Ecological sustainability of forest management practices: The case of the regenerating sal forests of south-western West Bengal, India

  • 31/05/2003

  • Social Change

Under the Joint Forest Management (JFM) programme in south-western West Bengal, regenerating deciduous forests are being managed for the extraction of numerous plant products, both for commercial benefits and subsistence-level use, on a large scale. However, there has been little serious evaluation of the long-term biological sustainability of forest produce extraction in these forests or the accompanying ecological impacts.