Forest Rights Act

Year : 2006

Country : India

Type of Policy : Forest Rights Act ( The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers)

Main Features:

India's forests are home to millions of people, including many scheduled tribes who live in or near the forest areas of the country. However, these people have no right to their homes, lands or livelihoods. Since a few government officials have all power over forests and forest dwellers, both forests and people have been died. Therefore this act recognizes forest dweller's rights and makes conservation more accountable. So, the act basically does two things. First, act grants legal recognition to the rights of traditional forest dwelling communities. Second, the act makes a beginning towards giving communities and the public a voice in forest and wildlife conservation.

What industries are impacted:

Before this act was came out, the loss of more than 90% of India's grasslands was due to the commercial Forest Department plantations such as mines, dams, and industrial projects. Therefore since the Forest Rights Act came out, those commercial plantations were impacted.

Are foreign and domestic firms impacted the same way:

Since foreign and domestic firms confronted the Forest Rights Act, the project from any firms could not able get forest land without certificate. These are really bad for firms because if firms can't do the project, not only firm's profit but also job creation would have great loss. Even though firms are affected in negative way, there are positive effect in other area. Since production in forest areas in India is a combination of timber, agriculture, and collection of non-timber forest produce, forestry and logging accounted for about 1 % of GDP in 2009, the Ministry of Environment and Forests estimated that 200 million people rely on timber and non-timber forest produce(NTFP)s for part or all their livelihoods. Therefore, this act is expected to have a significant impact on the livelihoods of...