trees,tanks and livelihood-india
TRANSCRIPT
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Trees & Tanks in Villages:
International experiences
of community forestry
have its potential in forestmanagement for India.
Also, references are
available on the role that
forests and trees play and
how to manage these
resources in indigenous
literature like Vedas,Upanishands,
Mahabharata,
Ramayana, Arthasastra,
and Brihatsamhita etc.
Sustainable
production and
utilization of
WOOD biofuels
in India
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Indigenous Indic Traditions in Forestry:
What lessons are there for Contemporary
Sustainable Forest Management
from adapting these?
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Forest management systems are referred to as
indigenous, when they are primarily based on local
experience of their local world that is, perhaps,
most important to them. Indigenous refers to
knowledge and practices that have originatedlocally and are performed by a community or society
in a specific place. This knowledge evolves and
emerges continually over time according to peoplesperception and experience of their environment and
is usually transmitted from generation to generation
by word of mouth or by practice.
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In contrast, scientific forestry utilises
specialised knowledge for managing forest
resources not only for local populations but
also for wider objectives and the global
scientific forestry community. Scientific
knowledge on forest management is
generally shared in formal, written, and non-
traditional ways.
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Forest management has been defined as the process ofmaking and implementing decisions about the use and
maintenance of forest resources and organisation of relatedactivities. The decision-making process involves integrationand utilisation of several kinds of knowledge.
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Water harvesting and tree growing
8 community forestry
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Varahamihira in 5th century AD wrote on thetanks and trees relationship
A total of 1.53 million village
tanks built from 2000 BC
onwards still survive in India
today.These tanks vary in size (0.5
ha to several hundred ha. of
water harvesting area and a
grove of few trees to verylarge groves).
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When indigenous knowledge, indigenousinstitutions and indigenous strategies arecombined with scientific strategies andknowledge the result is far more productivethan as understood currently.
11 Biomass availability
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International experience suggests that when
communities are given greater rights to use forest
resources along with increased responsibility and
capacities, both rural incomes and conservation
often improve dramatically. To lift rural incomes,
however, forestry also needs to be coupled with
broader rural development programs that promote
diverse livelihoods. Farming, sericulture, and horticulture, as
well as the collection, processing, and marketing of forest
products like timber, medicinal plants and aromatic oils can
help boost the rural economy.
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Joint Forest Management in India
In India, community forestry is being promoted
under Joint Forest Management. It comprises a
partnership between local community institutions
and state forest departments for sustainable
management and benefits sharing.
Although the primary objective of community
forestry in India is that of growing timber, the
programme deals mainly with the reforestation
and rehabilitation of degraded forest lands.
COMMUNITY FORESTRY14
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Joint Forest Management: COMMENT
This is accomplished through the naturalregeneration of Sal (Shorea robusta) forests, which
in many areas regenerates easily if protected from
grazing animals.
The prerequisite for Joint Forest Management is an agreement
between government and local peoplethe management
plan. Yet solely the forest department can prepare the
management plan without adequate negotiation with local
people. This is a limitation to community forestrys success in
India.
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Joint Forest Management: CRITICISMS
The local people are requested to look after theforest but it is the government, which logs the
timber. For example, in Bihar state, Krishnaswamy
(1995) mentions that low participation persists
because people do not expect to benefit from the
forests they are supposed to protect. The
government generally only designates poorly
stocked, relatively unproductive and degraded
forests for Joint Forest Management.
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Joint Forest Management
Revenue sharing between villagers and
the government only reduces the
inadequate return local communities
receive from these forests. Ideally, the
community needs all the benefits to have
a reasonable chance at rural
development.
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Since the Rigvedic period through
Puranic times there are numerous
descriptions of the trees groves and tanks(talabs) in India. Varahamihira in 5th
century AD wrote and with great detail on
the tanks and trees relationship. These
prescriptions were considered sacred
and ethic demanded that the people
should practice for the common good of
the humanity. This phenomenon can beunderstood as a proven fact getting
institutionalized by the cultural traditions.
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What resulted from this is amazing! A
total of 1.53 million village tanks built
from 2000 BC onwards still survive in
India today. These tanks vary in size
(0.5 ha to several hundred ha. of
water harvesting area and a grove of
few trees to very large groves).
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India wants sustainable development while
solving the water problem. It must revive
and support the traditions that are useful
and have stood the test of time. In fact at
several places revival of such traditions has
been very encouraging. Examples suggest
that this has resulted in the sustainable
forestry and livelihood security.
20 Water harvest methods
11 OLD & NEW FOREST
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About ethnoforestry or the indigenous knowledge onforests in India:
On the role that forests and trees play andhow to manage these resources, older
literature references are available in Vedas,
Upanishands, Mahabharata, Ramayana,
Arthasastra, and Brihatsamhita etc. On the contemporary landscape and
indigenous management forms, data is
available that is illustrated withassessments of the various types of
indigenous forests, trees and landscape
management in several parts of India.
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MANAGEMENT
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This has a great relevance for the
history of forest management and the
future of sustainable forest
management in India.
To clarify the issue of equity of
knowledge adopted here is theframework of empowerment, security
and opportunity.
22 equity of knowledge
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Equity of knowledge as Empowerment: This
can be understood as making the state
institutions pro-people and pro-people's
knowledge, thereby reducing the socialbarriers to participation and enhancing the
capacity of the poor to make choices to
address the livelihood security and
sustainability.
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Equity of knowledge as Security: By
making the productive use of
collective wisdom of formal and
traditional sciences we shall be able to
help the poor to manage the risks they
face because of the destruction of theresource-base and societal hindrances.
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Equity of knowledge as Opportunity: The
process of access, transmission, integration
and field application of indigenous
knowledge and Indic traditions with formalstrategies promises to enhance the
productivity and efficiency of context
specific developmental interventions for
attacking the poverty and addressing the
sustainability of natural resources.
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Basic issues that are to be explored are:1. What are the indigenous Indic traditions in forestry?
2. What is the history of the neglect and destruction ofthese traditions?3. How are these traditions reflected in contemporarylandscape in India?
4. How can the society benefit from Indic Traditions inorder to achieve the objectives of sustainable forestmanagement? In other words, how the equity ofknowledge can be achieved between the localcommunities possessing the indigenous
knowledge and formal forestry scholars?5. What are the contemporary examples ofintegration of Indic traditions with modern forestry?
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Contributions that examine the above issues may
relate to:1. Indigenous Indic Traditions in Forestry including
various ethnoforestry practices such as sacred
groves, sacred gardens, home gardens, sacred
corridors, tanks and trees, community conserved
landscapes etc.
2. Ecological, Economic and Societal dimensions of
Indigenous Indic Traditions in Forestry
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3. Indigenous Indic Traditions in Natural Resource
Management4. Indigenous Indic Traditions in Water Management
including Traditional Water Harvesting Systems
5. Role of Indigenous Indic Traditions for Sustainability
6. Case studies that demonstrate the applicability and
integration of Indic traditions with modern science?
7. Role of Indigenous Indic Traditions in Forestry for
Empowerment, Opportunity and Security; Carbon
Sequestration; Watershed Protection; etc.
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Pressures on Indias ForestsPressure on Indias forest comes from a variety of sources,
including:
Increase in population, from 390 million in 1950 to 1 billion in2001 Loss of 4.5 million hectares since 1950 through agriculturalconversion and other uses High percentage (78%) of forest subject to heavy grazing
Exposure of half the forests to fire risk Shifting cultivation, which affects almost 10 million hectares offorest Encroachment on 1.36 million hectares of forest by 2002, withevictions accounting for only 10% of affected land by 2004.
Source: India stat (2005); Bahuguna and others (2004). 2006
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The challenge now is to manage forest
resources for multiple benefits, requiring
communities not only to reconcile
competing internal interests, but also to
manage a complex interface with both the
state (representing the public interest,
nationally and globally) and the forest
industry.