Social forestry

Topic: Natural Vegetation and Forests of India · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 5 "Natural Vegetation"

Meaning

Social forestry means managing and protecting forests and planting trees on barren land (bare, unused land with no tree cover), for the environment, for society and for rural development. It grows trees outside reserved forests, close to the people who use them. People then get their fuelwood, fodder and small timber from these trees, and the natural forests are left alone.

Explanation

Why it was needed (cause → process → result)

• Cause: villagers took fuelwood, fodder and small timber from government forests.
• This put heavy pressure on the forests.

• The forests got thinner.

• Process: trees were planted on farms, on common village land and in towns, near the people who need them.

• Result:
• People meet their own daily needs from these trees.
• Natural forests are spared.
• It helps the National Forest Policy, 1988 goal of 33% of land area under forest or tree cover.

Types: the NCA 1976 classification

• The National Commission on Agriculture (NCA), 1976 divided social forestry into three parts: 1. Urban forestry 2. Rural forestry, which has two parts: agroforestry and community forestry 3. Farm forestry

Type	Where trees are grown	Who owns the land	Who benefits
Urban forestry	Green belts, parks, roadside avenues, industrial and commercial green belts	Public and private	Town people get shade, cleaner air and less noise
Agroforestry (rural)	The same plot as crops, including waste patches	Mostly private farmers	Food, fodder, fuel, timber and fruit from one plot
Community forestry (rural)	Village pastures, temple land, roadsides, canal banks, railway strips, school land	Public or common land	The whole village, including the landless
Farm forestry	Field edges, grasslands, pastures, land around homes and cowsheds	The farmer's own land	Sale, or use at home

How each type works

• Urban forestry: raising trees on land in and around towns and cities.
• Green belts are strips of trees around a town.
• Roadside avenues are rows of trees along roads.

• Industrial and commercial green belts are tree strips around factories and markets. They soak up dust and noise.

• Agroforestry: growing trees and crops on the same piece of land.

• Tree roots hold the soil, and fallen leaves add nutrients.
• If the crop fails, the trees still earn money, so the farmer's income is safer.

• Its tree cover is 1,27,590 km². Its growing stock (the total volume of wood in standing trees) is 1,292 million m³ (ISFR 2023) [4][5].

• Community forestry: planting trees on public or common land.

• The whole community shares what the trees produce.

• Landless people also get fuel, fodder and small timber. Without it they would get nothing, because farm trees belong only to landowners.

• Farm forestry: farmers grow trees on their own land, to sell or to use at home.

• State forest departments give free seedlings to small and medium farmers.

Policy support and what went wrong

• National Agroforestry Policy, 2014:
• India was the first country in the world to have one.

• Its aims are more trees on farms, a steady extra income for farmers, and easier rules for cutting and moving farm-grown trees.

• Bamboo amendment, 2017:

• India changed the definition of "tree" in Section 2(7) of the Indian Forest Act, 1927.
• Bamboo grown outside forests no longer counts as a "tree".

• Farmers can now grow, cut and move it without a felling or transit permit. A transit permit is official permission to carry forest produce from one place to another.

• The eucalyptus problem (1970s–1980s):

• Early programmes often planted fast-growing eucalyptus to supply paper and pulp mills.
• Eucalyptus uses a lot of water, so the land under it gets drier.
• Its leaves are of little use as fodder.

• Rich farmers gained more than the landless. This weakened the "social" aim.

• The fix:

• The National Forest Policy, 1988 said forests must first meet local people's needs for things like fuel and fodder. Only after that should they supply industry.
• Later programmes switched to mixed native species (trees that grow naturally in the area) and people's participation.

Where it occurs

• Punjab and Haryana: farm forestry with poplar and eucalyptus.
• The wood goes to plywood, match and paper factories.

• Farmers often grow poplar in strips along field edges and grow wheat under it in winter.

• Villages across India: community forestry on village pastures, temple land, canal banks, roadsides, railway strips (land along railway lines) and school land.

• Towns and cities: urban forestry through green belts, parks and roadside avenues.
• Aravalli Green Wall Project: a large greening project that also promotes agroforestry and pasture development.
• The MoEFCC (Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change) launched it in March 2023.
• It greens a 5 km buffer (a protective strip of land) around the Aravalli Hill Range in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana and Delhi [3].
• In Haryana it covers Gurugram, Faridabad, Bhiwani, Mahendragarh and Rewari [3].
• It plants native trees and shrubs on scrubland, wasteland and degraded forest land. It also revives ponds, lakes and streams [3].
• The plan now covers 6.31 million hectares in a phase-wise plan (2025–2034). The plan includes mine reclamation (bringing mined land back to life) [2].
• It is funded through convergence (pooling money from several schemes): CAMPA, MGNREGS and the Green India Mission [2].

• It is modelled on Africa's Great Green Wall, a belt of trees and restored land across the Sahel, the dry strip south of the Sahara.

• Measurement: the Forest Survey of India (FSI), Dehradun, counts trees outside forests (TOF) in its two-yearly India State of Forest Report. TOF means tree cover outside the land legally recorded as forest. The latest report is ISFR 2023, released in December 2024 [4][5].

Don't confuse with

• Farm forestry vs community forestry: farm forestry uses the farmer's own land. Community forestry uses public or common land such as village pastures, temple land, canal banks and railway strips.
• Agroforestry vs farm forestry: agroforestry grows trees and crops on the same plot. Farm forestry grows trees on field edges, pastures and land around homes and cowsheds. Also, NCA 1976 puts agroforestry under rural forestry, not farm forestry.
• Social forestry vs reserved forests: social forestry grows trees outside government forests, near the people. Its purpose is to reduce pressure on reserved forests.
• Social forestry vs industrial plantation: social forestry is meant to give the poor fuel and fodder. Early eucalyptus monoculture (growing only one species) for paper mills went against this aim.

Prelims Hooks

• NCA 1976 divided social forestry into urban, rural and farm forestry. Rural forestry is split into agroforestry + community forestry.
• Trees on village pastures, temple land, canal banks and railway strips are community forestry, not farm forestry.
• India was the first country to adopt a National Agroforestry Policy (2014).
• The 2017 amendment to Section 2(7) of the Indian Forest Act, 1927 took bamboo grown outside forests out of the definition of "tree". It now needs no felling or transit permit.
• Agroforestry tree cover is 1,27,590 km². It rose by 20.02% between ISFR 2013 and ISFR 2023 [5].
• Aravalli Green Wall (2023): a 5 km buffer in Gujarat → Rajasthan → Haryana → Delhi (south-west to north-east). It is modelled on Africa's Great Green Wall [3].

Mains Points

• A pressure valve for forests (GS-III):
• Trees on farms, common land and in towns supply fuel, fodder and timber.
• This reduces pressure on natural forests and supports the 33% forest and tree cover goal of the National Forest Policy, 1988.

• Agroforestry tree cover grew by 21,286.57 km² (20.02%) between ISFR 2013 and ISFR 2023 [5].

• The equity critique and its fix (GS-I/III):

• Early programmes planted eucalyptus for industry. They helped landowners more than the landless and dried out the land.

• Community forestry on common land fixes this. It uses native mixed species and people's participation through Joint Forest Management (JFM).

• Policy easing and land restoration (GS-III):

• The Agroforestry Policy 2014 and the bamboo amendment of 2017 removed legal hurdles to growing and selling farm trees. Farmers earn more, and wood-based industry gets timber.
• The Aravalli Green Wall combines native planting, agroforestry and pasture development to stop Thar sand from blowing east [3].
• It also supports India's land-restoration target under the UNCCD (United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification) [2].

Related concepts

• Urban forestry
• Agroforestry
• Community forestry
• Farm forestry
• Aravalli Green Wall Project

Read more

• Social forestry, farm forestry and greening outside forests