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R. L. Chowdhary

Abstract

The present Act and Rules seeks to correct the historical injustice done to Scheduled Tribes and other Traditional Forest Dwellers, by granting them security of tenure over individual and community holdings, ownership of Minor Forest Produce, Nistar and Grazing Rights and adequate safeguards for their rehabilitation, in cases of their displacement from present locations, on account of forestry and other development projects. In addition to granting suitable powers to Gram Sabhas (and other village level Institutions) for inquiry in to Forest Rights and an important say in the above matters, Gram Sabhas have also been given responsibilities for the management of "community forests", sought to be created under the Act, for the welfare of the beneficiaries. In correcting the (so called) historical injustice, the Act and Rules have unleashed several problems arising out of the issues such as, the inequity involved in distribution of forestry usufructs between Beneficiaries and Non-Beneficiaries, over-riding provision of the Act and Rules over existing Forest Acts and several other statutes, inclusion of National Parks and Sanctuaries in its ambit and ban on shifting of Beneficiaries from 'Core Areas', etc. The ingenuity of Forest Managers will be stretched to the limits, not only in grappling with the above problems and for managing the severely truncated and heavily honey combed forests, but also in assisting the beneficiaries, in their social and economic empowerment, as per the mandate provided in the present Act and Rules.

Keywords

Forest Rights Act (2006), Rules (2007), Forest Management, Challenges

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R. L. Chowdhary , P. A. Abdul Bari , K. G. Prasad

Abstract

Trials with tropical pines were taken up by the Silvicultural Research Wing of the Tamil Nadu Forest Department from 1962 onwards. This paved the way for the introduction of Pinus patula. Sch.& Cham, on a plantation scale in the Nligiris in 1967 and in the Kodaikanal Hills from 1968. Species-cum-provenance trials of tropical pines were initiated during 1979 in Tamil Nadu by the Tropical Pine Research Centre,. Kodaikanal. Initial observations reveal that Pinus patula and Pinus pseudostrobus are ideal species for the higher altitudes. (above 2,000 m M S.L). P. oocarpa performed better at middle altitudes (between 1,000-1,500 m above M S L.). Among the Pinus patula provenances, F.R.I. No. 511 from Malawi and F.R.I. No. 619 from Tanzania are superior to the other provenances. Provenance F R.I. No. 516 from Nicaragua has shown better performanc, among P. pseudostrobus provenaces, followed by proveoance, F.R I No. 515, from Guatemala. Among P. oocarpa proveoaoces, F.R.I. No. 625 from La Campa. Honduras. F.R.I. No. 624 (LaCampa Honduras) and 468 (from Guatemala) were superior over others. Pinus caribaea provenances F. R.I. No. 649 from Poptum Guatemala were superior over others. Further observations are continuing.

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R. L. Chowdhary

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The social and economic worth or forestry resources is grossly understated in National income estimates, because of lack of data on outputs, prices and absence of market indicators for products and services like soil and climate a melioration etc. Although the sector has vast potentialities as generator of employment in rural areas, these have not been adequately tapped. The investment in afforestation of barren areas, plantations and development forest communication in the last four development plans have not been of sufficient stature to make a significant dent in to problems of meeting the chronic shortage of wood and other forest products. It is, therefore, necessary to review the forest planning strategies and prepare a comprehensive land use plan for all the areas yielding forest products & servies. It is equally important to estimate the demand and supply of forest products and establish long and short term production goals for government forests and lands available outside for forestry. The propulsive nature of forstry sector in promoting the growth and development of other sectors would not be fully realised, unless its production and utilization of outputs are propeorly integrated, both on regional and national basis and investment requirements are worked out for both the activities. A reappraisal of existing resources and the capacity of the sector to absorb fresh investment is quite germane to the issue of framing appropriate management policies and goals for the sector.

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R. L. Chowdhary

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The present paper analyses the divergent view points of Mishra (1971), Sathe & Susaeta (1973) and Mathur (1975) regarding inclusion of revenues from "God given stand," as a project benefit. If the Project Authority is responsible both for exploitation and plantation of the area, it is logical to include revenues from God given stand as Project benefit, for the Forest Department has heen adequately compensated through payment of annual lease rental, Mathur's (1975) plea for according a higher capitalised value by using risk free rate of interest, appears to be, at best, hypothetical, as this does not represent the current opportunity cost of the resources involved. The original authors, as well as their critics, have not taken into account, the non market benefits (e.g. ample and convenient availabi1ity of industrial wood after maturity of plantations, increased job opportunities, infrastructural developments, forest based recreation etc.) or the costs (e.g. risks associated with monoculture like deterioration of soil texture, increased susceptibility to insect damage, etc) and it is to be solemnly hoped that these balance each other. In the absence of adequate data for quantifying such benefits and costs, an alternative approach is to use a lower discount rate than the going market rate of interest of 9½ % for benefit stream and a higher than market rate of interest for discounting for cost stream. The choice of the relative magnitudes of these two rates of interest is difficult to determine in the existing state of knowledge and arts and may have to be a matter of political decision till such time, as more data is collected in this regard.

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R. L. Chowdhary

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The dichotomy of production forestry and social forestry was clearly brought out by Westoby (1968), who defined social forestry as forestry "which aims at producing flow of protection and recreation benefits for the community". The National Commission on Agriculture (1972, 1973) agreed with this concept of social forestry, but felt that social forestry, should also include, interalia, raising of plantations for the supply of small timber, fuel, forage, shelterbelts around agriculture fields etc. Westoby (1968) probably neve meant these objectives of providing, timber, fuel and fodder, in his concept of social forestry, which he visualised as providing such type of goods and services, which would be akin to "public goods" and "mixed goods" in Economics parlance. Merely because some projects cannot stand the rigid tests of social benefit/cost analysis, there is no justification for inclusion of such relatively unproductive schemes in social forestry and much less, to seek to finance it through public funds. The goods and services like production of small timber, fuel, fodder supply, protection of agricultural fields against wind, belong to the realm of production forestry and Westoby's principle that "production forestry should pay" must be made applicable to such schemes. The goals for social forestry, as laid out by Westoby (1968), "should be determined by the amount of investment the community is pepared to allocate to secure the desired social benefits" .

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R. L. Chowdhary

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The paper aims to provide conceptual frame work for quantification of consumer benefits from outdoor forest recreation-namely camping. Utilising the data of camper survey carried out by the author in Earl Rowe Provincial Park, in Alliston Ontario, Canada, the camping season of 151 days is divided in to 5 experience types. The consumer surplus of each camper in each of the experience type and in each income category, has been estimated after deducting his fixed expenditure from the fixed expenditure of highest cost visitor in each income group and each experience type. Arranging the consumer surplus in descending order of magnitude, irrespective of income category, a relationship between consumer surplus and camper days was obtained. To convert camper days to campsite, the following logic was used: The total consumer surplus provided by one campsite in experience type I will be an aggregation of highest 12 consumer surplus per camper day. The sum of the next 12 highest consumer surplus will give a net value of the second campsite for experience type I. By such successive aggregation of consumer surplus of 12 visitor days, the net benefit for each campsite was obtained. When plotted, t his would give a convention demand curve for experience type I. Similar demand curves were obtained for the other 3 experience types. A correction was made in consumer surplus for each experience type by addition of campsite fee of $ 2.50 per day, The operating expenses Were substracted from consumer surplus to give the net consumer surplus due to capital facilities on]y, By vertical addition of the demand curve for each experience type, an aggregate demand curve for campsites for Earl Rowe Provincial Park in 1971, was obtained, The optimum capacity of campsites in the Park was determined from the intersection of aggregate demand curve for campsites and average cost curve for campsites. In case of Earl Rowe Park, the optimum capacity for 1971 was 370. Discriminatory pricing pattern is suggested for pricing of campsites. The daily price to be charged was obtained from the intersection of demand curve for each Experience type with average cost curve. The daily toll for entrance to campsite for Experience type I, II, III and IV for Earl Rowe Park in 1971 works out to respectively 8 6.07 , 8161, $ 0.44, and;$ 0.44 as against at uniform. toll of 5 2.50 charges for all Experience type. No toll is proposed to be levied for experence type V and operating expenses during this period are recommended to be brought to minimum.

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R. L. Chowdhary

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The Report of the Working Group on Forests (19721) have identified three important obligations for Forestry Sector for the Fifth Five Year Plan, namely, the important links between forests and food, forests and people and forests and wood. The National Commission on Agriculture (1972) has also stressed the need for reorienting our present day conservation oriented forestry management objectives, towards a more dynamic and growth oriented forestry, which would be in harmony with the general objectives of regional and national economic development. Woefully enough, the present day working plan documents have very short sighted policy goals. Very often, these lack the necessary data base to help in formulation and implementation of intensive forestry management programme, which would be in consonance with the rapidly changing requirements of the country. It is, therefore, necessary to enlarge the scope of data base in a traditional working plan and include critical assessment of resources, demand and supply of forest products. wood balances, and various management alternatives open to the managers of the resources, so that the Forestry Sector can occupy its rightful place in the national main stream of development planning.

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R. L. Chowdhary

Abstract

This paper highlights the contribution of 4 main activities of forestry sector, namely, forest management, harvesting, primary manufacturing industries and secondary manufacturing industries, to the production and employment potential of Chandrapur district of Maharashtra State. Production of timber and fuel in the district amounted to roughly 23.47% and 19.01 % of the total state production and nearly 4.1% of the jobs in 1970-71 in the district. The income generated in the form of wages and salaries in the same year was Rs. 4,34,32,905/-. Result of such a large consumer spending has stimulated the economy of the district considerably. Larger investments in forestry sector, particularly in the forest management and harvesting activities, can promote further growth and development in other sectors of the economy of the district.

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