New mining policy

the ministry of environment and forests is formulating guidelines to regulate mining in ecologically fragile forests. According to the proposed guidelines, forests areas will be mapped to find out the quality of mineral deposits and forests, and the distribution of biodiversity and tribal population. And mining licences will only be issued if all the norms are properly met.

ARGENTINA

inter-american Development Bank recently commissioned 10 papers to investigate the key policy issues affecting Latin American forests. One paper on policies that affect forests in Latin America, by Jan Laarman, uses regional examples covering both traditional forestry policies as well as those that affect the forests: macro-economic, trade, cultural and infrastructure policies. It points out that most policies can have positive or negative impacts depending on what objectives they seek to attain.

A cryptic clue

prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral's declaration at a five-hour conclave with industrialists that the government will come up with a new "industry-friendly forest policy within a month", came as big surprise to many.

Greening up

the director general of the Indian Council for Forestry Research and Education (icfre) in Dehra Dun, B N Gupta, recently stressed the need for disseminating correct information on issues related to forest policy.

PAPUA NEW GUINEA

To Russia, with love

WITH over 60 per cent of the world's reserves of non-tropical and largest stretch of boreal forests in the world, Russia holds the most important carbon pool in the northern hemisphere. A recent decision by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization to include the virgin forests of Russia's Komi region in its World Heritage list, came as a relief for Russia's environmentalist groups. The announcement followed a year-long Greenpeace campaign to stall logging projects in the area, famed for its six million ha of untouched softwood

SRI LANKA

The Sri Lanka government has asked farmers, community organisations, NGOs and small and medium scale enterprises to comment on the draft of a revised forest policy before the final policy is framed. However, former conservator of forests, V R Nanayakkara points out that the money being poured into the revision of the plan would be better utilised in forest conservation and afforestation schemes.

Branches into batons

AS A professional forester, I feel that the draft Forest Bill is a highly progressive document. The Act, which will come out after the Bill is passed, will greatly improve upon the existing Indian Forest Act of 1927. It is a comprehensive piece of legislation dealing with the preservation of our national wealth.

The people are covered

MARXISTS hold that a capitalist state cannot promote radical reforms in favour of the poor. The nature of state power depends upon the mode of production, and the owners of the means of production, and it is in the interest of these classes that state power is exercised.

All bark, all bite

WHILE Indians hotly debate whether common folk can be entrusted with the management and control of their forest resources, local communities in several other developing countries are already entrenched in their idyllic fortresses. The results have been, to say the least, positive, even dramatic. In Nepal, village communities have been efficiently managing forests handed over to them in 1993.