Various experts and stakeholders from the Commonwealth countries, which account for more than one-fifth of the world’s forests and provide a range of ecosystem services to human society, are slated to attend the 19th Commonwealth Forestry Conference slated to be organised at the Forest Research Institute (FRI), Dehradun under the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education in association with the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Government of India and the Commonwealth Forestry Association from April 3 to 7. According to FRI officials, The species and ecosystem diversity are broadly classified into three major forest zones on the basis of climatic conditions-- tropical, temperate and boreal forest. Each of these major forest ecosystem types covers the majority of the forest resources distributed in the Commonwealth countries. The forests with its biological richness in these countries act as the macroeconomic pillar, contributing considerable to their Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Advent of modern scientific and technological tools has made forests increasingly important in bio-prospecting for pharmaceutical and other bio-products industries as in alternative medicines. Therefore, the Commonwealth Forestry Association (CFA) has a greater responsibility, being an oldest and prominent international forestry association in addressing the forestry issues in the Commonwealth by providing a platform to the professional and scientific fraternity for sharing knowledge and experience to address the threats. The theme of the CFC-2017 is “Forests for Prosperity and Posterity”.
The 19th CFC is expected to play a significant role in conservation and management of biodiversity in Commonwealth countries by providing a common platform for sharing issues and finding appropriate solutions. Further, CFC will provide opportunities for developing strategies for the implementation of the decision taken by Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) at its 13th Session (CoP). Considering the strong congruence among the forest-related Aichi Biodiversity Targets, the four global objectives of forests, the forest-related provisions under the Paris Agreement it was decided in the CBD CoP13 to emphasise upon enhancing coherence, cooperation and synergies among forest-related agreements and their processes and initiatives, both at the policy and implementation levels by the parties.
The sub-theme on biodiversity conservation and its management has been chosen by CFC considering the threats and challenges to their long-term sustainability. A complete technical session out of 14 sessions will be devoted to holding scientific deliberations, sharing knowledge and for identifying actions which will be useful in addressing the pressing issues of biodiversity conservation. Furthermore, the discussions will be helpful in taking one step further towards the implementation of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 and achieving the Aichi Biodiversity Targets, by bearing in account the different visions; approaches, models and tools to improve the integrated management of forests, including the development of technical capacity.
Officials further point out that forests provide a wide spectrum of livelihood options for tribal as well as rural communities in the form of direct employment, self-employment and secondary employment. The forest based enterprises provide livelihoods for local people’s through the sale of forest based handicrafts and cottage industries, sericulture, lac cultivation, bee keeping, leaf plate making, medicines, collection, processing and marketing of Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFPs), social and farm forestry and availing of rights and concessions. The application of local skills and village level technology in wood based and small scale forest based enterprises provide secondary employment and livelihood opportunities for tribal and rural people, main amongst are saw milling, rayon, pulp and paper, ply wood and panel products, wood seasoning and preservation, tanning, sports goods, veneers, wooden items, musical instruments, bidi making educational goods, wood carving, wooden utensils etc. In the Indian context, the critical role played by NTFPs in the development of local socio-economy and culture has always been recognized. The erstwhile Planning Commission of India quotes that an estimated 275 million poor rural people in India depend on NTFPs for their subsistence and cash livelihoods with a business turnover of more that Rs. 6,000 crore per annum. According to an estimate, the NTFP sector alone is able to create about 10 million workdays annually in the country. Hence, considering the various livelihood opportunities available in forestry sector there is a need to develop capacity and innovation for the long term sustainability of the forest resources. A dedicated technical session on livelihood and economic security from forest will be a major highlight of the 19th CFC.
Further, as the negative impacts of poor governance in forestry sector are largely associated with physical, environmental and social in nature, Forest law Enforcement and Governance (FlEG) have emerged as a major policy response by national governments and international organisations seeking to promote sustainable forest management practices. The improved FlEG will aid the governments in curbing illegal logging, corruption and other forestry sector crimes, such as poaching, land encroachment, illegal trade of endangered fauna and flora, and evasion of legal taxes and royalties which are recognised weaknesses in the forest sector governance in the present scenario. A technical session dedicated to forest governance will also be held in the CFC this year.