“There is a need to empower the local communities to realise livelihood support,” the policy reads.
TWO months after the policy for sustainable collection and utilisation of Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFP) was approved in Jammu and Kashmir, the rights of tribals have resurfaced in public discourses.
The policy approved in December 2022 is officially in line with The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 which provides for the right of ownership, to access, use and dispose of minor forest produce which has traditionally been collected within or outside village boundaries.
Until 2019, a forest official told Kashmir Observer, the Forest Department had been regulating the NTFP of J&K by way of annual auction in certain forest divisions.
“The entire trade in NTFP was restricted to a few stakeholders who participated in the departmental auction for collection and marketing,” the official said.
“However, the earlier mechanism of regulation has not resulted in meaningful involvement of local communities who could play an important role in conservation and development of these important sustainably available resources like Guchhis, Mushkbala, Banafsha, Belladona, etc.”
NTFP includes honey, wax, medicinal plants, roots, tubers, etc.
Jammu and Kashmir, notably, forms part of north-west Himalayas with around 48 per cent of its geographical area as recorded forest.
The medicinal plants sourced from the wild or cultivated in habitats outside the forests support the livelihood of rural households and people living near forests, who are traditionally engaged in the collection of these resources from the wild.
“Local communities [tribals] are important stakeholders in conservation of NTFPs,” the official said.
“A need, therefore, was felt to empower the local communities to realise livelihood support as envisaged in the Forest Policy of J&K by discontinuing the practice of auction.”
According to the policy, a copy of which lies with Kashmir Observer, the present management of NTFPs, including medicinal plants, involves collection of certain species by way of auction for royalty by the Forest Department, based on their availability.
“There is a need,” the policy notes, “to empower the local communities to realise livelihood support.”
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