As seen on the Times of India

NEW DELHI: At the time when government is looking at various options to change green laws to make it sync with its development goal, the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) – prominent research and policy group on environment issues – on Friday asked the Center not to ignore rights of local people over the natural resources as community right over forests is critical to sustenance of rural and forest communities and also for conservation of forests.

It also urged the government to look at best practices available elsewhere in other parts of the globe to manage the forests without compromising on people’s right over it.

The CSE noted that Nepal has the best track records in Asia while Mexico is among global leaders with more than 70% of its forests under community management.

“India needs to learn from these countries. Our forest laws are still colonial, with the state keeping a tight control over forests without letting communities benefit from them. The government should now look towards democratizing forest governance and enabling communities in forest management by recognizing community rights under the Forest Rights Act (FRA) to make standing forests productive for people,” said Sunita Narain, director general of the CSE.

Narain pointed out that India has been lagging behind in granting rights over forests to its communities. She was speaking at the concluding session of a workshop on ‘Community Forestry in India – Challenges and Opportunities’ in the light of lessons from Mexico and Nepal.

The workshop was organised on Friday in collaboration with Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI), Washington DC, and Society for Promotion of Wastelands Development, New Delhi.

“Studies from the two countries – Nepal and Mexico – which have made great progress in recognizing forest rights of indigenous people are important in the current context in India where the government is pushing for the dilution of Forest Rights Act and where standing forests are almost seen as unproductive resources, waiting only to be chopped for the non-forest use”, said the CSE.

Experts from Mexico, RRI Washington DC, CSE and grassroots activists working on forest rights from across the country presented their experiences and papers at the workshop.

It was noted by experts during the workshop that people in Mexico earn from forests and they don’t migrate from villages. More than 70% of the country’s forests (65 million ha) are controlled by about 35,000 indigenous and rural communities. The earning from forests has slowed down migration from villages. More than 500 communities in Mexico are operating as market-based community forest enterprises (CFEs) which harvest their forests, own and operate saw mills, produce furniture and also sell non-timber forest produce.

A total of over 2,300 communities (having 300 ha to 20,000 ha of forests each) have forest management rights, with timber-logging permits over 8 million ha of forests. More than 80% of Mexico’s timber production (6.8 million cubic meters) comes from community forests. Individuals are not allowed a share of the profit which is used for community purposes such as education, health facilities, roads, public buildings, water and sewage structures or is reinvested in the business.

Referring to Mexico example, the CSE said the community forestry had also restored the ecological value of forests which was lost due to severe exploitation by the timber industry during the period of private forest concessions in the 20th century.

Similarly, Nepal is the Asia’s leader in this field. About 23% of the forests in the country are under community forestry for over 20 years and are managed by over 17,600 community forestry user groups (CFUGs). Nearly 33% of Nepal’s rural population has benefited from the earnings from the forests.

The CSE’s study shows that the CFUG villages have improved their livelihood when compared with non-CFUG villages. There are federations of CFUGs which protect the rights of communities against the government policies diluting community rights. These communities are also known for transparency, equity, equal women’s representation.

The CSE regretted that India is far behind many countries as it continues to follow the colonial forest regime that has alienated communities from their land and resources.

At present, the Indian government recognises community rights over their forests under the Forest Rights Act (FRA) of 2006, and empowers the gram sabha (village council) to protect and manage them.

“But the law remains poorly implemented as forest departments continue to resist ceding control over forests”, said the CSE.

The Forest Survey of India’s (FSI’s) report in 1999 shows that 31 million ha of forests lay within revenue villages. “This should be the minimum area over which community forest rights need to be recognised,” said Narain.

But, the government has so far recognised rights over only 2.5 million ha. This mostly has habitation rights for tribal families and hardly includes community forests.

“Worse, the Indian policies are such that the people are hardly benefitting from the forests. The FRA does not provide explicit rights to communities over timber. It only recognizes community rights over non-timber forest produce (NTFP). But the communities are yet to benefit from this provision as the sale of most lucrative NTFPs such as bamboo and tendu leaf are controlled by the forest department”, said the CSE chief.

While the forests in India are legally owned by the government, the standing forests are now seen as unproductive entities. Government owned forests provide only 2.5 million cubic meters (cum) of timber a year. This is meager to meet India’s soaring timber demand, which is expected to increase from 74 million cubic metres in 2005 to 153 million cubic metres in 2020.

“The forest departments prioritise conservation over production. But an analysis of the FSI data by the CSE suggests that India might have lost 9.4 million ha of government-managed forests between 1999 and 2013. Clearly, something is wrong with the way forests are being managed in India,” said Narain.

Original article – CSE urges government to ensure local people’s rights over forests