16 Mar, 2023
The National Working Plan Code 2014 emphasises the sustainable management of forests for maintaining and enhancing supply of Forest Ecosystem Services (FES) for the benefit of local people, hence the importance of integrating the FES approach in the working plans. A Working Plan has been the main instrument of forest planning (more exactly forest working) in India for scientific management of forests. It is a very useful document for evaluating the status of forests and biodiversity resources of a forest division, assessing the impact of past management practices and deciding about suitable management interventions for future.
On similar lines, The Sustainable Management of Forest Ecosystem Services (FES) Project being implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) is working towards integrating the FES Approach in the Working Plans of two Forest Divisions (namely Rohru and Dharamshala) of Himachal Pradesh. This is being executed in cooperation with the Himachal Pradesh Forest Department (HPFD) and supported by an agency called the Integrated Geo-informatic solution (IGIS) Pvt. Ltd., Dehradun.
As per the initial collaborative discussions with stakeholders, 1000 villages in Dharamshala Forest Division were considered with a buffer of 1 km from the forest compartment. Out of these, 100 villages were shortlisted as per the first level narrow-down selection criteria on the basis of forest boundaries, forest types, village population and social dynamics.
In the second level narrow down selection done by the method of Purposive Sampling, during the workshop with the front line staff of Dharamshala Forest Division, 40 villages out of 100 were finally selected to be sampled for collecting primary data.
The two days’ workshop for the front-line staff of Kangra, Mallan, Lapiana and Shahpur Forest Ranges (Dharamshala Forest Division) aimed to train them for using Focus Group Discussions (FGD) and Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) tools.
FGDs in the selected villages were conducted for identifying the provisioning, supporting, regulating and cultural services being obtained from these forests. Positive and negative drivers affecting these FES were also pinned down. The tools used for this survey included various PRA tools such as social mapping, resource mapping, time sketch, trend analysis, chapati diagram/ venn diagram, transect walk, seasonal analysis of fuelwood and fodder, data collection from natural water resources such as springs, ponds, local bowries, etc., and geocoordinate photos of each field activity. This will be followed by trade-off analysis based on the prioritisation of FES out of 100 nos. and drivers out of 10 nos. at the village-level through Pebble Distribution Method (Sheil et al. 2002).
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Glimpse of Workshop with front-line staff of Lapiana & Shahpur, ©Neha Gosai
Post identification of FES at the village level, prioritisation and trade-off analysis will be performed at the range level, followed by compartments of respective villages. After identification of FES, the same layer would be overlayed on different working circles such as Pine,Oak working Circles, etc., by the Working Plan Officer (WPO) of the division.
Based on this methodology and regular consultations with the relevant stakeholders, a chapter on integrating the FES Approach in the selected Working Plan Divisions will be developed.
Group Photograph of Bajrer Village in Shahpur Range, ©Rohit Gupta
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