Contribution of Forestry to Poverty Alleviation - APFNet

Whether these incentives will help reduce poverty is neither documented nor analyzed in depth. The
benefits are also always linked to how resources are controlled and used. With an unclear tenure and
user rights regime, the poor may not, by design, benefit from these incentives. In fact, if a conservation
practice encourages a less labor-intensive procedure, the poor and landless may be disadvantaged. In
any case, the poor may realize benefits “more by accident than design,” and reducing poverty is not an
explicit objective of these conservation incentives.
There are also other small-scale PES initiatives that have benefitted local communities. In some parts
of the country, the concept existed even before the term “PES” was introduced. The case of Sukhomajri
village in Haryana state dates back to the 1970s. In the past 40 years, this PES initiative generated high
economic returns for the once-poor community vi . The Shimla catchment forest in Himachal Pradesh
State with more than 1,000 ha of very dense forest was established in the early 20th century exclusively
for securing the catchment and to protect 19 springs and streams that supplied drinking water for
Shimla town. Mawphlang Lyngdohship in Meghalaya state, is another example of how new resource
management partnerships are creating a win-win situation for local communities and those interested
in investing in a better global environment vii .
Public Sector Forestry
In India, the forest is still largely administered by the government. Only about 8% of forest land is
managed in the private domain. The level of public ownership in India is very high, compared with
other developing countries with significant forest areas under community forestry programs (World
Bank 2006).
Forestry is in the Concurrent List 19 of the Indian Constitution and is a shared commitment between the
state and the central governments. The forestry-trained manpower at the state and national levels has
defined functions and responsibilities. At the national level, the role of the Ministry of Environment
and Forests (MoEF) is mostly in providing policy, strategic, and legislative support while the SFDs
are the custodians of the public forest resource, carrying out the normative, regulatory, silvicultural,
and protection functions. Often, they also perform an enterprise function through forest resource
production, processing, and trade. Most of the states set up forest development corporations (FDCs)
with responsibility for the production activities of the public forest estate. These corporations operate
as autonomous business entities.
The organizational structure of the government focuses mainly on traditional forest management
functions. It is similar across most states, with the Head of Forest Forces at the top reporting to
government and coordinating the functional units headed by senior officers of Indian Forest Service.
Divisional Forest Officers (DFO) are the senior professionals operating at the district/sub-district
level. Below the DFO, there are field units headed by the Range Forest Officer (RFO) and supported
by Foresters and Beat Forest Guards. There are more than 100,000 forest personnel in the field units
up to RFOs and about 3,000 Indian Forest Service Officers in the higher positions from DFOs.
There are also a number of specialized public institutions directly linked to the MoEF. These include
the network of institutions under the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education, the Indian
Institute of Forest Management, Indira Gandhi National Forest Academy, Wildlife Institute of India,
FRI University, and FSI. Further, there are several universities and institutions engaged in research on
biology and socio-economic studies relating to forests. The state forest departments also established
several state forest research institutions, forestry schools and forestry research entities that carry out
R&D and training.
19 As per the Concurrent List of the Indian Constitution, the Central and State governments can legislate on
forestry. However central government legislation is binding in all states and overrides the state laws if there
is any variation.
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