Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Box 15.2
Social forestry in the Western Ghats of India
Part of the reason for intense pressure on protected areas
was the severe degradation of communal woodland and
grazing areas. A revised conservation strategy aimed to
improve the productivity of extensive areas of degraded
land in the hope that this would relieve pressure on
protected areas. Regrettably, although the objectives of
the new social forestry project were sound, the project
failed to engage local communities in the design and
implementation. Participation can be passive or interactive.
In the former, external experts identify the problem and
define their solutions. Local people are expected to comply
with management decisions that arise from these. In
interactive participation, local communities participate in
joint analysis of the problems and develop their own action
plans. The social forestry project failed because many of
the outcomes of the project failed to solve the real
problems and indeed even exacerbated some of them. For
example, community woodlots were established to provide
fuelwood. However, trees were planted by the Forestry
Department at a close spacing conventional in a timber
plantation. As a consequence, grasses failed to thrive
between the trees, and local communities found that their
grazing land was even further reduced. Harvesting of
woodlots produced large quantities of timber at infrequent
intervals, but local people dependent on forests for
firewood required regular supplies of small quantities.
The Western Ghats Forestry Project began in 1991
and attempted to address some of the earlier limitations.
Project planning and implementation was achieved
through the establishment of Joint Forestry
Management, a project management system developed
elsewhere in India. The core of JFM is the village forest
committee in each community, which has a legal right to
make joint decisions with the Forestry Department on
how management is carried out. This method allowed
local people, for the very first time, to participate in the
management of forests with the Forestry Department
and to have a legal right to share in the benefits of this
operation. Sharing of the management and usufruct with
the people has important conservation and development
implications. Part of the income from forestry operations
goes into a village forestry development fund and can be
used for community projects.
The Western Ghats, a 1500 km long mountain range
running down the southwestern coast of India, is one of
the world's most important biodiversity hotspots (over
3500 species of plant have been identified) and has
extraordinarily high levels of endemism (25-60 per cent of
recorded species). Biogeographically, the Western Ghats
has long been isolated from the vast Southeast Asian
humid forest tract and thus protects a relict pocket of an
evolutionary distinct biota. Heterogeneous geology, soils
and climate also contribute to promoting high biodiversity.
Forests of the regions vary from dry deciduous to wet
evergreen types. The forests have very high local use
value, particularly for firewood, pasture and as sources of
non-timber forest products, including leaf compost.
India has a longer tradition of legal protection of nature
than any other nation, and legislation has often favoured
conservation over other forms of land use. During the
1970s, as India's population expanded rapidly, the effects
of environmental degradation began to be felt. In the
Western Ghats, a protected area network (wildlife
sanctuaries and national parks) was created. Protected
areas managed by the government are often large (a few
hundred square kilometres), consisting of a mosaic of
landscape elements including forests. They are protected
by legal authority, but there are frequent conflicts since they
impose land uses that compromise the livelihood
requirements of the local populaion. The protection
programme was imposed with little community participation,
and local concerns were rarely addressed. Despite attempts
at a 'guards and guns' approach to protection, local people
continued to remove firewood and graze cattle within the
reserves. It was estimated that nearly 80 per cent of
firewood in some areas was taken from reserves. Many
protected forests had little or no seedling or sapling
regeneration as a consequence of grazing and fire.
It was quickly realised that social conditions in the
Western Ghats meant that gathering of firewood and
grazing cattle could not be prevented. Conservation
strategies that ignored the social and economic context
were doomed to failure since they would inevitably end in
conflict with local communities. Projects were therefore
redesigned to integrate biodiversity conservation into a
strategy of landscape rehabilitation and sustainable use.
a powerful motor for sustainable development,
avoiding many of the pitfalls of conventional
development models that lead to environmental
degradation. Costs of sustainable use of natural
ecosystems may be significantly lower than those
associated with their total protection. Species are
protected across the whole landscape rather than
in restricted reserves.
Although there is a growing trend for devolution
of responsibility for conservation to local
communities where detailed knowledge of local
conditions and appropriate priorities lie, there are
many challenges ahead. The benefits of biodiversity
conservation accrue mainly at the national or global
level. Decentralisation of conservation projects
means that the costs are borne locally. Ecosystems
vary in the degree to which conservation and local
use are compatible. The Gir National Park is home
to one of the most important populations of Asiatic
lions in India; however, it is likely that the present
