Here is your short paragraph on forest conservation.
For land to be used optimally, forest conservation is necessary. Construction, furniture, paper and tanning are just some of the industrial requirements that forests fulfil.
If forests are not protected, it will lead to erosion of precious soil. While this will remove the fertile upper layer of the soil, it will also cause sedimentation in water bodies and oceans.
The government has been proactively planning forest conservation since 1988 with the Indian Forest Policy. The Indian Forest Policy of 1988 and the subsequent government resolution on participatory forest management emphasize the need for people’s participation in natural forest management. The policy document asserts that local communities should be motivated to identify themselves with the development and protection of the forests from which they derive benefits.
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Thus, the policy envisages a process of joint management of forests by the state governments (which have nominal responsibility) and the local people, which would share both the responsibility for managing the resource and the benefits that accrue from this management. Such committees are called Forest Protection Committees (FPCs).
Under Joint Forest Management (JFM), village communities are entrusted with the protection and management of nearby forests. The areas concerned are usually degraded or even deforested areas. However, in Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh all village fringe forests come under JFM.
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The communities are required to organize forest protection committees, village forest committees, village forest conservation and development societies, etc. Each of these bodies has an executive committee that manages its day-to-day affairs.