MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT AND FORESTS (SHRI BABULAL MARANDI)
(a) to (d) Development and conservation of forests cannot succeed without willing support and cooperation of the people. National Forest Policy, 1988 envisages for creating a massive people`s movement with the involvement of women in increasing substantially the forest/tree cover in the country through afforestation and social forestry programmes, specially on denuded, degraded and unproductive lands in the reserve and non-reserve forest areas as well as in non-forest areas. People`s participation in afforestation programmes is through Village Forest Committees (VFCs) consisting of members from the village communities under Joint Forest Management (JFM) where the Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) act as facilitators and funding is made on project basis. Companies, jointly with NGOs and the Forest Departments, also participate in afforestation activities on degraded forest lands with their own resources and without having any claim on forest land or forest produce. No NGO has been given funds directly
by the Government for development of forests. Only BAIF Development Research Foundation, a NGO based at Pune, has taken direct responsibility of development of 200 hectare of degraded forest land from their own resource without having any claim over the forest land or forest produce at any point of time. As far as the non-forest lands are concerned, the NGOs are functioning directly for development of these lands.
