Forest Resources
Forest Resources:
Forest Resources Use and overexploitation: Scientists estimate that India should ideally have 33 percent of its land under forests. Today we have only about 12 percent. Thus we need not only to protect existing forests but also to increase our forest cover. People who live in or near forests know the value of forest resources first hand because their lives and livelihoods depend directly on these resources. However, the rest of us also derive great benefits from the forests which we are rarely aware of. The water we use depends on the existence of forests on the watersheds around river valleys. Our homes, furniture and paper are made from wood from the forest. We use many medicines that are based on forest produce. And we depend on the oxygen that plants give out and the removal of carbon dioxide we breathe out from the air. Forests once extended over large tracts of our country. People have used forests in our country for thousands of years. As agriculture spread the forests were left in patches which were controlled mostly by tribal people. They hunted animals and gathered plants and lived entirely on forest resources. Deforestation became a major concern in British times when a large amount of timber was extracted for building their ships. This led the British to develop scientific forestry in India. They however alienated local people by creating Reserved and Protected Forests which curtailed access to the resources. This led to a loss of stake in the conservation of the forests which led to a gradual degradation and fragmentation of forests across the length and breadth of the country. Another period of overutilisation and forest degradation occurred in the early period following independence as people felt that now that the British had gone they had a right to using our forests in any way we pleased. The following FOREST FUNCTIONS Watershed protection: • Reduce the rate of surface run-off of water. • Prevent flash floods and soil erosion. • Produces prolonged gradual run-off and thus prevent effects of drought. Atmospheric regulation: • Absorption of solar heat during evapo-transpiration. • Maintaining carbon dioxide levels for plant growth. • Maintaining the local climatic conditions. Erosion control: • Holding soil (by preventing rain from directly washing soil away). Land bank: • Maintenance of soil nutrients and structure. Local use - Consumption of forest produce by local people who collect it for subsistence – (Consumptive use) • Food - gathering plants, fishing, hunting from the forest. (In the past when wildlife was plentiful, people could hunt and kill animals for food. Now that populations of most wildlife species have diminished, continued hunting would lead to extinction.) • Fodder - for cattle. • Fuel wood and charcoal for cooking, heating. • Poles - building homes especially in rural and wilderness areas. • Timber – household articles and construction. • Fiber - weaving of baskets, ropes, nets, string, etc. • Sericulture – for silk. • Apiculture - bees for honey, forest bees also pollinate crops. • Medicinal plants - traditionally used medicines, investigating them as potential source for new modern drugs. Market use - (Productive use) • Most of the above products used for consumptive purposes are also sold as a source of income for supporting the livelihoods of forest dwelling people. • Minor forest produce - (non-wood products): Fuelwood, fruit, gum, fiber, etc. which are collected and sold in local markets as a source of income for forest dwellers. • Major timber extraction - construction, industrial uses, paper pulp, etc. Timber extraction is done in India by the Forest Department, but illegal logging continues in many of the forests of India and the world Deforestation: Where civilizations have looked after forests by using forest resources cautiously, they have prospered, where forests were destroyed, the people were gradually impoverished. Today logging and mining are serious causes of loss of forests in our country and all over the world. Dams built for hydroelectric power or irrigation have submerged forests and have displaced tribal people whose lives are closely knit to the forest. This has become a serious cause of concern in India. One of India’s serious environmental problems is forest degradation due to timber extraction and our dependence on fuelwood. A large number of poor rural people are still highly dependent on wood to cook their meals and heat their homes. We have not been able to plant enough trees to support the need for timber and fuelwood. The National Forest Policy of 1988 now gives an added importance to JFM. Another resolution in 1990 provided a formal structure for community participation though the formation of Village Forest Committees. Based on these experiences, new JFM guidelines were issued in 2000. This stipulates that at least 25 per cent of the income from the area must go to the community. From the initiation of the program, until 2002, there were 63,618 JFM Committees managing over 140,953 sq. km of forest under JFM in 27 States in India. The States have tried a variety of approaches to JFM. The share for village forest committees ranges from 25 per cent in Kerala to 100 per cent in Andhra Pradesh, 50 per cent in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Orissa and Tripura. In many States 25 per cent of the revenue is used for village development. In many States non-timber forest products (NTFPs) are available for people free of cost. Some States have stopped grazing completely; some have rotational grazing schemes which have helped in forest regeneration. Timber extraction, mining and dams are invariably parts of the needs of a developing country. If timber is overharvested the ecological functions of the forest are lost. Unfortunately forests are located in areas where there are rich mineral resources. Forests also cover the steep embankments of river valleys, which are ideally suited to develop hydel and irrigation projects. Thus there is a constant conflict of interests be- b) Water resources The water cycle, through evaporation and precipitation, maintains hydrological systems which form rivers and lakes and support in a variety of aquatic ecosystems. Wetlands are intermediate forms between terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems and contain species of plants and animals that are highly moisture dependent. All aquatic ecosystems are used by a large number of people for their daily needs such as drinking water, washing, cooking, watering animals, and irrigating fields. The world depends on a limited quantity of fresh water. Water covers 70% of the earth’s surface but only 3% of this is fresh water. Of this, 2% is in polar ice caps and only 1% is usable water in rivers, lakes and subsoil aquifers. Only a fraction of this can be actually used. At a global level 70% of water is used for agriculture about 25% for industry and only 5% for domestic use. However this varies in different countries and industrialized countries use a greater percentage for industry. India uses 90% for agriculture, 7% for industry and 3% for domestic use. One of the greatest challenges facing the world in this century is the need to rethink the overall management of water resources. The world population has passed the 6 billion mark. Based on the proportion of young people in developing countries, this will continue to increase significantly during the next few decades. This places enormous demands on the world’s limited freshwater supply. The total annual freshwater withdrawals today are estimated at 3800 cubic kilometers, twice as much as just 50 years ago (World Commission on Dams, 2000). Studies indicate that a person needs a minimum of 20 to 40 liters of water per day for drinking and sanitation. More than one billion people worldwide have no access to clean water, and to many more, supplies are unreliable. Local conflicts are already spreading to states. Eg. Karnataka and Tamil Nadu over the waters of the Krishna. India is expected to face critical levels of water stress by 2025. At the global level 31 countries are already short of water and by 2025 there will be 48 countries facing serious water shortages. The UN has estimated that by the year 2050, 4 billion people will be seriously affected by water shortages. This will lead to multiple conflicts between countries over the sharing of water. Around 20 major cities in India face chronic or interrupted water shortages. There are 100 countries that share the waters of 13 large rivers and lakes. The upstream countries could starve the downstream nations leading to political unstable areas across the world. Examples are Ethopia, which is upstream on the Nile and Egypt, which is downstream and highly dependent on the Nile. International accords that will look at a fair distribution of water in such areas will become critical to world peace. India and Bangladesh already have a negotiated agreement on the water use of the Ganges. Overutilization and pollution of surface and groundwater: With the growth of human population there is an increasing need for larger amounts of water to fulfill a variety of basic needs. Today in many areas this requirement cannot be met. Overutilization of water occurs at various levels. Most people use more water than they really need. Most of us waste water during a bath by using a shower or during washing of clothes. Many agriculturists use more water than necessary to grow crops. There are many ways in which farmers can use less water without reducing yields such as the use of drip irrigation systems. Agriculture also pollutes surface water and underground water stores by the excessive use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Methods such as the use of biomass as fertilizer and non toxic pesticides such as neem products and using integrated pest management systems reduces the agricultural pollution of surface and ground water. Industry tends to maximise short-term economic gains by not bothering about its liquid waste and releasing it into streams, rivers and the sea. In the longer term, as people become more conscious of using ‘green products’ made by ecosensitive industries, the polluter’s products may not be used. The polluting industry that does not care for the environment and pays off bribes to get away from the cost needed to use effluent treatment plants may eventually be caught, punished and even closed down. Public awareness may increasingly put pressures on industry to produce only eco-friendly products which are already gaining in popularity. As people begin to learn about the serious health hazards caused by pesticides in their food, public awareness can begin putting pressures on farmers to reduce the use of chemicals that are injurious to health. Global climate change: Changes in climate at a global level caused by increasing air pollution have now begun to affect our climate. In some regions global warming and the El Nino winds have created unprecedented storms. In other areas, they lead to long droughts. Everywhere the ‘greenhouse effect’ due to atmospheric pollution is leading to increasingly erratic and unpredictable climatic effects. This has seriously affected regional hydrological conditions. Floods: Floods have been a serious environmental hazard for centuries. However, the havoc raised by rivers overflowing their banks has become progressively more damaging, as people have deforested catchments and intensified use of river flood plains that once acted as safety valves. Wetlands in flood plains are nature’s flood control systems into which overfilled rivers could spill and act like a temporary sponge holding the water, and preventing fast flowing water from damaging surrounding land. Deforestation in the Himalayas causes floods that year after year kill people, damage crops and destroy homes in the Ganges and its tributaries and the Bramhaputra. Rivers change their course during floods and tons of valuable soil is lost to the sea. As the forests are degraded, rainwater no longer percolates slowly into the subsoil but runs off down the mountainside bearing large amounts of topsoil. This blocks rivers temporarily but gives way as the pressure mounts allowing enormous quantities of water to wash suddenly down into the plains below. There, rivers swell, burst their banks and flood waters spread to engulf peoples’ farms and homes.
.Forest Resources Use and overexploitation: Scientists estimate that India should ideally have 33 percent of its land under forests. Today we have only about 12 percent. Thus we need not only to protect existing forests but also to increase our forest cover. People who live in or near forests know the value of forest resources first hand because their lives and livelihoods depend directly on these resources. However, the rest of us also derive great benefits from the forests which we are rarely aware of. The water we use depends on the existence of forests on the watersheds around river valleys. Our homes, furniture and paper are made from wood from the forest. We use many medicines that are based on forest produce. And we depend on the oxygen that plants give out and the removal of carbon dioxide we breathe out from the air. Forests once extended over large tracts of our country. People have used forests in our country for thousands of years. As agriculture spread the forests were left in patches which were controlled mostly by tribal people. They hunted animals and gathered plants and lived entirely on forest resources. Deforestation became a major concern in British times when a large amount of timber was extracted for building their ships. This led the British to develop scientific forestry in India. They however alienated local people by creating Reserved and Protected Forests which curtailed access to the resources. This led to a loss of stake in the conservation of the forests which led to a gradual degradation and fragmentation of forests across the length and breadth of the country. Another period of overutilisation and forest degradation occurred in the early period following independence as people felt that now that the British had gone they had a right to using our forests in any way we pleased. The following FOREST FUNCTIONS Watershed protection: • Reduce the rate of surface run-off of water. • Prevent flash floods and soil erosion. • Produces prolonged gradual run-off and thus prevent effects of drought. Atmospheric regulation: • Absorption of solar heat during evapo-transpiration. • Maintaining carbon dioxide levels for plant growth. • Maintaining the local climatic conditions. Erosion control: • Holding soil (by preventing rain from directly washing soil away). Land bank: • Maintenance of soil nutrients and structure. Local use - Consumption of forest produce by local people who collect it for subsistence – (Consumptive use) • Food - gathering plants, fishing, hunting from the forest. (In the past when wildlife was plentiful, people could hunt and kill animals for food. Now that populations of most wildlife species have diminished, continued hunting would lead to extinction.) • Fodder - for cattle. • Fuel wood and charcoal for cooking, heating. • Poles - building homes especially in rural and wilderness areas. • Timber – household articles and construction. • Fiber - weaving of baskets, ropes, nets, string, etc. • Sericulture – for silk. • Apiculture - bees for honey, forest bees also pollinate crops. • Medicinal plants - traditionally used medicines, investigating them as potential source for new modern drugs. Market use - (Productive use) • Most of the above products used for consumptive purposes are also sold as a source of income for supporting the livelihoods of forest dwelling people. • Minor forest produce - (non-wood products): Fuelwood, fruit, gum, fiber, etc. which are collected and sold in local markets as a source of income for forest dwellers. • Major timber extraction - construction, industrial uses, paper pulp, etc. Timber extraction is done in India by the Forest Department, but illegal logging continues in many of the forests of India and the world Deforestation: Where civilizations have looked after forests by using forest resources cautiously, they have prospered, where forests were destroyed, the people were gradually impoverished. Today logging and mining are serious causes of loss of forests in our country and all over the world. Dams built for hydroelectric power or irrigation have submerged forests and have displaced tribal people whose lives are closely knit to the forest. This has become a serious cause of concern in India. One of India’s serious environmental problems is forest degradation due to timber extraction and our dependence on fuelwood. A large number of poor rural people are still highly dependent on wood to cook their meals and heat their homes. We have not been able to plant enough trees to support the need for timber and fuelwood. The National Forest Policy of 1988 now gives an added importance to JFM. Another resolution in 1990 provided a formal structure for community participation though the formation of Village Forest Committees. Based on these experiences, new JFM guidelines were issued in 2000. This stipulates that at least 25 per cent of the income from the area must go to the community. From the initiation of the program, until 2002, there were 63,618 JFM Committees managing over 140,953 sq. km of forest under JFM in 27 States in India. The States have tried a variety of approaches to JFM. The share for village forest committees ranges from 25 per cent in Kerala to 100 per cent in Andhra Pradesh, 50 per cent in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Orissa and Tripura. In many States 25 per cent of the revenue is used for village development. In many States non-timber forest products (NTFPs) are available for people free of cost. Some States have stopped grazing completely; some have rotational grazing schemes which have helped in forest regeneration. Timber extraction, mining and dams are invariably parts of the needs of a developing country. If timber is overharvested the ecological functions of the forest are lost. Unfortunately forests are located in areas where there are rich mineral resources. Forests also cover the steep embankments of river valleys, which are ideally suited to develop hydel and irrigation projects. Thus there is a constant conflict of interests be- b) Water resources The water cycle, through evaporation and precipitation, maintains hydrological systems which form rivers and lakes and support in a variety of aquatic ecosystems. Wetlands are intermediate forms between terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems and contain species of plants and animals that are highly moisture dependent. All aquatic ecosystems are used by a large number of people for their daily needs such as drinking water, washing, cooking, watering animals, and irrigating fields. The world depends on a limited quantity of fresh water. Water covers 70% of the earth’s surface but only 3% of this is fresh water. Of this, 2% is in polar ice caps and only 1% is usable water in rivers, lakes and subsoil aquifers. Only a fraction of this can be actually used. At a global level 70% of water is used for agriculture about 25% for industry and only 5% for domestic use. However this varies in different countries and industrialized countries use a greater percentage for industry. India uses 90% for agriculture, 7% for industry and 3% for domestic use. One of the greatest challenges facing the world in this century is the need to rethink the overall management of water resources. The world population has passed the 6 billion mark. Based on the proportion of young people in developing countries, this will continue to increase significantly during the next few decades. This places enormous demands on the world’s limited freshwater supply. The total annual freshwater withdrawals today are estimated at 3800 cubic kilometers, twice as much as just 50 years ago (World Commission on Dams, 2000). Studies indicate that a person needs a minimum of 20 to 40 liters of water per day for drinking and sanitation. More than one billion people worldwide have no access to clean water, and to many more, supplies are unreliable. Local conflicts are already spreading to states. Eg. Karnataka and Tamil Nadu over the waters of the Krishna. India is expected to face critical levels of water stress by 2025. At the global level 31 countries are already short of water and by 2025 there will be 48 countries facing serious water shortages. The UN has estimated that by the year 2050, 4 billion people will be seriously affected by water shortages. This will lead to multiple conflicts between countries over the sharing of water. Around 20 major cities in India face chronic or interrupted water shortages. There are 100 countries that share the waters of 13 large rivers and lakes. The upstream countries could starve the downstream nations leading to political unstable areas across the world. Examples are Ethopia, which is upstream on the Nile and Egypt, which is downstream and highly dependent on the Nile. International accords that will look at a fair distribution of water in such areas will become critical to world peace. India and Bangladesh already have a negotiated agreement on the water use of the Ganges. Overutilization and pollution of surface and groundwater: With the growth of human population there is an increasing need for larger amounts of water to fulfill a variety of basic needs. Today in many areas this requirement cannot be met. Overutilization of water occurs at various levels. Most people use more water than they really need. Most of us waste water during a bath by using a shower or during washing of clothes. Many agriculturists use more water than necessary to grow crops. There are many ways in which farmers can use less water without reducing yields such as the use of drip irrigation systems. Agriculture also pollutes surface water and underground water stores by the excessive use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Methods such as the use of biomass as fertilizer and non toxic pesticides such as neem products and using integrated pest management systems reduces the agricultural pollution of surface and ground water. Industry tends to maximise short-term economic gains by not bothering about its liquid waste and releasing it into streams, rivers and the sea. In the longer term, as people become more conscious of using ‘green products’ made by ecosensitive industries, the polluter’s products may not be used. The polluting industry that does not care for the environment and pays off bribes to get away from the cost needed to use effluent treatment plants may eventually be caught, punished and even closed down. Public awareness may increasingly put pressures on industry to produce only eco-friendly products which are already gaining in popularity. As people begin to learn about the serious health hazards caused by pesticides in their food, public awareness can begin putting pressures on farmers to reduce the use of chemicals that are injurious to health. Global climate change: Changes in climate at a global level caused by increasing air pollution have now begun to affect our climate. In some regions global warming and the El Nino winds have created unprecedented storms. In other areas, they lead to long droughts. Everywhere the ‘greenhouse effect’ due to atmospheric pollution is leading to increasingly erratic and unpredictable climatic effects. This has seriously affected regional hydrological conditions. Floods: Floods have been a serious environmental hazard for centuries. However, the havoc raised by rivers overflowing their banks has become progressively more damaging, as people have deforested catchments and intensified use of river flood plains that once acted as safety valves. Wetlands in flood plains are nature’s flood control systems into which overfilled rivers could spill and act like a temporary sponge holding the water, and preventing fast flowing water from damaging surrounding land. Deforestation in the Himalayas causes floods that year after year kill people, damage crops and destroy homes in the Ganges and its tributaries and the Bramhaputra. Rivers change their course during floods and tons of valuable soil is lost to the sea. As the forests are degraded, rainwater no longer percolates slowly into the subsoil but runs off down the mountainside bearing large amounts of topsoil. This blocks rivers temporarily but gives way as the pressure mounts allowing enormous quantities of water to wash suddenly down into the plains below. There, rivers swell, burst their banks and flood waters spread to engulf peoples’ farms and homes.
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