An agency for forests

Community initiative

RWANDA

The Nyungwe forest of Rwanda is being destroyed due to human activities. The forest along Rwanda's southeastern districts of Cyangugu, Kibuye and Butare, used to span over an area of more than 250,000 hectares, but now covers only 87,000 hectares. The forest is famous for its 200 tree species. Athnase Nyamacumu, an official of the Rwandan Tourism and National Park, blames human activities for the present situation. According to him, in addition to felling trees for firewood or for construction, farmers living close to the forest have plundered it for other illegal activities.

Eco-wisdom

the Kandamanur Reserve Forest area, in south Tamil Nadu, earmarked as degraded forest, is fast regenerating. Implementation of joint forest management programme in the region has transformed the forest area as well as the life of residents of nearby villages of Kanavaipatti and Pudu Ramachandrapuram.

Cheap fix

at least two Norwegian companies are acquiring several thousand hectares of land in East Africa to plant fast growing trees like eucalyptus and pine. The groups -- Tree Farms and Norwegian Afforestation Group -- expect to make profits from these plantations by selling timber and wood and in the future, through sale of carbon credits on basis of carbon dioxide storage in the plantations.

Sukhna lake survives

the Sukhna Lake in Chandigarh, which was dying due to heavy siltation, has been revived by the efforts of the forest department of Chandigarh. According to H S Sohol chief wildlife warden Chandigarh, the rate of siltation has come down drastically because of intensive afforestation projects and construction of check dams in the Sukhna watershed. Sohol added that the situation can improve drastically if the watershed region, falling under the Haryana forest department, is afforested.

Increasing green cover

large-scale reforestation programmes and cultivation of abandoned agricultural land has led to the expansion of forest area in Europe by 500,000 hectares a year. This was stated in a recent report on temperate forest, compiled by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe and the Food and Agriculture Organisation. The report was complied after studying temperate and boreal forest resources of 55 countries, in Europe, North America, Asia and the Common Wealth of Independent States.

Regreening of Japan

If there is one thing that a visitor to Japan cannot miss, it is the greenery. More than two-thirds of the country's land area -- 68 per cent, to be precise -- is forested. No other country has as much forest in terms of percentage of land area. And all this is despite the fantastic industrial growth and very high density of population. But it is not that Japan has always had large, healthy forests.

JAPAN

Volunteers with mountain-climbing experience have been employed to plant trees on the slopes of Mikurajima island, south of Tokyo. Landslides had devastated the greenery on these slopes when a typhoon struck the area five years ago.

Green panchayats

the Punjab government has evolved a new strategy to increase the state's forest cover as well as promote social forestry. The forestland in Punjab is less than 10 per cent of its area while, according to norms, the required forest cover is 33 per cent. In the past, both farmers and the government concentrated on increasing food production rather than paying attention to maintaining the ecological balance. As a result, trees were indiscriminately mowed down to make more land available for agriculture.