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Kerala
By P. Venugopal
The approach so far was to treat forests as a territory to be protected through strict policing. This policy was the legacy of the British period, when forests were considered merely as a timber resource, to be exploited by the Government commercially. The birth right of the Adivasis to use the forests as the resource base for their sustenance was not given full recognition till now. They too were treated as intruders when they entered the forests to collect minor forest products to eke out a living. The cause of conservation itself had suffered enormously on account of this wrong approach during the five-and-a-half decades since Independence. For one thing, the tribals are the people who know the pulse of the forests. It will not go unnoticed by them when the greed of `civilised' man desecrates the forests. With the tribals tending to view the Forest officials with trepidation, they have not been able to muster the courage to approach the protection staff with the information on forest crimes. Tribals are also being hired by the unscrupulous elements to carry out forest crimes like poaching and ganja cultivation. ``Forest protection can be effective only if the protection staff and the tribals, who depend on the forests, work together. Their right to treat the forests as their resource base is being fully acknowledged under the new policy and they will be also helped to tap these resources in a sustainable manner. In return, it will be their duty to guard against any activity which could damage the forests,'' the Forest Minister, K. Sudhakaran, said. As part of this new approach, the Forest Department is setting up `Vana Samrakshana Samithies' (VSSs) in all forest areas of the State with the tribal people as members. There will be one VSS for every tribal settlement and an area adjoining the settlement will be earmarked as the home range of the VSS concerned. The non-timber forest resources of this area would be assessed by a team of trained volunteers with the assistance of the tribal community and the extent to which these resources can be tapped in a sustainable manner determined. Within the home range of each VSS, there will also be an area earmarked as `genepool conservation zone' to be left untouched. There is provision in the scheme to give incentive to the VSS concerned for leaving the zone untouched and ensuring the conservation of the biodiversity resources there. The scheme is intended not only for conserving the natural biodiversity resources of the forests, but also for empowering the tribal communities against exploitation by outsiders. The VSS will be a vehicle to help them find lasting solutions to the problems they face in life. All the funds earmarked for forest conservation will be routed through the VSS and all the works the Forest Department undertakes in the territory will be executed with the help of the VSS members. ``The Adivasis will thus become the Forest Department's true partners in every sense. Their involvement will definitely strengthen the arm of the department. In a way, we are treating them as the real custodians of the forest resources,'' Mr. Sudhakaran said. The VSS will function as a democratic body, with nine office-bearers elected by its members. At least four of the office-bearers have to be women. And, of the nine office-bearers, at least five should be earning their livelihood by gathering non-timber forest products. Their committee will have the local grama panchayat member, official of the Tribal Welfare Department and a representative of voluntary organisation as ex officio members. The ex officio secretary will be the local forester or forest guard. Each VSS will be provided with a `credibility fund' at the rate of Rs. 3,000 per member involved in the collection of non- timber forest products. The fund will be operated jointly by the Adivasi president of the VSS and the secretary of the VSS. This fund can be utilised for purposes like buying the products collected from the forests by the VSS members and meeting the expenses on processing the goods bought. Once the goods are marketed, the amount has to be deposited back in the `credibility fund'. The `credibility fund' will, thus, be serving the purpose of a revolving fund. This revolving fund can insulate the tribals from the exploitation of outsiders who do a lucrative business by advancing money to them as a `favour' and dictating the price of the products collected from the forests. The VSS will also have a `core fund' comprising membership fees, income from sale of non-timber forest products, amounts sanctioned by the Forest Department for conservation activities and other forest related works in which the VSS members participate, financial assistance from other sources, etc. All expenses of the VSS are to be defrayed from this `core fund'. The Chief Conservator of Forests (Eco-development and Tribal Welfare), P. N. Unnikrishnan, said this approach of the department to empower the Adivasi communities and involve them in conservation activities was a reflection of the new policy of the Union Department of Environment and Forest. All Central funds for forest conservation in future will be routed through the VSSs, which will have coordination set-ups at the range and forest division levels. The new approach involving the setting up of VSSs has, incidentally, given rise to an yet-to-be-sorted-out conflict between the Forest Department and Tribal Welfare Department on the one side and the Cooperation Department on the other. In most of the tribal settlements in the State, there are tribal cooperative societies functioning under the Cooperation Department and the fear of the department is whether the new set up would make these societies redundant. At the Pottomavu Adivasi settlement in Thiruvananthapuram district, where the State-level inauguration of the VSSs was held the other day in the presence of the Forest Minister and the Tribal Welfare Minister, the leader of the settlement came on the stage to clarify why the tribals had lost faith in the societies. According to him, the societies functioned without the full representation of the Adivasis of the settlements concerned. Also, they were experiencing various kinds of exploitation at the hands of those who controlled the societies. ``For instance, when we try to sell a bottle of honey to the society, the price we are offered is far below what we can get if we sell it to some shop-keeper,'' he said. The Minister for Tribal Welfare, M. A. Kuttappan, said the VSS, the way it had been structured as an institution, could efficiently address the needs of conservation and help the all-round development of the community concerned. He said he was in favour of restricting the role of the existing tribal cooperative societies to just marketing the products gathered from the forests by the Adivasis. For this also, the complaints relating to exploitation by some societies should be tackled first.
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