Work needs to be done in the forestry sector towards achieving the Government’s goal of doubling farmers’ incomes through appropriate forestry interventions. The Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE) director general SC Gairola said this at the start of a five-day training programme on forest certification in Indian context for officers of Indian Forest Service (IFS) at the Forest Research Institute here on Monday.
Gairola also drew the attention of the participants to India’s target under Paris agreement to create an additional carbon sink of 2.5 to three billion tonnes CO2 equivalent, and under Bonn Convention to restore 21 million hectare degraded forest.
These need productivity intensive efforts towards forest productivity enhancement and forest landscape restoration. Forestry practices should be implemented with suitable modifications, wherever needed, considering the contemporary requirements.
The role of forests in groundwater recharge and purification of air must be augmented and highlighted. He also focused on how foresters can enhance productivity of forests by implementing sustainable forest management practices as India’s forest productivity is very low as compared with the rest of the world.
Speaking about the training course, the FRI director AS Rawat emphasised on the role of forest certification as a tool for sustainable management of forests of the country.
He highlighted the need and utility of forest certification in India, stating that forest certification has already been implemented in many developed and some developing countries.
According to FRI, the core objectives of the training are implementation of sustainable forest management operations for enhancing productivity of forest in accordance with the new Working Plan Code-2014 keeping in view of current challenges of forest management, forest laws, governance and trade of the country and overview of forest certification in Indian context.
Twenty participants from the states of Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Talangana, Jammu and Kashmir, Nagaland, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Maharasthra, Arunachal Pradesh and Assam are attending the course.
During a technical session after the inaugural session, Uttar Pradesh Forest Corporation general manager (Marketing) Atul Jindal elaborated the mechanism of a transparent system of marketing of certified timber in Uttar Pradesh.
This is allowing forest department to get higher revenue from sale of produce, he revealed.
A field visit will be conducted to Shivalik forest division, Saharanpur to demonstrate the functioning of a timber depot supplying certified forest produce.