Forest Governance is undergoing drastic changes these days. From a purely utilitarian, timber-oriented management perspective, Forestry is now catering to multiple objectives such as provisioning and regulating ecosystem services, ameliorating climate change, conserving biological and ethno-cultural diversity, apart from providing ecosystem goods including Non-Timber Forest Produce.
Organized management of the forests of Kerala started around one and half centuries ago. During most of this period, forest management was mandated to serve the economic interests of the State; initially colonial and subsequently that of independent India. In many places, this has alienated local people from meeting their livelihood aspirations from the forests to which they had unhindered access in the past. Over the years, this limitation of access to forests has led to conflict between people and Forest Department. As of now, there are multiple aspirations and contradictory objectives to be reconciled on forest management. Impending and escalating issues like human-wildlife conflict, climate change and developmental imperatives compound the problem.
Kerala has always been at the vanguard of balancing conservation and development. Kerala has also pioneered several innovative approaches on the frontier of natural resources conservation. In continuation of this approach and as a strategy to safeguard the State from the deleterious impacts of climate change, the central tenet of forest management is being recalibrated to that of improving ecosystem services particularly hydrological security. Several initiatives have been taken up with this objective. A landmark initiative in this regard has been the release of a Policy on the ‘Ecorestoration of Forests and Natural Habitats’ by the Government of Kerala in 2021. This policy document, first of its kind in the country, places ecosystem services particularly hydrology as the unambiguous central theme of forest management. This policy inter alia envisions phasing out of commercial exotic forest plantations, rationalization of Teak plantations, urban forestry initiatives, coastal ecorestoration, expanding the tree cover for making Kerala a ‘Carbon-neutral state’, unlocking the economic potential of NTFPs, bringing in best of forest management technology etc. In furtherance of this, the State has also prepared an Action Plan.
This ambitious policy aims to restore natural ecosystems and processes as fundamental to the existence and well-being of the State. It is also expected to place prudent nature resource management as an important basis for development.
Download Ecorestoration Policy 2021 – English/ Malayalam