Abstract
In India, Trees Outside Forests (TOFs) are defined as trees growing outside government recorded forest areas (RFAs) and include trees growing on private lands, farms, community lands, along roads, canals and railway lines and urban areas. With time, TOFs have been recognized as an important resource in provisioning domestic timber and in contributing to the country’s forest cover, growing stock, carbon sequestration and livelihood opportunities for the rural poor. Although being such an important resource, TOFs have no defined government authority or a national level policy for its management, unlike RFAs. Every state in the country has a different TOF regulation, especially in terms of felling, transit regulations and market facilities. The present study analyzed the implications of existing regulations and institutional mechanisms that encourage or discourage farmers to take up TOFs for timber production in two states of India; Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat. The study was comprised of a review of existing policies, regulations and guidelines related to timber production from forests and TOFs across the country followed by a field survey of 286 respondents from 24 villages spread across four districts and two states. It was found that cumbersome TOF regulations for felling and transit of trees and lack of proper market linkages for farm-grown timber were major deterrents towards adoption of tree growing by farmers. We conclude that uniform and simplified policy for management of TOFs, along with developed market linkages, can boost tree growing on private lands, thus increasing timber production. Further, linking this with programmes like REDD + can create an additional sink for carbon which would also help the country in meeting its international commitments and provide additional financial incentives.
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Notes
Recorded Forest Area (RFAs)—it refers to all geographic areas (irrespective of canopy density) recorded as ‘Forests’ in government records, revenue records or areas constituted under any state act or law (FSI 2015).
Reserved species: reserved species are defined as those species which are economically valuable in terms of its timber and therefore, more vulnerable to theft from RFAs. Every state in India has its own list of reserved species which comes under strict monitoring during felling and transit. All other species are defined as non-reserved species.
R is Pearson Coefficient.
Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) are among the most disadvantaged socio-economic groups in India. The Government of India has progressive legislations, programmes and schemes for the development and empowerment of the SCs and STs.
Exchange rate: 1 USD = 64.92 INR as on 22/9/2017.
A passbook is a ready reckoner (in form of book) of bank transactions and is handy and compact, which is issued by the bank of the account holder (https://rbi.org.in/scripts/NotificationUser.aspx?Id=9862&Mode=0#56).
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Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the Director of Indian Institute of Forest Management (IIFM) for providing support and infrastructure required for the study. The valuable comments of the anonymous reviewers and especially the editor have greatly helped in improving the manuscript.
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Ghosh, M., Sinha, B. Institutional Imperatives for Promoting Trees Outside Forests (TOFs) to Enhance Timber Production in India. Small-scale Forestry 18, 57–79 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11842-018-9407-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11842-018-9407-4