Forest Management Systems and Community-Based Forestry: A case of Sabharkantha (South) Forest Division of Gujarat state

Abstract

Promoting the active participation of local communities in equitable and ecologically sustainable management of natural forests, thus contributing to increase income and reduce poverty for forestdependent communities, and developing a knowledge management system on community forestry. The majority of the Joint Forest Management areas showed that women participated actively in meetings, decision making and executing the works compared to before Joint Forest Management committee. Findings indicate the need to promoting tribal people for protection more forest area of each village for their sustainable livelihood. Resource Assessment and Planning Systems Effective management planning and inventory are critical features of sustainable forestry. Sustainable forest management depends on a strong underlying policy and legal framework, efficient property rights, clear management goals with provision for stakeholder consultations, competent management institutions, and effective long-term planning. Long-term planning requires a good understanding of the state of the forest resource for a specific area and how and why it is changing over time. Basing forest policy and management planning decisions on weak resource inventory information can result in unsustainable resource use, with long-term consequences on forest health, biodiversity conservation, and the socioeconomic welfare of forest-based communities, both large and small. Management information systems (MIS) need significant upgrading. A well-structured computerized database of information is essential to compile inventory, production, market, and financial data for queries, reporting, and analyses. MIS for forestry is complex because of the long rotation period for some species, the need to build in predictive models for various silviculture regimes, the requirement for evaluating management approaches, and the need to ensure nondeclining forest yields.