Resumo de Lady Macbeth

Topic Area: Deforestation
Geographic Area: India
Focal Question: Does the Establishment of Joint Forest Management Facilitate the Rejuvenation of Degraded Forest Land:
Sources:
(1) World Bank, 1998. World Bank Project Brief. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
(2) Percy, Steve. "Villagers Will Have a Stake in Indian Forests" New Scientist Vol.13
No. 1770 (1991): 16.
Reviewer: Amie Mallett, Colby College, ?00
Review:
It has been shown that property rights make a substantial difference in forest management decisions. If land is believed to belong to an individual for an extended time, land is managed in a sustainable manner. Forests surrounding villages in India have been managed by government, without regard for future or even current needs. Forests were harvested for timber production, cleared for grazing and agricultural purposes, and used as a fuel wood source. Even if local villages had been practicing sustainable forest practices the incentives for such practices were gone. Effectively the forests became a common pool resource, a race began to see who could obtain the greatest benefit from this vanishing resource. Everyone felt that they must get their share of the resource, before someone else took it from them .
The solution to this problem is to involve local people to manage the lands that greatly benefit them. As a joint manager, land management rights are given back to those that receive benefit from a sustainable forest. Exactly this has method of management has been employed with great success in India. The local citizens are given the means with which to protect the forests. In return they receive the benefits associated with a sustainable forest ecosystem.
In a large state on the eastern coast of India, Andhra Pradesh, a substantial transformation in forest management has been undertaken. A new approach to protecting forest resources known as joint forest management has been used with much success. Joint forest management focuses on forestry promotion oriented to meeting local people?s needs. The joint forest management project is outlined as follows.
Local people living on the periphery of the forests are forming organizations called Vana Samrakshna Samithi (VSS), to protect forests. These local people are joining the state forestry department in a combined effort to rejuvenate their degraded forests. The gains from this collective effort have been substantial. "The Forestry Department is responsible for organizing and providing technical and administrative support to the VSS. The primary purpose of the VSS is to protect the forest from encroachment, grazing, theft, and fire, and to improve the forest in accordance with an approved joint forest management plan." (Issue Brief, 5)
The degradation of India?s forest is a result of over a century of overexploitation, increasing human and livestock pressures, and inadequate conservation. The landscape became littered with dying stumps and scorched bushes. Forest area only accounted for 0.07 hectares per capita, one of the lowest proportions in the world. For the villagers who had been the most reliant on these natural assets, mere existence was at stake.
In 1988 the Government of India introduced a new forest policy that called for significant change in the management of forestland. The aims of forest management were refocused toward ecological necessity and providing resources for local populations. Forest policy aim was redirected from a commercial and industrial focus to meeting the basic needs of people living near the forests. Finally the rights of people living in and around forests were accounted for. Past management strategies, which focused on timber production and government enforced protection failed miserably.

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