National Forest Policy Research Articles

Actor, Customary Regulation and Case Study of Collective Forest Tenure Reform Intervention in China

The newly implemented collective forest tenure reform (CFTR) in China is a remarkable part of the global trend of forest management decentralization. This paper illustrates how local communities respond to the reform and how the various actors translate the policy principle into action under local social ecological condition in two case villages in Wuyuan County of Jiangxi Province in China. In the policy implementation of the CFTR, various actors, including local government, communities and villagers try to deconstruct the policy text, such as reform plan, forest distribution criterion and Forest Tenure Certificate system, with their own knowledge system. The cases of CFTR in the villages in Wuyuan County suggest there are major inconsistencies between national forest policy intervention and the local practice system. The traditional resource management system, which is based on the social customs in the local communities, is also effective to solve the collective action problem and contribute to efficient resource utilization. Thus the complexity and robustness of forest tenure combinations may ensure flexibility for sustainable forest management and accommodate the change of socioeconomic conditions.

User-oriented national forest monitoring planning: a contribution to more policy relevant forest information provision

SUMMARY Political and socioeconomic settings for policy decision-making about forests are increasingly complex and characterised by growing user demands, the strong influence of non-state actors and an expanding internationalisation of forest policy issues. In this context, efforts in information provision must produce data that are not only technically reliable and cost-efficient but also relevant to and accessible by stakeholders. Based on the experiences gained in national forest inventory projects as well as national forest programmes and forest policy processes in several countries, this paper proposes a set of principles and their application in key action areas of planning to help guide the process of designing national forest monitoring and inventory projects or programmes from the perspective of users of information in forest-related policy processes.

Do We Need Some More Dams? Past, Present and Future of Freshwater Bodies in Karnataka State – A Perspective

Forest cover has come down from about 46% in 1947 to less than 23%. An honest commitment to protect the forests has become critical. As per the National Forest Policy objectives, every State has to endeavor to have at least 33% of its geographical area under vegetation cover. For a developing country like India, it is important to pursue a path of sustainable development, regulating the use of forest land for the developmental needs of the state / people and the nation at large. Forest Conservation Act 1980 is a unique piece of legislation and a regulatory mechanism which reflects the collective will of the nation to protect its rich biodiversity and natural heritage and that permits only unavoidable use of forest land for various developmental purposes. To achieve this, it is necessary to protect and consolidate the existing forest areas apart from bringing new areas under afforestation programmes. This editorial paper is the report of rivers of Karnataka State, dams built details, causes for development, effects of developmental activities and the need for protecting the existing forest cover.

Co‐benefits, trade‐offs, barriers and policies for greenhouse gas mitigation in the agriculture, forestry and other land use (AFOLU) sector

The agriculture, forestry and other land use (AFOLU) sector is responsible for approximately 25% of anthropogenic GHG emissions mainly from deforestation and agricultural emissions from livestock, soil and nutrient management. Mitigation from the sector is thus extremely important in meeting emission reduction targets. The sector offers a variety of cost-competitive mitigation options with most analyses indicating a decline in emissions largely due to decreasing deforestation rates. Sustainability criteria are needed to guide development and implementation of AFOLU mitigation measures with particular focus on multifunctional systems that allow the delivery of multiple services from land. It is striking that almost all of the positive and negative impacts, opportunities and barriers are context specific, precluding generic statements about which AFOLU mitigation measures have the greatest promise at a global scale. This finding underlines the importance of considering each mitigation strategy on a case-by-case basis, systemic effects when implementing mitigation options on the national scale, and suggests that policies need to be flexible enough to allow such assessments. National and international agricultural and forest (climate) policies have the potential to alter the opportunity costs of specific land uses in ways that increase opportunities or barriers for attaining climate change mitigation goals. Policies governing practices in agriculture and in forest conservation and management need to account for both effective mitigation and adaptation and can help to orient practices in agriculture and in forestry towards global sharing of innovative technologies for the efficient use of land resources. Different policy instruments, especially economic incentives and regulatory approaches, are currently being applied however, for its successful implementation it is critical to understand how land-use decisions are made and how new social, political and economic forces in the future will influence this process.

Utilisations villageoises et potentialités technologiques des bois de forêts secondaires dans le Menabe central, Madagascar

Les forêts secondaires sont actuellement des composantes importantes de nom- breux paysages forestiers. Dans le Menabe central, au Sud-Ouest de Madagascar, la valorisation des forêts secondaires permet de mieux assurer le maintien des forêts pri- maires qui ont tendance à se raréfier et qui sont actuellement intégrées dans un sys- tème de gestion plus stricte à travers la mise en place d’une aire protégée. Cette étude a été menée pour mieux connaître les utilisations villageoises et les potentialités des forêts secondaires dans la région du Menabe. L’approche socio-économique a permis d’identifier trois types d’utilisations des bois prélevés dans les forêts secon- daires : les constructions permanentes, les constructions légères et les sources d’éner- gie. Trois espèces de forêts secondaires ont été identifiées comme prioritaires dans les choix des villageois : Rhopalocarpus luci- dus, Ziziphus mauritiana et Grewia picta. L’analyse des caractères physico-méca- niques des bois de ces trois espèces a mis en évidence des propriétés technologiques intéressantes, comparables aux quatre espèces de référence devenues rares ou absentes dans leur zone de prélèvement : Hernandia voyroni, Dalbergia spp., Cedre- lopsis grevei, Commiphora mafaiboa. Ces forêts secondaires méritent désormais d’être prises en compte et valorisées dans le cadre des politiques de gestion forestière au niveau national et international pour assurer leur durabilité.

Forest politics in Thailand between global climate politics and local specificity

In the context of stagnating climate change negotiations and the search for new ways to reduce CO2-emissions, forest politics have increasingly gained the attention of both the public and politics. In particular the proposed instrument REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) has raised hopes as well as concerns. First efforts to transform national forest policies in accordance with REDD+ show that a whole variety of different problems and negotiation processes arise in the implementing countries, corresponding with specific, historically established, practices of forest use, dominant discursive patterns and material flows. Using Massey’s concept of “place” and its duality between territories and flows, the article outlines in a first step a theoretical perspective which conceptualizes the currently observable negotiations around forest politics between the global and the local. In a second step results from a case study in Thailand are used to illustrate how the impacts of global climate politics on contemporary power struggles on the national level are inextricably linked with historic constitutions of networks and territories.

Spatial forest structure reconstruction as a strategy for mitigating edge-bias in circular monitoring plots

Forest ecosystem monitoring is an important task of forest science worldwide and its outcomes have important consequences both for national forest policies and local decision making. Often forest monitoring is implemented using circular plots of limited size. Edge effects can seriously bias the results of spatially explicit analyses of circular plot data and little research has been carried out on how to mitigate this problem. In this study, we have compared the method of spatial forest structure reconstruction to traditional plus-sampling, to the reflection method and to a situation where no edge-bias mitigation method is used at all. Reconstruction is a non-parametric modelling method based on simulated annealing. In the context of this study, the arithmetic means of structural summary characteristics are used to extrapolate spatial patterns previously measured in the core area of the monitoring plots to the margins outside. The computer experiments were based on 706 circular monitoring plots of the Estonian long-term monitoring network maintained by the Estonian University of Life Sciences, Tartu. The results clearly indicate the superiority of the reconstruction method and suggest that this approach has great potential for future spatially-explicit data analyses and modelling involving circular monitoring plots. Further improvements can be expected from using density functions and histograms of structural summary characteristics instead of arithmetic means.

Discourse and Discursive Practices Over Timber in Nepal

Forest sector of Nepal is far from harnessing its economic potential, but witnesses a continuation of deforestation and forest degradation. This is largely because of the limited policy focus on the management of the most important forest product – the timber. Taking timber at the central stage in the debate on forest management, this paper examines the existing stakeholder relations, policy deliberations, programs and everyday practices in Nepal. This paper draws on the country’s policy, legal and regulatory documents, policy deliberations on forest governance, media analysis and everyday practices of forest management. These policies and practices are analysed in relation to environmental discourse, social practices and hegemony in forest sector governance. This paper shows that, while timber occupies a central stage in the government’s decisions, in most of forest-related contestations, and in everyday management decisions, timber management has received only secondary importance in the national forest policy and discourses. The analysis shows that since forest policy discourses have departed from timber, local communities and the government have lost significant incomes from the forest. The marginalization of timber in the policy discourse also encouraged deforestation and forest degradation especially through illegal logging and forest encroachment. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/jfl.v10i1.8601 Journal of Forestry and Livelihood Vol.10(1) 2012 58-73

English

The study investigated the state of forest regeneration in southwest Nigeria forest service. Secondary data were collected from the state forestry departments in South-Western Nigeria. The information was based on the forest regeneration between 1988 and 2004 as stipulated in the national forest policy of 1988. The study revealed that there were a total of 1619.19 ha of forest regeneration between 1988 and 2004 in south-west Nigeria. The largest was in Oyo State with an area of 6745 ha, followed by Ondo State with 4910.27 ha. Others were Ogun State (2700 ha), Ekiti State (1456 ha), Lagos State (656 ha) and the least was in Osun State with 481 ha. In this regards, unless there is regeneration and sustained yield to equate harvest, the depletion rates of the forest are bound to continue with adverse consequences on the environment.   Key words: Forest regeneration, forest policy, forest management.

An Application of Remote Sensing Data in Mapping Landscape-Level Forest Biomass for Monitoring the Effectiveness of Forest Policies in Northeastern China

Monitoring the dynamics of forest biomass at various spatial scales is important for better understanding the terrestrial carbon cycle as well as improving the effectiveness of forest policies and forest management activities. In this article, field data and Landsat image data acquired in 1999 and 2007 were utilized to quantify spatiotemporal changes of forest biomass for Dongsheng Forestry Farm in Changbai Mountain region of northeastern China. We found that Landsat TM band 4 and Difference Vegetation Index with a 3×3 window size were the best predictors associated with forest biomass estimations in the study area. The inverse regression model with Landsat TM band 4 predictor was found to be the best model. The total forest biomass in the study area decreased slightly from 2.77×10(6) Mg in 1999 to 2.73×10(6) Mg in 2007, which agreed closely with field-based model estimates. The area of forested land increased from 17.9×10(3) ha in 1999 to 18.1×10(3) ha in 2007. The stabilization of forest biomass and the slight increase of forested land occurred in the period following implementations of national forest policies in China in 1999. The pattern of changes in both forest biomass and biomass density was altered due to different management regimes adopted in light of those policies. This study reveals the usefulness of the remote sensing-based approach for detecting and monitoring quantitative changes in forest biomass at a landscape scale.

Framing the tiger — A biodiversity concern in national and international media reporting

International forest and environmental governance processes assume that ideas and concepts surrounding biodiversity at the international level will be made accessible at a national level so that they can be easily adopted by national forest and environmental policy arenas. One prerequisite for a seamless implementation of these ideas and concepts is a common definition of specific problems at different political levels. Different perceptions mirrored by media reporting on problems at different political levels may affect the implementation of policies that must be carried out at a national level, even if decisions concerning this implementation are made at an international level. Using the illustrative case of human–tiger interaction, this article shows how national and international media reporting differ in their framing of a particular problem. Based on a theoretical framework consisting framing and media selection theory, and on initial empirical observations, the article recommends blueprints for future in-depth research on the relationship between media framing and policy at different political levels. This case study is based on quantitative content analysis of reports on tiger–human interaction published between 2005 and 2010 in an international newspaper and a national one from Bangladesh. Our example shows that the selected national newspaper frames the tiger as a threat to the livelihood and well-being of local people, whereas the international newspaper stresses biodiversity and climate-change related aspects of human–tiger conflicts. These results indicate that the framing of an issue in the media can differ considerably at different levels and that this is a fruitful field for future in-depth research.

Waldpolitischer Jahresrückblick 2012

Annual review of Swiss forest policy 2012 Swiss national forest policy in 2012 was marked by the enactment of the revised Forest Law as well as preparations for the changes in the related Forest Ordinance. No new directions have emerged in the routine forest relevant tasks of the Parliament, Federal Council and the Public Administration. Exceptions to this trend were the numerous parliamentary interventions about the forest and timber industry. In addition, the number of Federal Court decisions about forest legal issues has slightly increased this year. In the policy fields related to forest policy, the passage of the Second Apartment Initiative and the revision of the Land-Use Law brought new angles into land-use policy. In terms of biodiversity policy, the Federal Council's approval of the Biodiversity Strategy Switzerland has set the stage for its implementation. Finally, the reorganization of Swiss energy policy has become the new dominant topic on the political agenda. The Federal Council has accomplished the related preparations for the new energy policy and has submitted its Energy Strategy 2050 for consultation.

Changes in Indian Himalayan Region: Impact on Forest Ecosystems and Implications for REDD+

There has been a rising global awareness about the importance of world’s mountain areas as mountains offer diverse goods and services to well over half of the earth’s 7 billion people. Mountains and mountain areas are susceptible in nature as some of the most visible indicators of climate change come from mountain areas e.g. widespread retread of glaciers have been observed from the mountain areas across the globe. The Indian Himalayan Region (IHR), a mountain chain along the northern border of India with its diversity of ecosystems has unique and special significance for India. During the last decades, globalization, climate change, and population growth have impacted the forest ecosystems of IHR. Although, there is a net gain (2.10%) of forest cover in IHR during the decade (2001 - 2011), but all the states of IHR did not gain in forest cover during the period. Moreover, changes within the forests, such as changes of undisturbed primary forests into secondary forests are difficult to assess. The overall forest cover of 41.55% of the total geographical area of IHR is way behind the target set by the National Forest Policy of 1988 (Anon; 1988). Protection of Himalayan forests is possible only if the ever growing inhabitants of the IHR are properly compensated for protection of these valuable national resources. Successful implementation of Sustainable Forest Management through the global initiatives like ‘reducing emission from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries; and the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks in developing countries’ (REDD+) at sub-national level is an opportunity to protect the IHR for the national interest.

Forest as a Resource and Component of a Watershed, its Degradation and Conservation: A Case of Somb Drainage Basin

This paper explains about the present status of forest conditions in the study area, which is one of the most striking resources of present watershed. The methodology used to the study of forest is satellite image interpretation, intensive field investigations and secondary data collection from forest department. The forest in watershed area have mainly four types viz.- Siwaliks Chir-pine, Siwaliks Sal, Northern Dry Mixed Deciduous, and Dry Bamboo Brake. The present watershed occupies 167 km 2 (2004-2005) forest area. It is almost 32.62 percent of the total area of watershed, which is very high than the national level (19 percent) and approximately equal to the standard level of 33 percent area set under national forest policy, 1952. More then 80 percent of the hills and foothills are covered by forests in present watershed, which is much higher than the recommended figure of 60 percent in hills, as prescribed by National Forest Policy. However, it is a matter of concern that the quality, in some areas, is not good. Presently, increasing mismanagement as well as stealthily cutting of forest trees is also serious problem in the watershed. So, there is a need to maintain the quality and quantity of trees in the watershed

An Analysis of Forest Diversion for Developmental Projects and Its Environmental Impact: A Case Study of Chandrapur Forest Circle in Maharashtra, India

Forest diversion is process of land use change from area under forest to non forest purposes. Once much of the surface of earth was under forest land use, but today it is a trend in every nation to divert the forest land into agriculture, industry, housing, roads, railways and many other civil as well as developmental works, consequently area under forest is reducing rapidly and it is becoming impossible to maintain 33 percent forest area as stated in National Forest Policy, 1952. It is stated in this forest policy that, if India need the balance development; it should bring 1/3 of its total geographical area and 2/3 of hilly area under forest. But till today India has not achieved this target; contrary forestlands are reducing, degrading and diverting for other developmental projects. These diversions of forest is keeping its intensive negative impact on ecological aspects including local climate, agriculture, soil, temperature, forest based employment, fertility, wildlife corridor movement, food chain, soil erosion and man-animal conflict etc. Chandrapur forest circle is a unique area regarding man animal conflict in India; it is considered as an important source region of tigers, it is also biggest forest circle of tigers in the world having more than 150 tigers. So far, the forest diversion keeps negative impact on ecology and environment in the district which should be analyze; this is an effort to establish the ecological loss due to forest diversion in Chandrapur district of Maharashtra.

Simulating Forest Cover Changes of Bannerghatta National Park Based on a CA-Markov Model: A Remote Sensing Approach

Establishment of protected areas (PA) has been one of the leading tools in biodiversity conservation. Globally, these kinds of conservation interventions have given rise to an increase in PAs as well as the need to empirically evaluate the impact of these PAs on forest cover. Few of these empirical evaluations have been geared towards comparison of pre and post policy intervention landscapes. This paper provides a method to empirically evaluate such pre and post policy interventions by using a cellular automata-Markov model. This method is tested using remotely sensed data of Bannerghatta National park (BNP) and its surrounding, which have experienced various national level policy interventions (Indian National Forest Policy of 1988) and rapid land cover change between 1973 and 2007. The model constructs a hypothetical land cover scenario of BNP and its surroundings (1999 and 2007) in the absence of any policy intervention, when in reality there has been a significant potential policy intervention effect. The models predicted a decline in native forest cover and an increase in non forest cover post 1992 whereas the actual observed landscape experienced the reverse trend where after an initial decline from 1973 to 1992, the forest cover in BNP is towards recovery post 1992. Furthermore, the models show a higher deforestation and lower reforestation than the observed deforestation and reforestation patterns for BNP post 1992. Our results not only show the implication of national level policy changes on forest cover but also show the usefulness of our method in evaluating such conservation efforts.

The Creation and Dissolution of Private Property in Forest Carbon: A Case Study from Papua New Guinea

This paper shows how the prospect of a forest carbon market in Papua New Guinea added a new element of instability to national forest policy and property processes that were already moving in contradictory directions. In particular we examine attempts by foreign investors to forge voluntary carbon agreements with customary landowners after the Bali climate change conference of 2007, and the mobilization of state institutions to counter these ‘private dealings’. We highlight the connection between the ways that these processes played out at both national and local scales, with a focus on the highly contentious Kamula Doso forest area in Western Province. We conclude with some observations on the way that the constitutional protection of customary land rights inhibits the formalization of marketable rights in forest resources, including forest carbon, and creates an inconclusive circularity in the operation of forest policy and property processes at different levels of social and political organization.

Changing forestry discourses in Vietnam in the past 20 years

Governance and sustainability are important topics of debate in global forest policy. It is however crucial to understand how these ideas have impacted national and local forest policy and management. The case of Vietnam is interesting and relevant because since the late 1980s, Vietnam's state forestry has undergone a reform towards sustainable management and social participation. This reform has triggered the emergence of two new policy discourses — ‘forestry socialization’ and ‘sustainable forest management’. This article uses discourse analysis to investigate the implications of these discourses in Vietnam forestry. In particular, it examines the extent to which the ‘forestry socialization’ and ‘sustainable forest management' discourses can be recognized in Vietnamese forest policy over the last 20years. The results show that both discourses are well represented in policy documents and related discussions broad presence of both discourses. However, the findings also demonstrate the existence of discursive struggles among different coalitions over the interpretation of ‘forestry socialization’ and ‘sustainable forest management’. We conclude that the two discourses have had a significant impact on how key actors in Vietnam forestry frame problems and solutions. However, the specific patterns in which the two discourses developed in the Vietnamese context also indicate that powerful elites have been hesitant to take further steps in forestry socialization.

Incentives for Households in Community Based Forest Management System: An Empirical Evidence from Goalpara District of Assam

Based on the ‘National Forest Policy 1988,’ on the first June in 1990 (circular No. 6.21/89-FP, Sarin, 1998), the government of India issued guidelines and adopted Community Based Forest Management (CBFM) system in the form of Joint Forest Management (JFM) system for conservation of forests with clearly identified duties and functions for ensuring protection of forests. However, the system has not been fully succeeding. This paper examines the reasons for the failure of CBFM system in Assam. The study finds that the households who actively participate in the forest conservation activity belong to predominantly non-tribal households and also to tribal households who are engaged in non-forest dependent livelihoods. The study also discovers that the Forest Protection Committees in forest areas which have experienced urbanization, commercialization, and diversification of labor into quarrying industry and such other activities take active participation in the forest protection activities. Quite contrary to the expectations the primary evidence in this study establishes that the failure to prevent deforestation is linked to the failure of the CBFM system to evolve appropriate incentive structures for the forest dependent tribal households who are the crucial actors in forest protection. This study finds that instead of expanding the subsistence opportunities for the poor forest dependent tribal households through forest conservation, the CBFM system has caused a decline in the incomes of these households.

Tree Species Preferences on Urban Area’s Residential Plots of Morogoro and Kinondoni Municipalities, Tanzania

The study was conducted in Morogoro and Kinondoni municipalities to identify tree species planted in urban area on residential plots and investigate reasons compelled urban dwellers to plant trees on their homesteads. The study was a cross-sectional and data were collected from 120 plots. Structured questionnaires’ survey, focused group discussion coupled with researcher’s observations was the methods for data collection. Multistage sampling technique was employed in this study and household-heads were interviewed. Data were analysed using SPSS computer programme. Cross tabulations and Chi-square test were employed to demonstrate the presence or absence of relationships among variables (P< 0.05). Study show that there were 51 tree species on residential plots of the two municipalities. The identified species were listed in ascending order of preferences for overall and for each municipality. In overall Azadirachta indica, Senna siamea, Mangifera indica, Polyalthia longifolia, Cocos nucifera, Citrus aurantium, Terminalia spp, Annona reticulate, Dovyalis caffra and Psidium guajava were the top 10 most preferred species in the municipalities while Pterocarpus tinctorius and Dracaena spp, were some of least preferred species. Reasons underlying people’s choices on type of trees to establish on their homesteads were also reported by the study. More than half 63 (52.5%) of plots were planted with Azadirachta indica and there was a significant difference at p<0.05 on planting this tree in the two municipalities. Main reasons compelled urban dwellers to plant trees on their residential plots were identified as shade provision (30.8%); supply of food or fruits to people (25.3%); area beautification (17.8%) and wind breaks (10.6%). The study recommended amendment of National Forest Policy (1998) and National Forest Programme (2001-2010) to rationalize urban forestry and urban greening issues. The study recommended for development of master plans and guidelines for tree planting in Morogoro municipality and Dar es Salaam City.