Initiate greater involvement of women to manage resources: Raja

New Delhi, Dec 19 (UNI) The government will initiate action for the protection and conservation of forests by incorporating community-based forest management practices and stressing greater involvement of women in managing natural resources, said Minister for Environment and Forests A Raja here today.

''Some of India's development goals in the Eleventh Five Year Plan are more ambitious than the Millennium Development Goals.

The country will increase its forest cover to 33 per cent by 2012,'' said Mr Raja at the first -- Sustainability Summit: Asia 2006 Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Development -- organised by CII in partnership with the Ministry and Development Alternatives.

The ministry's programmes are firmly guided by the principles of sustainable development and the enhancement of well-being. ''The conservation of India's natural resources and their planned utilisation is the prime focus of the government,'' he said.

Currently, the government owns 65 per cent of the forests in India while 27 per cent are owned by communities. Just eight per cent are owned privately.

This year, the government approved the National Environment Policy that mainstreams environmental concerns into development.

''We have begun to attach importance to the sustainability of production processes and consumption patterns,'' said the minister.

This underlines the need to incorporate the costs associated with the degradation and depletion of natural resources into economic decisions. These costs should not be passed on to other sections of society or to future generations, said Mr Raja.

UNI SRS CS ND1658