CURRENT NEWS ON PARTICIPATORY FORESTRY

One-day meet on 'Emerging Issues in JFM: The NGO Perspective'
A one-day meet was organised by RUPFOR on February 22, 2002, at the Van Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi, as part of its 'stakeholders meeting series'. A brief summary of the issues and recommen-dations that emerged from the meeting is available on www.rupfor.org

For details, see www.rupfor.org/JFM in India/Stakeholders meetings

Government plans to restore traditional forest rights in Uttaranchal
At the first session of the Uttaranchal Legislative Assembly held in early March, 2002, it was decided that steps would be taken to bring 20 per cent of the forestland under community management, and that traditional forest rights of the villagers will be restored.

For details, see The Hindu,
March 19, 2002

A role for community in bio-reserve
A part of the proposed Rajaji National Park Hardwar may well become the first community-managed bio-reserve if RLEK's campaign succeeds. RLEK, a local NGO, has been fighting for the restoration of traditional rights of the nomadic tribe Van Gujjars. Their Community Forest Management Plan (CFMP) calls for management and control of forests by the Gujjars and withdrawal of the Forest Department from the area.

For details, see The Hindu,
March 11, 2002

A forest in memory of loved ones
At Smriti Vatika at Kanan Pendari in Bilaspur district, 300 acres of land is being developed into a forest. All trees would be planted by villagers to keep alive the memory of their dead. This would be the country's first forest that would be so close to a city.

For details, see The Hindu,
April 6, 2002

ATREE launches plaNETwork
The Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and Environment (ATREE) recently launched planNETwork, an education and outreach initiative, that will try to harness the untapped synergy between the diverse but related spheres of conservation, research, education and business for programmes that seek to upgrade the levels of understanding about environmental concerns among various sections of the society. As a first step it will develop the Aravali Nature Camp that will offer a unique opportunity to understand diverse aspects of the natural world in an informal and enjoyable setting.

For details, see www.atree.org

Killed in action
Sanjay Kumar Singh, a 35-year-old Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer was kidnapped and later brutally murdered by the forest mafia on February 15, 2002, near Rohtas in Bihar. A graduate from IIT, Sanjay had earlier worked as Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Chaibasa, Hazaribagh. His last posting was in Sasaram. The Centre has asked the CBI to investigate the mysterious killing of Sanjay, who is survived by his wife Anu Singh, a two-year-old daughter and a nine-month-old son.

For details, see IFS Newsletter, Volume 5, No 1, January-March 2002

SC bans tree felling in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands
In a landmark order passed on May 7, 2002, the Supreme Court has stopped all tree felling in the Andaman and Nicobar islands, put a stop to the transport of timber in any form from the Islands to any part of India and decided that the licenses of all the sawmills and wood-based industries shall not be renewed after March 31, 2003. Orders related to removal of encroachments from the forests of the Islands were also passed. The order was passed by a three-member bench in an Interlocutory Application (IA) No. 502 in Writ Petition (Civil) No. 202 / 1995 [TN Godavarman Thirumulpad Vs. Union of India and others]. The IA had been jointly filed by the Port Blair based Society for Andaman and Nicobar Ecology (SANE), the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) and the environment action group, Kalpavriksh. In its ruling, the Court said that the Andaman & Nicobar Islands is one of the hot spots of global biodiversity and therefore had to be preserved. The Court accepted the report of the Shekhar Singh Commission and the orders that were passed were largely based on the recommendations made by the Commission. The court had appointed this commission in November 2001 to 'look into the state of the forests and other related matters in the Islands'. The Commission had submitted 25 major recommendations to the court during a hearing on February 18, 2002.

For details, contact: Pankaj Sekhsaria, Kalpavriksh, Pune Tel: 020-5654239/7653605 Fax: 020 - 5654239, Email: kvriksh@vsnl.com

In search of excellence in forest management
In a drive to promote sustainable forest management, FAO launched an 'In Search of Excellence' initiative in 2001 to identify instances of exemplary forest manage-ment in the Asia-Pacific region. Towards this end, it called for nominations of forests from all countries in this region that demonstrated forms of exemplary forest management. Appreciating the need for such an initiative which also enabled the sharing of many positive instances of improved forest management at an international level besides recognizing successful forest management, the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), Government of India, and supported by the Ford Foundation, organised a two-day nomination workshop for India on April 8-9, 2002, in New Delhi, with RUPFOR acting as the facilitating agency. Thirty-seven participants from across 11 states representing state forest departments, NGOs and local community members participated in the workshop and 27 nominations were submitted.

For details, see RECOFT web page www.recoftc.org Forestexcellence_FAO.html

National wildlife action plan released
The National Wildlife Action Plan, under preparation for the last three years, was released in the meeting of the Indian Board for Wildlife held in early 2002 in New Delhi. The plan covers a 15-year period (2002-2016).

For details, see IFS Newsletter Volume 5, No 1, January-March 2002

Gulf of Mannar declared biosphere reserve
The Gulf of Mannar was recently added to the UNESCO's list of world network of biosphere reserves. It has become India's third biosphere reserve after the Nilgiris and Sundarbans.

For details, see IFS Newsletter, Volume 5, No 1, January-March 2002