15 October 2004	Friday	29 Shaban 1425

PESHAWAR, Oct 14: The joint forest management (JFM) system being practised for well over 10 years in parts of the NWFP, has not produced desired results mainly because of bureaucratic hindrances, according to forest sector experts.

Introduced in the early 90s in Siran and Kaghan, in the Hazara region of the province, the JFM system was meant to improve the forest management by involving inhabitants of forest areas in preparing work plans for forest harvesting and planning to expand forest area and monitoring and protecting forest reserves from culling.

"We can't say that we got the results the Joint Forest Management system is famous for universally," said a forestry sector expert on request of anonymity. He said that in areas where joint forest management committees (JFMCs) did exist, even there the communities had not been given greater role in the monitoring and planning of forests.

"Except for helping the provincial government in securing funds from international donor agencies by using the JFM system as an achievement, in real terms the system has not made much difference as far as conserving the forest is concerned," said a representative of a non-governmental organization.

Section 102, titled "Joint Forest Management", of the NWFP Forest Ordinance, 2002, empowers forest officer(s) to constitute forest management committees for managing forests.

A JFMC involves a total of 15 members, including one representative each of the Forest Dvelopment Corporation, environment department (previously named as forest department) and a non-governmental organization with the remaining members coming from the communities.

Though the ordinance was promulgated by NWFP Governor in June 2002, rules to help its provisions concerning JFM become applicable have not yet been notified even after the promulgation of the ordinance more than two years ago, a point also confirmed by well-placed officials of the environment department, NWFP.

Officials said that the rules had been pending scrutiny and vetting by the provincial law department following which these would be notified to help relevant sections of the ordinance become effective.

"In the absence of the rules, the JFM system is being implemented through the provincial government's forest policy and notifications issued from time to time over the past few years," said a divisional forest officer (DFO) of the environment department.

He, however, rejected the impression that the JFM was ineffective as, he claimed, the JFM had given the results in parts of Hazara region. Experts however say that the JFM system is not being implemented in its true spirit as they say the committees are only being used for preparing work plans concerning cutting of trees, wherever required.

"The community-based organizations set up for the JFM are not involved in the planning and monitoring of forest and they are constituted to help the department in preparing work plans for cutting of trees," said the expert.

"Similarly, these organizations neither have funds to prepare plans for improving the forest cover not they have significant role in monitoring their forests." Lack of financial resources, said the expert, compromised their independence rendering the committees to see towards the private sector contractors, who manipulate the situation to their advantage by dolling out money to communities.

Talking to Dawn, Mr Mohammed Riaz, a representative of the Sungi Development Foundation, which is working in the forestry sector, said that the government should notify elaborate rules and terms of references (ToRs) for JFM systems to make them independent entities.

"It would help them work without interference by official circles and secure them from manipulations of the timber mafia," said Mr Riaz. These committees should have some financial resources to plan their projects on their own for the betterment of forest in their area concerned, he maintained.

Experts said that sub-section (3) of section 102 of the Forest Ordinance, which empowers the forest officer(s) to revoke an agreement of JFM with the committee concerned, was to the disadvantage of the committees as, they maintained, it amounted to giving unbridled authority to the forest officer.

According to experts' rough estimates, there are less than one hundred JFMCs in the Hazara region, whereas, according to official circles, the Malakand region has none. "This speaks in itself of the lack of interest on the part of official circles in organizing the communities to play an effective role in managing the forest reserves," conceded a former employee of the provincial government.