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Ms. Sejuti Sarkar De

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Organization: Society for Natural Resource Management and Community Development (SNRMCD)
Country: India
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I am training mountain women groups to develop forest products for their livelihood generation. This will also increase their awareness and affinity for conservation of forest in the Himalayas. We are also working on development of localised seeds for vegetables which will benefit the highland farmers. This will encourage farmers to grow local varieties as well as save them from buying expensive seeds from companies.

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    • Ms. Sejuti Sarkar De

      Society for Natural Resource Management and Community Development (SNRMCD)
      India

      Following are our comments on Global Core set of Forest related Indicators:

      Indicator 2: There are levels of legal protection of forest – parts where community are allowed to enter and parts where all non-forest activities are banned. The indicator may be further segregated for better outcome.

      Indicator 3: Above ground biomass stock to be measured in lower units like kg. In resource rich areas like that of rainforest yield/ha may be greater to a large extent than resource poor forest areas like that of desert/semi-desert areas. Lower units can help in error-free calculations.

      Indicator 4: Forest areas are managed for multiple ecological benefits. It may be difficult to identify forest areas managed only for soil and water conservation. The same is true for mountain green cover. In India, glacial Himalaya is under Forest Department which have less green cover but is source of water for whole South Asia. A more suitable indicator may be Forest area (in ha.) under watershed management plan.

      Indicator 5: The phrase ‘employment in forestry’ may be better clarified. The term ‘Employment’ will only include the Forest Department staff and those employed by contractors. Forestry also includes protection works and many community members including women are involved in forest protection. Members of Joint Forest Management Committees (JFMCs) in India and similar such committees for Community Forest Management in South and South-East Asia are involved in forest protection in lieu of benefit sharing with Forest Department. Also, Forest Department employs Consultant Agencies for forest management, planning and monitoring. Staff of these agencies are also employed in forestry activities.

      Indicator 9: ‘Proportion of forest area’ will be better for comparative analysis. Some countries may have smaller forest area but better forest management plan.

      Indicator 12: Volume of wood harvesting can be m3/ha unit. This can be easily calculated in terms of 1000 people. Moreover, the unit m3/ha is used in many countries in forest management plans and the figure will be readily available. Also, forest wood calculation should consider illegal logging as well as logs decomposed due to natural processes. In India, a good percentage of logs are being left in the National Parks for decaying by order of Hon. Supreme Court. This should be taken under consideration.

      Indicator 14: We think ‘degradation’ is a better term than disturbance. The factors of degradation may be specified as mentioned in Comments column. Another major disturbance in Invasive Species and Forest Department presently allocate budget for it’s removal.  

      Indicator 16: Livelihood of forest dependent communities can be calculated under Economic Valuation of Forest other than timber (unit per ha.). In India, forest area is being used by community for rearing of Tussar silk worms, mulberry silk worms, cultivation of lac, areca nut, black pepper, betel leaf etc. The valuation of NTFP collected, specially, fuelwood and fodder grass regularly from forest is quite high. According to estimate of Planning Commission of India, 275 million people depend on NTFP and annual business turnover of NTFP generated and processed is more than Rs.6000 crores (approx. 960 million USD). Ecotourism is another major source of revenue generation and employment generation from forest both for Forest Department and community. In highly populated countries of South Asia, Community Forest Management and revenue generation through NTFP and ecotourism are essential for forest protection and conservation. The economic valuation of livelihood of forest dependent communities will be a strong positive indicator.

      Two major indicators that need to be added to the global set of forest related indicators are biodiversity and Trees Outside Forest (TOF).

      • Biodiversity, ranging from predator to decomposer, is a major indicator of health of forest. Tropical forests and rainforests have significantly high biodiversity and this need to be calculated for classification of ‘good and bad’ forest. Biodiversity or animal species per hectare of forest area is an important indicator to be added to the global set.
      • TOF is presently a significant contributor to green areas of country. Plantation under Compensatory Afforestation scheme, highway authority, industries etc. are done mainly in areas outside forest. TOF is measured as green area in satellite data captured by Forest Department. So data on Trees Outside Forest will be a good indicator of ecological initiatives of governments.

      We heartily appreciate FAO and team for embarking on such an important task which was long pending. Framing of forest related indicators along with water will be a significant step towards natural resources conservation.

      Thanks & Regards,

      Sejuti Sarkar De, Chief Coordinator, Society for Natural Resource Management and Community Development and Women Scientist Fellow of Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of India

      & Debasish De, President, Society for Natural Resource Management and Community Development and Adviser, Department of Environment Forest and Climate Change, Govt. of Nagaland, India