Trees,Tanks and Livelihood-India

7/30/2019 Trees,Tanks and Livelihood-India

1/30

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


2/30

2

Indigenous Indic Traditions in Forestry:

What lessons are there for Contemporary

Sustainable Forest Management

from adapting these?


3/30

3

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.


4/30

4

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.


5/30

5

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.


6/30

6


7/30

7


8/30

Water harvesting and tree growing

8 community forestry


9/30

9


10/30

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).

10


11/30

When indigenous knowledge, indigenousinstitutions and indigenous strategies arecombined with scientific strategies andknowledge the result is far more productivethan as understood currently.

11 Biomass availability


12/30

12


13/30

13

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.


14/30

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


15/30

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.

15


16/30

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.

16


17/30

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.

17


18/30

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.

18

19


19/30

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).

19


20/30

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


21/30

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.

11 OLD & NEW FOREST

MANAGEMENT


22/30

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


23/30

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.

23


24/30

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.

24


25/30

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.

25


26/30

26

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?


27/30

27

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


28/30

28

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.


29/30

29

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


30/30

30

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.

Documents

Trees,Tanks and Livelihood-India