Forest for poverty alleviation: Chhattisgarh experience

摘要

Poverty is a multidimensional complex phenomenon. Apart from the macro economic problems, the degradation and restricted access of the poor to the available material and environmental assets also fundamentally trap the poor in their circumstances. There is an urgent need to revisit the forest-poverty nexus because forest ecosystems are capable of offering interesting opportunities and security nets for poverty alleviation. By targeting on a broad range of goods and services in terms of physical, material, human, social and environmental assets in conjunction with appropriate entitlement regime, Chhattisgarh Forest Department has envisioned People's Protected Areas (PPA), as a proactive and people's friendly matrix for poverty alleviation, sustainable forest development and bio-cultural diversity conservation, which can work as poor people's pool of assets for meaningful poverty alleviation. In Chhattisgarh 32 PPAs, extending over nearly 500 000 ha covering more than 300 villages, have been established as models of "conservation through use "for addressing core concerns of livelihood security with integrated ecosystem approach. The New State Forest Policy and Resolutions with built-in equitable benefit sharing mechanism are motivating forests dwellers to become curator and custodian of their bio-cultural habitat.