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Thiru A. Raja, Minister of Environment And Forests has reiterated the commitment of the Union Government to work for increasing the forest and tree cover to the extent of 25 per cent of land area by 2007 and 33 per cent by 2012 which he said could be achieved only through active cooperation and coordination among all Central Government Departments and Ministries, State Governments and other stakeholders like communities, corporate sector and NGOs. The long awaited guidelines for the rationalisation of felling and transit of forest produce from tree species grown on non-forest private land have now been finalised, the Minister informed. The work on framing of multi stakeholder partnership involving all stakeholders in tree plantation on different categories of land is at an advanced stage of consideration, he further added. He was addressing the 10th Meeting of National Afforestation and Eco-Development Board here today. Shri Namo Narain Meena, Minister of State for Environment And Forests, Dr. Prodipto Ghosh, Secretary, Ministry of Environment & Forests, Member Planning Commission and 31 other representatives from the Central Government Ministries, State Governments, NABARD and voluntary agencies were also present at the meeting.
Thiru A. Raja expressed his Ministry’s resolve to initiate concrete action for systematic support to agro-forestry in the country. The problem areas like Siwaliks, Outer Western Himalayas, Ravinous Lands and shifting cultivation areas in the Northeast and the Eastern Ghat Regions would also receive focused attention, he added.
The Ministry had asked for additional allocation of Rs. 1000 crores to be able to cover 811 Forest Development Agencies (FDAs) as against the 561 FDAs supported so far and to set up Joint Forest Management Committee (JFMCs) in all 1.73 lakhs forest fringe villages as against the present 84 thousand. Dr. V.L.Chopra, Member, Planning Commission shared the concern for more resources and inter-sectoral coordination. He assured that the Commission would take a view keeping in view the urgency of requirement and overall availability of resources.
The Board approved the setting up of four National-level Task Forces for management of forest for provision of local ecological services, afforestation and rehabilitation of problem lands like eco-fragile areas in the Himalaas, ravinous areas and shifting cultivation areas. Noting that an amount of nearly Rs. 16 crores has been released to 297 new and 185 continuing projects during the X plan period uptil now for afforestation on 14,500 ha. Lands, the board decided to further increase the transparency in selection process of voluntary agencies who are playing an increasing role in National Afforestation Programme.
Shri Namo Narain Meena, Minister of State in his concluding remark reiterated the Government’s objective to increase the involvement of voluntary agencies in afforestation and eco-development programmes. He further elucidated that NGOs indeed have important role to play in promoting and institutionalising Joint Forest Management in the country. He also hoped that the National-level Task Force for Ecological Services would go a long way in developing appropriate models for Public Private partnerships and in standardizing forest hydrological services for providing financial incentive for forest conservation.
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