UP Forest Policy, Agro-forestry and Social Forestry

What the official syllabus says

UPPCS Main Examination, General Studies VI.

• UP New Forest Policy.
• Agro and Social Forestry in U.P.

Topics in detail

The syllabus has two separate lines here, the state's new forest policy and agro and social forestry, studied together because both aim to raise forest and tree cover. Read the current state forest policy from the forest department, and set it against the National Forest Policy.

Forests of UP: the background

• The small share of recorded forest area in UP compared with the national goal of one-third of land under forest or tree cover (National Forest Policy, 1988)
• Forest and tree cover from the India State of Forest Report (Forest Survey of India) and its trend
• Regional spread: Terai forests in the north, Vindhyan and Bundelkhand forests in the south, little forest in the central plain
• Forest types: tropical moist deciduous (sal) and tropical dry deciduous forests, and thorn scrub in the drier south-west
• Laws that apply: the Indian Forest Act, 1927, the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972, the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980, the Forest Rights Act, 2006 and the state's tree protection law
• Institutions: the state Forest Department and the UP Forest Corporation

The state forest policy

• Objectives of the state's new forest policy: increase forest and tree cover, protect existing forests, conserve biodiversity and wildlife, conserve soil and water
• People's participation: joint forest management and village forest committees
• Trees outside forests: on farms, along roads, canals and railways, in towns
• Livelihoods: minor forest produce, tendu leaf and the needs of forest-dwelling communities
• Rules for felling and transporting trees grown on private land, and their effect on farmers' willingness to plant
• Large plantation drives, nurseries and survival monitoring
• Urban forests and green belts
• Use of technology: satellite monitoring, GIS mapping of forest land

Agro-forestry

• Meaning: growing trees together with crops or livestock on the same land
• Systems: agri-silviculture, silvi-pasture, agri-horticulture, boundary planting
• Poplar and eucalyptus on farms in western UP (Saharanpur, Muzaffarnagar, Meerut region) and the plywood and paper industry they supply
• Benefits: income, wood for industry, less pressure on forests, soil and water conservation, carbon capture
• Problems: market price swings, felling and transit rules, shading of crops
• The national Sub-Mission on Agroforestry and the National Agroforestry Policy, 2014

Social forestry

• Meaning: planting trees on public and community land to meet local needs for fuel, fodder and small timber
• Origin: the recommendation of the National Commission on Agriculture (1976)
• Parts: farm forestry, community woodlots, extension forestry (strip plantations along roads, canals and railway lines), recreation forestry
• Social forestry projects in UP with external aid in the late 1970s and 1980s
• Successes and failures: the choice of species, community ownership, survival of plantations
• Reclamation of degraded land: ravines, usar (sodic) land and sand dunes through tree planting

Overlaps

Forest resources are also on Natural Resources of UP, and vegetation on Geography of UP: Drainage, Irrigation, Minerals and Vegetation. Forestry for India is in General Studies III.