Uniform code on forest inventory

 The National Working Plan Code 2023 released by the Ministry of Environment, Forestry, and Climate Change is aimed at scientific management of forests and evolving new approaches. What makes it different from previous national working plans is that for the first time, the National Working Plan Code-2023 has prescribed state forest departments to engage in continuous data collection and its updation in a centralised database. States Forest departments, like that of Assam, building their capacities for timely preparation of working plans for all forest divisions will be critical to achieving the desired objectives. This newspaper reported that 23 of the total 33 forest divisions in Assam do not have working plans, despite the Supreme Court ruling that all forest divisions must have working plans. Ironically, these forest divisions have been administered without approved plans since 1972. The new approach of continuous data collection is laudable as it will help assess the actual status of forest health under each division. An earlier approach was to revise the working plans every 10 years. The National Working Plan Code-2023 deals in detail with the essentials of forest management planning, incorporating the principles of sustainable forest management. This includes the extent and condition of forest and tree cover; maintenance, conservation, and enhancement of biodiversity, including wildlife and forest health and vitality; conservation and management of soil and water resources; enhancement of forest resource productivity; maintenance and enhancement of social, economic, cultural, and spiritual benefits; and providing the appropriate policy, legal, and institutional framework, states an official release. In 1996, the Supreme Court of India ruled in a judgement that the felling of trees in all forests was to remain suspended except in accordance with the working plans of the State governments as approved by the Central Government. Hence, all working plans of the states required approval by the Central Government on account of forests being added to the concurrent list. This subsequently led to the adoption of a uniform code, the National Working Plan Code (2004), for the preparation of working plans for the management of forests under the prescriptions of a working plan or scheme to standardise the procedure. In 2014, amendments were made to the first National Working Plan to bring more uniformity to forest management by the states. Sustainable management of forests has assumed greater significance in view of climate change mitigation measures through carbon sequestration and the removal of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. This is a challenging task as large infrastructure projects such as hydropower projects, highways, the extraction of coal, and hydrocarbon exploration and extraction require huge stretches of forest diversion, particularly in an ecologically fragile northeast region. The inclusion of the Indian Forest Management Standard, which codifies standards of forest management in the National Working Plan Code 2023, is projected to standardise sustainable forest management in different states. The Ministry states that the standardisation would facilitate the State Forest Department’s ability to measure the effectiveness of management practises against the prescriptions of the Working Plan. Such standardisation needs to be continuously evaluated by experts addressing state and region-specific requirements of forest management and against being counter-productive in the application of certain standards elsewhere in the country to meet development and climate goals. The northeast region being one of the critical global biodiversity hotspots sustaining rainforests that have evolved over millions of years, the idea of compensatory afforestation to compensate for the loss of forest to facilitate development projects is not always a sustainable solution. Rainforests play a crucial role in climate change mitigation, and diversion of such forests can cause irreversible ecological destruction that cannot be compensated even by optimal implementation of forest working plans. The Central government finalising the new National Forest Policy at the earliest is of paramount importance for effective implementation of the new national working plan code as the policy lays down the framework of forest management. A cabinet note on the draft national forest policy was prepared in 2020 after public consultations and inter-ministerial consultation, but the declaration of the new policy is still awaited. The existing policy framework of the National Forest Policy 1988 being 35 years old, the finalisation of the new policy is long overdue to rearticulate policy goals and objectives in tune with the new challenges of sustainability against the backdrop of the global climate crisis and the country’s climate action goals. The new working plan code includes the extent and condition of forest and tree cover; maintenance, conservation, and enhancement of biodiversity, including wildlife and forest health and vitality; conservation and management of soil and water resources; enhancement of forest resource productivity; maintenance and enhancement of social, economic, cultural, and spiritual benefits; and providing the appropriate policy, legal, and institutional framework. The new code is a reminder for the Assam forest department to identify the gaps in the formulation of working plans for all 33 divisions and take effective measures to draw futuristic roadmaps for the management of forest resources.