Village Voices, Forest Choices

Download or read book Village Voices, Forest Choices written by Mark Poffenberger and published by . This book was released on 1996 with total page 390 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Village Voices, Forest Choices offers the first comprehensive examination of revolutionary changes occurring in the management of India's forests. Over the past two decades, responding to scarcities, thousands of villages have taken charge of public forests, thereby controlling grazing and cutting. The result has been a striking renewal of once badly degraded ecosystems. Lush young secondary forests are emerging in many parts of central India, rich in biodiversity, where degrading, eroding wastelands were recently dominant. Equally remarkable, this has often happened with no outside assistance. The fourteen contributors to this book look at how this has occurred, including the institutional, economic, ecological, and political implications of this historic transformation. They assess how management goals for natural forests will change under community control and how government agencies, scientists, and other organizations might respond to these shifting priorities. Anyone concerned with the state of India's forests, or those interested in forestry and environmental policies will want this study.