The IMF’s April 2025 Regional Economic Outlook for Sub-Saharan Africa presents a clear warning: regional growth is slowing, debt pressures are mounting, and donor assistance is declining. Yet the report outlines critical opportunities particularly in domestic revenue mobilization, structural reform, and private sector activation that can shape a more resilient …
A hill in Orissa's Ganjam district used to be barren about 20 years ago. In 1985, the state forest department planted saplings, including Acacia and Eucalyptus, as part of its state-wide social forestry programme. Villagers of Sasan Ambagaon took it upon themselves to take care of the saplings and are …
Policy is an enunciation of the set principles to achieve the desired goals. The Government of Himachal Pradesh has developed the Forest Sector Policy and Strategy, 2005 in consonance with Government of India policy guidelines and by making important amendments to the previous Himachal Pradesh Forest Policy of 1980. This …
will the new forest rights rules empower forest communities? There are mixed responses to the recently released draft of the Scheduled Tribes and other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Rules, 2007. Announced on June 19, the rules are meant to operationalise the parent act. The Union ministry of …
Sandalwood, valued for its heartwood, is a semi-parisitic plant, that is, it requires a host plant to grow. It belongs to the genus Santalum and in total there are 16 species of the plant. Indian sandalwood, Santalum album, grows the fastest and has the greatest percentage of oil in its …
HEREINAFTER The Union ministry of environment and forests (MOEF) has reached the first milestone of its ministerial excercise 'Defining Forest in Indian Context'. At a 2-day meeting held April 30-May 1, 2007, the Ashoka Trust AT STAKE At the April end workshop, the consultants put forward a draft definition: henceforth, …
on april 24, 2007, kendu leaf (used for rolling bidis) workers in Orissa ended their strike after the government fulfilled two of their demands. They had started the agitation on April 18 asking for, among other things, a hike in wages and salaries. The government increased the workers' wage from …
This monsoon, the Raikas, traditional camel breeders in the Kumbalgarh Wild Life Sanctuary in Rajasthan's Pali district, will face an existential crisis again. It will be the third successive season that the pastoral community will have been banned from grazing their camels in Kumbalgarh. Living in the Bali and Desuri …
This publication, the main report of the Forestry Outlook Study for West and Central Asia (FOWECA), provides a long-term perspective of changes in the forest sector. Implemented in partnership with the countries, the study covered 23 countries in West Asia, Central Asia and the southern Caucasus. This report outlines the …
Illegal logging is massively widespread - more than 50 per cent of all timber in some countries - and hugely damaging, yet how can it be tackled without causing poverty in local communities? Written by the world's foremost experts, this book examines the key issues including law and enforcement, supply …
Economic valuation of biodiversity and ecosystem services is possibly the most powerful tool for halting the loss of biodiversity while maintaining incomes and livelihoods. Yet rarely have such approaches been applied to tropical forest "hotspots", which house the vast majority of the planet's plant and animal species. This groundbreaking work …
mount Abu, in Sirohi district, Rajasthan was shut down from November 13 to 15. This was after the state's wildlife department issued a notification on October 4, 2006 declaring the area a wildlife sanctuary. Protests were held at the sub-divisional magistrate's office. About 11,000 tourists were asked to leave town. …
The objectives of the inventory are to get information about the vegetation in the forest area. Inventory includes mapping, sampling and analysis. The present inventory will make use of a combination of Geomatics and field inventory data for assessment of growing stock and forest condition.
The Western Ghats of India, in which Kudremukh Reserve is a part, is assessed to be one of the 25 hotspots identified for bio-diversity conservation in the world. Kudremukh is also the largest protected wildlife reserve of a wet evergreen shola type of forest in the fragile Western Ghats. Privately …
Medicinal and aromatic plants are critical to Himachal Pradesh's rural economy. Twenty four of the 100 most important medicinal plant species traded in the country are found in the state. The state exports some 2,500 tonnes of medicinal plants and their parts. The legal annual trade in medicinal plants in …
The forest commission submitted its report to the Union ministry of environment and forests (moef), recently. But many observers had anticipated the document's tenor well before the report was submitted, after the commission sent a note to the prime minister's office in March contending that the proposed forests rights bill …
function table() { var popurl="image/20060615/7-table.jpg" winpops=window.open(popurl,"","width=540,height=250,scrollbars=yes") } the recommendations of the parliamentary joint committee (jpc) on the Scheduled Tribes (Recognition of Forest Rights) Bill 2005, tabled on May 23, 2006, is likely to stoke the debate on conservation vis-
This term was first coined in 2001 by a UN panel of experts investigating the illegal exploitation of natural resources in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Since 1998, timber there has helped fund a conflict that has killed around 4 million people. The volume of wood removed by rebel factions, …
