Indian Forests and We

1. Indian Forests and We Dr Rakesh Dubey Joint Director Disaster Management Institute Bhopal

2. Challenges • Liabilities • Approach

3. Imagine the pressures on India's forests • 147 million living in 170,000 villages in the proximity of forest areas: needs at low cost • finally, the play of the poachers

4. About 90% of forests fire in India are started by human • The annual loss in India due to fire is estimated to be Rs 440 crores. This loss does not include the loss in biodiversity, nutrients and soil moisture loss, etc.

5. 87 national parks and 484 wildlife sanctuaries with total areas of 4.06 and 11.54 million ha respectively • These together constitute 15.6 million ha and form 4.74% of the geographic area of the country.

6. In addition, 11 biosphere reserves have also been created with the geographical area of 4.3 million ha whose areas partly overlapped protected areas

7. Today there are 36,130 forest protection committees formed to manage a total of 10.25 million ha.

8. The situation of forests in India is still precarious • As against the world average of 0.64 hectare of forests per human, an Indian has only 0.06ha • The European has 1.3 and the Chinese 0.1 ha

9. The point is that there is need of • awareness, • planing, and • some definite progress

10. Other global and regional initiatives in support of sustainable forest management

11. Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC) • UN in 1992, aims at stabilising the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere • "activities implemented jointly" (AIJ) has been established • As of 30 August 1998, there were 97 AIJ projects, of which 14 were in the forest sector

12. FCCC’s - the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) - • special report on carbon emissions from sources and removals by sinks from land use, land use change and forestry, to help clarify the implications of the Kyoto Protocol for land use sectors, including the forest sector

13. Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)www.biodiv.org • complete protocol on biosafety • addresses the development of ecosystem approaches for conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity; • analysis of the influence of human activities; • methodologies needed for elaboration and implementation of criteria and indicators; • measures to mitigate biological diversity losses; and • ecological landscape models, including protected areas

14. United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD)www.unccd.int • suggested setting up thematic networks to promote information exchange and technical cooperation among developing countries in the areas covered by UNCCD to combat desertification and mitigation the effects

15. Long term strategies for : • national climatological and hydrological capabilities • sustainable agriculture practices • sustainable development

16. Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES)www.cites.org • Take care of wild fauna and flora • To protect endangered species from overexploitation

17. Convention on Wetlands of International Importance Especially as Waterfowl Habitatwww.ramsar.org • Conservation and wise use of wetlands to achieve sustainable development

18. Convention on Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animalswww.wcmc.org.

19. perception of the forest has changed from a human and economic orientation to an environmental and ecosystem one • the decision-making process has opened up to allow increased public participation

20. ISO 14001- These standards apply to both forest operations and forest product manufacturing processes

21. Global trends in forest products • Medicinal plants (WHO has estimated that 80 percent of people in developing countries rely on traditional medicines, which are mostly plant derived, for primary health care) • The demand for medicinal plants is increasing in both developing and developed countries.

22. Asia leads in the supply and consumption of medicinal plants, followed by North America. Germany dominates the European trade in medicinal plants, importing plant material from over 100 countries and re-exporting one-third of it as finished products

23. Environment - impacts and developments • Compliance of forestry conditions in environmental clearances for all developmental projects • Sink to air pollution • Catchment's area treatment • Coastal area • Mining • Treatment of contaminated soils • Agro forestry

24. improvement of urban and peri-urban living conditions, • protection of natural and cultural heritage, • generation of employment and provision of recreational opportunities

25. Spatial Planning ?

26. Social and political process that aims at deciding where and how in space a project should take place

27. Therefore Spatial Planning is essentially a decision process, which means that it includes : intelligence (information query), design (of solutions), choice, and review (execution and feedback). • But it has also other features

28. Multiple scales • Multiple actors • Multiple objectives • Multiple modes • Multiple criteria