T.N. Godavarman Thirumulpad v. Union of India - International ...

environment like CVM, Opportunity Cost Method, Travel Cost Method, SBCA etc. Itwould be appropriate if body of experts examine the aspect and report to this Courtsuggesting the best method depending on factors like gestation period, rate of discount(interest), density of the forest, social benefits of the project undertaken by PSU etc. Theywill take into account economic values associated with forests, viz., direct use values,indirect use values such as value of environmental benefits from the forest, option valuesand existence value.The above discussion shows that NPV helps levelising the costs of public projects likeforestry. It is an important tool of SBCA. Under SBCA, benefits from each of the aboveenvironmental outputs are identifiable. Hence, applying NPV, one can allocate levelisedcosts according to the contribution of each product in the total revenue. It is important tobear in mind that a benefit or cost received or incurred now is worth more than thatreceived or incurred later. Therefore, using the appropriate discount rate helps toaggregate marginal benefits and costs. The choice of interest rate depends upon timepreference. For public project, such as forestry, a social discount rate, which indicatestime preference of the society, should be used.Forest sustainability is an integral part of forest management and policy that also has aunique dominating feature and calls for forest owners and society to make a long-term(50 years or longer) commitment to manage the forest for future generation. One of theviewpoints for sustaining forest is a naturally functioning forest ecosystem. This viewpoint takes a man and nature relationship to the point of endorsing to, the extent possible,the notion of letting forest develop and process without significant human intervention. Astrong adoption of the naturalistic value system that whatever nature does is better thanwhat humans do, this is almost the "nature dominates man" perspective. Parks and naturalreserve creations; non-intervention in insect, disease and fire process; and reduction ofhuman activities are typical policy situation. This viewpoint has been endorsed by 1988Forest Policy of Government of India.Yet another viewpoint recognizes the pragmatic reality faced by the governments and theadministrative, namely, trees don't vote while people do. Some of the criteria reflectingkey elements of ecological, economic and social sustainability are:1. Conservation of biological diversity.2. Maintenance of productive capacity of forest ecosystems.3. Maintenance of forest ecosystem health and vitality.4. Conservation and maintenance of soil and water resources.5. Maintenance of forest contribution to global carbon cycles.6. Maintenance and enhancement of long-term multiple socioeconomic benefits to meetthe needs of societies.12