The National Forest Policy (NFP) of 1988 marked a watershed in the way forests were perceived by the State Forest Departments. Recognising the serious limitations of the exclusivist approach towards forest conservation that had been followed since independence, the NFP paved the way for bringing in more participatory means of conserving forests and biodiversity in which involvement of local people was a key ingredient. The need for meeting forest product requirements of rural people was, for the first time, given primacy over maximisation of timber revenues, which had been the primary focus of governmental forest management since the colonial era. New areas of i in the NFP included conservation of ecosystem functions such as watershed protection and biodiversity protection, restoration of degraded forests, provision of alternatives to forest produce to rural people, extension of forestry to non-forest land, protection of the rights and concessions of forest-dwelling people and institution of Environmental Impact Assessments as a prerequisite for development projects in the country. The importance given in the NFP, to development of a scientific and technological basis for interventions in the forestry sector, is also significant. The NFP forms the basis for several conservation programmes and initiatives that are being undertaken in the country today, such as Joint Forest Management (see Saigal, 2003 in this issue)-Editor.
Forestry's Future Frustrated or A Condensed History of Canadian Foresters' Concern for Forest Renewal
