Should degraded land be leased to industry?

DEBATE

It is important to know if issues of livelihood have been addressed this time around and whether it is superior to joint forest management.

Ashish Kothari,
Kalpavriksh
Environment Action Group

Degraded land is not waste since millions depend upon it "" regeneration is what is needed, not giving it to industry

For the third time in two decades, the central government is proposing to lease out degraded forest lands or wastelands to industry. On the first two occasions, widespread opposition from communities, environmental and human rights groups had stalled the move. Their objections remain valid even today.

First, it is time we abolished the word "wastelands". A large amount of land in India is indeed degraded, but it is not lying "waste". There is substantial dependence on such lands for fuel, fodder, wild foods and other survival resources by millions of poor people. Handing them over to industry will deprive these people. The industry promises to provide communities forest products from the plantations they set up. This is hardly credible, given the overwhelming past experience of industry cordoning all lands given to it into private estates, the tendency to maximise profits, and the fact that species used for industrial plantations are not of much use to local people.

Second, even degraded forest lands harbour substantial wildlife and biodiversity, such as wolves. Converting them to industrial plantations will threaten such wildlife.

If this move is to help the government reach the target of 33 per cent forest cover, then it is totally inappropriate. Industrial plantations are not forests, and no industry is interested in establishing mixed forests because these will not be as industrially valuable as monocultural plantations. On the other hand, tens of millions of hectares of degraded forest lands have been regenerated and conserved by communities across India, either on their own (for instance, there are over 10,000 such initiatives in Orissa, Uttarakhand and Maharashtra alone), or under joint forest management (JFM) processes. Why not just encourage further such processes, in which there are all-round benefits to the environment and to poor people? Policy changes are needed to enable local communities to share decision-making power with the forest department, rather than hand control over to industry.

If, on the other hand, the motivation is to generate raw material for industry (for instance, pulpwood for the paper industry), then too it is unnecessary. With a fraction of agricultural lands in India, enough industrial wood can be produced by farmers. There are many such farmer-industry tie-ups already. Care only has to be taken that critical food-growing lands are not diverted. Simultaneously, government and industry need to promote ecologically friendlier raw materials and processes, including much greater recycling.

With such alternatives staring at them in the face, one can only be suspicious that this move is more about handing over real estate to industry than about afforestation. It is an extension of the same "10 per cent economic growth at all costs" mindset that brings about cynical policies such as special economic zones (SEZs). This move needs to be opposed with all the power that people's groups can muster.

R Narayan Moorthy,
Secretary-General,
Indian Paper Manufacturers' Association

Around Rs 60,000 cr is required to meet the country's forest cover needs "" a PPP effort is needed to achieve this goal

India has a forest cover of 77 million hectares and degraded land of about 28 million hectares. There is no denying the fact that forest resources in India have been increasingly subjected to deforestation and degradation. Poverty and alienation of forest-dependent communities from their life support systems have resulted in widespread forest degradation and have placed the state forest departments in perpetual conflict with them. Today, the need of the hour is to prevent India's forest resource from depletion beyond its regenerative capacity.

In the present global scenario, meaningful conservation can be expected only when the corporate sector is involved in the afforestation programme of degraded forestlands, in linkage with the local communities, through scientific management of land use. The new environment policy of the government sets an ambitious target of achieving 33 per cent green cover over the geographical area of India by 2012 from that of today's 23 per cent forest cover. To cover 33 per cent under tree cover actually means bringing 34 million hectares under plantation. The investment required to afforest this land is nearly Rs 60,000 crore, which is quite high. Industry believes the same can be achieved through a public-private partnership as private investment could help stimulate the process.

Envisaged as a tripartite agreement between the local community, the state forest departments and the private investor, the multi-stakeholder partnership (MSP) model proposed by the ministry of environment and forests could help provide a green cover over 28 million hectares of degraded land available in India. This concept is based on rotational planting and harvesting to ensure that once placed, the entire area remains green in perpetuity along with generating employment and enabling the wood-based industry to become globally competitive in the long run.

During the course of development of captive plantations, industry will endeavour to train and employ the local inhabitants in forestry activities. Industry will also plant fuel and fodder species at its own cost in approximately 2 per cent of the project area in small patches in close proximity of villages for meeting the requirements of the local communities. Additionally, during harvesting operations of industrial plantations, lops, tops and barks from the felled trees will be allowed by the industry to be collected by local community for use as firewood free of cost. The project management will take due precautions against forest fire by establishment of fire lines along the boundary of the plantation and within the plantation as well as maintain necessary fire fighting force to control and minimise any fire risk.

So, sustainable agro-forestry, in which industry can play as a partner in rehabilitation of degraded forests in such a way that the commercial interests are balanced with the livelihood needs of the neighborhood communities, is a win-win solution to problems across the country.