Question

What is joint forest management? How can it help in the conservation of forests?

Answer 1

Hint: It is a concept to develop mutual trust between the fringe forest groups and the forest department so that their roles and responsibilities can be defined in a joint manner regarding the conservation of forests.

Complete answer:
It is a program running in India for the conservation of forests and wildlife biodiversity and involves both the state and forest departments and the local communities. The rules and regulations of this program are following the Indian comprehensive National Forest Policy of 1988. It is a concept to develop mutual trust between the fringe forest groups and the forest department so that their roles and responsibilities can be defined federally. The program helps in the conservation of forests in the following manner –
Improvement of forest and vegetative diversity – it is taken care in the program that the forests are regenerating properly, the species succession is going well towards the climax stage, there is increased growth of grasses, forest area is increasing by bringing more land under the forest cover, new floral species are being planted and they are growing well, and the area of forest is well retained.
Maintenance of ecosystem services – here, the studies and researches are done to find if soil erosion has reduced or stopped, the groundwater level is increasing or not, the food to the fauna in the forest is available or not and the air available in the forest area is polluted or clean.
Conservation of wildlife – the program also focuses on protection and increase of the flora and fauna of the forests.

Note: The program is basically for the conservation of forest and wildlife diversity through the involvement of related government bodies and also the local population living around the area or near the area of forest. It is also economically beneficial to them because of the easy availability of forest products.