'Forest dwellers exploited by govt, pvt traders'

New Delhi, Oct 21: State monopolies over trade in forest produce (non-timber), introduced to prevent middlemen from exploiting forest dwellers and ensure fair wages to collectors, have in fact done the reverse, says the National Status Report on Forest and Forestry in India.

Although state forest revenues have gone up after taking control of the forest produce collection and sale, the forest dependent communities do not appear to be benefiting in terms of wages, socio-economic conditions or gender equity, and the cost to end users has increased.

Intermediaries have not been eliminated, but replaced by agents of the monopoly leaseholders, says the report.

So, while the objectives of creating state monopolies are laudable, the actual situations suggest that on the whole, the results are not in favour of the intended benficiaries.

In some states like Orissa, the forest produce (Control and Trade) Act of 1981 provides the scope for state monopoly on certain selected forest products, and the state has the option to give monopoly leases for collection and trade of forest products.

The state has infact granted monopoly rights for 29 Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFP) items to a private company like Utkal Forest products Ltd.

Under the agreement, local people, who collect forest produce, are required to sell their collected material to the company's agents at present prices that are lower than those they could have obtained by selling directly to processors.

Some of the 29 items yield very insignificant amount of revenue yet have nevertheless been taken under the state monopoly.

The Kerala government has created monopoly for 120 notified items of non-timber forest products. The Scheduled tribes and forest dwellers have no right to make any direct sale to outside party.

They have to sell it to cooperative societies, which auction the products gathered by tribal people.

A study calculated that the open market price was more than double of the price being offered by the government.

Thus in Kerala, government monopoly was not only inefficient but also exploiting the tribal people, according to the report.

State monopoly in Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra has also included a large number of forest produce causing undue hardships to gatherers.

In Madhya Pradesh, the state-trading is selective in accepting only quality leaves of tendu and other NTPF. As a result, the collection averaged during 1989-96 was 43 per cent less than the collection between 1981-88.

State governments took control of the trade in non-timber forest produce to ensure their sustainability. Traditionally their collection has been of low-intensity and generally sustainable.

However, as the economic potential of the forest produce came to be realised, forest dwellers began to collect them intensively, and moreover the infrastructure for trade and processing have developed boosting the trade, which raised the concern for sustainability of the forest resources and distribution of benefits derived from them, finally resulting in the state control.

The report recommends strengthening of village-level institutions to help the local communities enjoy bargaining power in the trade of the produce collected by them.

It pointed out that the village forest committee formed under the Joint Forest Management programme of the Ministry of Environment and Forest have been registered without allowing the full process before registration.

Absence of active local institutions has seen the arrival of exploitative private traders and middlemen. The state monopolies have not changed the situation for the better, as they have also affected the earning of the poor resulting in their indulgence in unsustainable harvesting, the report said.

UNI