natural resource management to local institutions, within and outside of government. These policies were driven by a number of concerns including: (see Edmunds and Wollenberg, 2004; Arnold, 2001): - concerns to reduce the role of, and cost to, the state in protecting forests and the conservation value of forests. - environmentalist images of more effective resource protection by those living in close proximity to the resource - an assumption that local control would help protect local livelihoods for large numbers of rural households; - a belief that decentralised institutions are more locally responsive and would manage forests more efficiently by harnessing the skills, motivation and labour of interested local populations; - a philosophical commitment to people’s participation in their own affairs, and to the principles of self-determination and democracy. Different motivations dominated in different countries. In Nepal and India community forestry programmes were initially conceived to reverse degradation of national forests, which could not be managed and protected effectively by state forestry services (Springate-Baginski et al., 2003; Khare et al., 2000). This was also one of the motivations for the establishment of the first village-owned forest reserves in Tanzania (and perhaps in Africa), described by Wily (1995). Rural poverty alleviation was a further motivation behind Leasehold Forestry in Nepal and Joint Forest Management in India (Thoms et al, 2003; Khare et al., 2000).

Definition of PFM • (PFM) is simply a strategy to achieve sustainable forest management; – by encouraging the management or – co-management of forest and woodland resources – by the communities living closest to the resources. Definition of PFM • Participatory forest management (PFM) is an overall term for decentralised forest management models: –a genuine shift of management over forest resources from government to local community.

TWO DISTINCT SET-UPS FOR PFM

Community Base Forest Management (CBFM)

Takes place in ‘village land’

Villagers takes full ownership and management responsibilities

Villagers collect forest royalty from sale of forest products

Joint Forest Management (JFM)

Takes place in Government Forest Reserves

Is a collaborative management approach: divides management responsibility between Gov and the communities.

The community gets user rights through signing of formalized management agreements Participatory Forest Management (PFM)

Participatory Forest Management (PFM) was introduced into law with the passing of the Forest ordinance of 2002 • The Act provides a clear legal basis for; – communities, groups or individuals to manage or co-manage forests under a wide range of conditions.

TERM/CONCEPTS USED IN PFM

Social forestry Science and arts of growing trees and other vegetation on all

land available for this purpose, in and outside traditional

forest area and managing the existing forest with intimate

involvement of the people. It is forestry of the people, by the

people and for the the people or forestry in which efforts

aimed at raising and managing trees for the benefit of rural

people, with their involvement and support

Community forestry The forestry in which planning, establishment, management,

harvesting and marketing forest trees and their products are

carried out either by rural community members themselves or by

state on their behalf with the proceed going to benefit of the

community rather than individual community. It also include farm

forestry

Agro-forestry Land use system where trees or shrubs are deliberately managed

with agricultural crops

Farm forestry The system in which farmers grow trees on commercial basis on

farm land oR system where forestry goods and services are

produced on farm with other agricultural crops either for on farm

use or sale

TERM/CONCEPTS USED IN PFM

Farm wood

lots

A block of trees on a private farm usually for fuel wood

purpose

Village Forestry Small scale management of forest and trees resources

participated by non professional trained people either on private

or public forest land

Rehabilitation

forestry

Forestry practices on degraded land for its rehabilitation

Strip planting It refers to plantation of trees on road side, canal side or railway

line

Amenity

forestry

Forestry for the purpose of recreation, pleasure or general

beautification

Stakeholders A person having interest in the resources

JFM A combined committee formed by the people and government

officials for the management of forest

Top down

approach

An approach in which decision are taken and policy are formed at

upper management level without involvement of lower

management

TERM/CONCEPTS USED IN PFM

Bottom up

approach

Approch where decision are taken and policy are formulated

with the involvement of lower management and community

Centralized

approach

The approach in which the authority concentrate in the upper

management level and it is characteristic of industrial type of

organization

Decentralized

approach

The approach where the authority and decision making process

are pushed towards lower management and it is characteristic of

new emerging organization.

Conflict of interest

a situation in which the concerns or aims of two different parties are incompatible. OR

a situation in which a person is in a position to derive personal benefit from actions or decisions made in their official capacity.

Dispute: Disagreement over a matter

Multi-sectoral approach and mono sector: Approach where more than one sector is focused and vice versa

Empowerment: To encourage community

Livelihood: Means of securing necessities of life

Equity Quality of being fair and impartial

Branch of law that developed along with common law and concerned with fairness and justice

Equality Situation of being equal in society

DEVOLUTION

Devolution is the statutory granting of powers from the central government of a sovereign state to govern at a subnational level, such as a regional or local level. It is a strong form of decentralization.Devolved territories have the power to make legislation relevant to the area.

Devolution differs from federalism in that the devolved powers of the subnational authority may be temporary and are reversible, ultimately residing in the central government. Thus, the state remains de jure. Legislation creating devolved parliaments or assemblies can be repealed or amended by central government in the same way as any statute. In federal systems, by contrast, sub-unit government is guaranteed in the constitution. The powers of the sub-units cannot be withdrawn unilaterally by the central government (ie. without the consent of the sub-units being granted through the process of constitutional amendment). The sub-units therefore have a lower degree of protection under devolution than under federalism

WORKING PLAN

It is written scheme of management aiming at continuity of policy and action and controlling treatment of a forest.

Working plan answers four basic questions to satisfy the give objectives of forest manangement

How much to cut

How to cut

Where to cut

When to cut

REVIEW OF FOREST POLICIES The term “forest policy” is used in many different contexts, from a general

statement of overall aim, goal or general objective of forest resource management for a country to a fairly detailed prescription of a course of action with specified objectives for a rather narrowly defined field.

The first forest policy of Pakistan was announced in 1955 followed by the forest policies of1962, 1975, 1980, 1988 as part of the National Agricultural Policy, 1991, and the latest in 2001.

Most of the forest policies were associated with the change of government. There was much rhetoric in some recent policies regarding the concept of “participation”

but in practice these policies are also replica of the previously top-down, autocratic and non-participatory forest policies

After colonization of the Indian subcontinent around the middle of the nineteenth century, British started with their land settlement process. The state extended its control over forests through Indian Forest Act of 1878, Under this legislation sanctions were introduced against transgressors, and a forest department was set up to police the forests in addition to regulating tree felling in the areas brought under government supervision

This policy resulted in a small, well-preserved public forest estate, but provided nothing for improving and extending forests. It also lacked participation of forest communities

This form of colonial governance was effective only so far as the administration did not misuse its power and community needs for forest products were relatively limited

The unprecedented levels of degradation that country is witnessing currently, partly has its roots in it. Alienated from their resource base, communities are becoming profligate in its use

The first forest policy agenda of the Government of Pakistan was issued in 1955

This policy aimed at increasing the area under forests With the introduction of canal irrigation system, the land (closer to the canals) was reserved for raising plantations. Unused government lands were given to the provincial forest departments to grow forests. Extensive linear plantations were to be established along roads, canals and railways. Some new irrigated and linear plantations were established. The policy had not addressed the problems of hill and scrub forests, these continued to deteriorate

FOREST POLICY OF 1962 In 1958 the first martial law in Pakistan was imposed. The then army

chief took over the control of the government and started the process of reviewing and updating the previous policies including forest policy. Thus the prevalent forest policy of 1955 was revised and replaced by a new forest policy in 1962.

Main points of this policy included shifting population out of the hills, acquisition of rights of tree removal and grazing from pubic forests, compulsory growing of a minimum number of trees on private lands, encouraging, farm forestry by the Agriculture Department through research,

This policy went on to recommend moving people from mountains to plains in the critical watershed areas and else where consolidation of scattered homesteads to currently located villages.

While some suggestions were implemented, others such as the shifting of populations were found to be impractical, as it would have adversely affected the livelihood of local communities.

There was no substantial increase in forest area or production and forests continued to deteriorate as demand for wood and other products continued to increase

FOREST POLICY OF 1975

Due to separation of East Pakistan, Forest policy of 1975 was promulgated

This policy was somewhat “people friendly” policy, in that it recognised that the management of guzara forests (private forests which are managed by the state for the owners) should be entrusted to owners themselves, with state taking only supervisory responsibilities

The policy recommended the formation of owners’ cooperative societies, but recommended that forest harvesting should be carried out entirely by public sector corporations

In 1977 the then government was overthrown by the military, and the new (martial law) government started the procedure of analyzing the conditions of forests, rangelands and other natural resources. As a result the new forest policy was promulgated in Pakistan in 1980.

FOREST POLICY OF 1980

planting of fast-growing species and fuel-

woodplantations outside public forests,

involvement of people for tree plantation and

nature conservation through motivation,

coordinated development at provincial and

national levels, creation of national parks,

departmental forest harvesting on scientific

lines and production of medicinal herbs on

wild-lands

FOREST POLICY 1990 In 1988, the new (democratic) government constituted a

National Commission on Agriculture, which also made some recommendations on forestry. Most of the recommendation of the Commission were finally incorporated in the 1991 Forest Policy.

The policy of 1991 was influenced to a considerable extent by donor agencies involved in implementing forestry program at the grass root level without necessarily relying on any support from the forest departments. This policy emerged after a consultative workshop of various stakeholders

Raising the afforested area from5.4 percent to 10 percent by 2006; to promote social forestry program; and to conserve biological diversity and maintain ecological balance through conservation of natural forests, reforestation and wildlife habitat improvement

In October 1999, the military once again took over the control of the government and General Musharrafbecame new chief executive of the country. Immediately after the coup the General announces his 7-point-programme. The devolution of power to the grass root level was one of such point

The new Forest Policy of Pakistan was prepared in 2001,This policy covers the renewable natural resources (RNR) of Pakistan i.e. forests, watersheds, rangelands, wildlife, biodiversity and their habitats

PROVINCIAL FOREST POLICY 2001

According to constitution of Pakistan, forestry is a provincial mandate and the provinces can make and implement their own forest policies with in the framework of the national forest policy. In this context the new forest policy of the North West Frontier Province (which contains more than 40 percent of the country’s remaining forests) was announced in 2001, in which the new participatory approach in forest management finally achieved legalized status. Participation of local communities, promotion of private sector investment, and recommendations for the revision of the forestry legislation has been included. Illegal harvesting and the local need for fuel wood and construction timber have been recognized as core problems

The policy for the first time not only addressed the traditional forests but also the management of rangelands, wastelands, watersheds and farm forestry

FOREST ORDINANCE

It is a proven fact that none of the policy initiative or the policy in itself can be successful and effective without a legal basis. The North West Frontier Province forest ordinance, which was promulgated on June 10, 2002, defines the institutional details for forestry in the province, following the guidelines given by the Forest Policy 2001.

The territorial staff of the forest department can now carry weapons on duty for self-defence, although only range officers are allowed to open fire. It is interesting to see that the ordinance also provides a legal cover for the participatory approach of village land use planning and joint forest management and describes the staff’s involvement in the work with communities.

the proposed NWFP forest ordinance designates forest department staff a uniform force bearing armsand also enhances their police powers, which go against the intent of the forest policy that enshrines the principles of participatory social forestry. Similarly, the discretionary powers of forest officers to revoke a community-based organization (CBO)/Joint Forest Management Committee (JFMC) agreement as suggested in this ordinance would result in uncertainty and insecurity among different JFMCs/CBOs.

CONCLUSION

Analyzing the forest policies of Pakistan, it is found that, most of the policy initiatives, until recently, were aimed at forest conservation and ignored the livelihood provisions for local communities. However, even the conservation aspect of those policies was never implemented effectively. People’s participation in plantation and management of forests was not given sufficient attention and social and cultural aspects of forest management were ignored. The roots of this approach can be tracedback to the colonial era.

The 1975 forest policy was the first policy which recognised the people living in and around forest areas as stakeholders. However this policy was more political in nature than being public service oriented.

This policy remained theoretical whereas practically the attitude of an average official of the forest department remained the same as set by previous policies. He liked to exhibit more authoritarian and possessive behaviour, quite similar to a policeman. There was less checks and balances on the officials of the forest department regarding their own illegal actions.

The 1980 forest policy was developed under the umbrella of the military government. This policy also recognised the importance of the involvement of local people in tree plantation but at the same time it limited the rights of local people by bringing more land under the control of state and establishment of national parks.

In 1991 there was again democratic government in the country and it presented a “donor driven” policy. Its focus was on meeting the environmental needs of country in a sustainable manner. Quite similar to some previous policies it was also targeted to increase forest production and area.

This policy generated concepts like forestry extension and appointment of green man (forest extensionist) who was entrusted to educate farmers to develop farm forestry and involvement of local people in the forest management.

PAST HARVESTING SYSTEMS

Forest department introduced scientific foret management in 1901 when the firest working plant was prepared for Kaghanvalley in Hazara. The system has been repeatedly changing from department to contract system and vice versa over a period years including some other systems which were also introduced. These systems are

Departmental 1900-1901 to 1906-1907

Contractor 1907-08 to 1919-20

Departmental 1920-21 to 1936-37

Contractor 1937-38 to 1973-74

Societies in Guzara 1980-81 to 1992-93

Forest harvesting cooperative societies in Kohistan

1981-82 to 1992-93

Under the Departmental forest harvesting system, the labour crews or work contractors were directly engaged by the forest department. The timber so obtained was taken out and sold through sealed tender or open auction and sale proceed distributed according to their share through revenue Department to owners/Association of forest and Government share was directly credited to Government treasury.

Under the contract system the standing trees were sold on stumpage basis rate and the sale proceed recovered in installment from Forest contractors who used to sell the timber in the market themselves. The sale value of timber realized by the Department was distributed as per procedure given above.

FOREST DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION

On termination of contract system during 1974 FDC was introduced with evolving a useful mechanism to work in forest in a fool proof system whereby the harvesting of forest was in the hand of Government Agencies without involving contractors with the following objectives

That it will work on market principles and maximum utilization of wood for the government and stake holders

That the FDC will promote forest mechanization and scientific management

The FDC made forest operation expensive resulting into inefficiency and high cost of extraction of timber to the owners. Therefore, it did not earn the favour of private owners who struggled against the FDC and demanded restoration of Guzara forests to civil administration as it used to be before 1950. Thus two other cooperatives system were introduced.

MULTIPURPOSE FOREST COOPERATIVE SOCIETIES

The multipurpose forest cooperative societies unfortunately could not succeeded due to few vested interest and political elites who hijacked these and used the system for personal gains. The MD even did not distribute the owner share of royalty. The system failed because it caused damage to forest, the funds collected for development were misappropriated and serious malpractices were enumerated during various evaluation ultimately leading to their suspension.

Forest harvesting cooperative societies these societies are confined to Kohistan District where the system was introduced in 1981-82 because FDC was not able to harvest even a single contract in Kohistanfor more than 10-15 years. Finally an 8 point agreement was drawn by the Government with the locals. The model was comparatively simple and closed to the conventional departmental harvesting system.

The marking for harvesting of forest have done under the approved working plans where share of the owners in the timber is fully secured, where by the MD could not take away a single piece of timber unless the share of the owners is full paid. The main defect in the system was that there were no in built mechanism to regenerate the harvested forest and the forest harvesting coupes were not accessible to checking in case of complaint of illicit cuttings because of the non cooperation of the owners.

SOME ORDINANCES REGARDING DEVOLUTON

Basic Democracies”, Local Government

Ordinance 1979, “Devolution Plans” also

known as “5Ds”, “Decentralization” National

Reconstruction Bureau (NRB) and Local

Government Ordinance 2000

EVOLUTION OF FOREST MANAGEMENT IN INDOSUBCONTINENT

Era of forest management in Indo

subcontinent is spread over 2500 years

Pre historic period and 4th Century AD

Middle ages and period of Rajas, Sultan and

Kings ( 5th century to Mid Nineteen Century)

British period (Mid 19th to Mid 20th)

Post British period

PRE HISTORIC PERIOD

Forest were more than population. Except a few civilization the people depend only on wild fruits, hunting, berries etc

Forest were no man property and every one has open access to forest. During this period the Aryan from the Central Asia changed the land scape. They were agro pastoral society but it did not left detrimental effect on forest due to sufficient resources

Middle age: This period was of Rajas, Sultan and Kings. In this period forest and other natural resources belongs to sovereign state. However, these forest were open to public for all purposes. Easily accessible areas were preserved for hunting by Royal members. Various Wars in this period left direct and indirect impacts on these forest. During Muslim invasion people flee away to forest and dependency on forest increased. Land settlement was first introduced in this period for collection of tax on land.

CONT… British period: Initiatives taken, directives and order issued, procedures and measures adopted

to introduce regular forest planning and management practices in Subcontinent. The strongfoundation of forest management established in that period are being followed even today.

A) Forest prior to forest conservancy (1750 to 1850)

Importance of forest unrecognized. The importance recognized when the requirements for timberat local level was felt but it proved beneficial for limited species of trees than as a whole forest.Another impact was the expansion of railway network which consumed a large amount of timber.

In 1847 Dr. Gibson was appointed as the first conservator of forest by Bombay presidency.

B) beginning of forest conservancy (1850 to 1950)

Clearance of forest for commercial purposes, uncontrolled removal for cultivation and habitationmake it realized to the state the importance of forest. Forest services established in 1854. Dr.Brandish was appointed as superintendent of forest in Burma and is considered as the founderof modern forestry in the Indian subcontinent.

The period from 1850 to 1910 is of great importance from forest management point of view.

The forest rules 1855

Hazara rules of 1857

Hazara forest regulation of 1873

Forest regulation No.IV of 1879

Forest regulation No.IV of 1884

Hazara forest regulation of 1893

Hazara forest regulation of 1911

PROJECT IN FORESTRY SECTOR

Mangla Dam Watershed Management Program

Tarbela Dam Watershed Management Program

Rawal Dam Watershed Management

Shahpur Dam Watershed Management

Aga Khan Rural Support Program

Kalam Integrated Development Project

PATA Project

Malakand Fruit and Vegetable Development Project

Shinkiari Tea Research and Development Programme

Forestry Sector Project

Psaunami project