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The evolution of forest restoration in India: The journey from precolonial to India's 75 th year of Independence
Author(s) -
Roy Anirban,
Fleischman Forrest
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
land degradation and development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.403
H-Index - 81
eISSN - 1099-145X
pISSN - 1085-3278
DOI - 10.1002/ldr.4258
Subject(s) - forest restoration , restoration ecology , subsistence agriculture , afforestation , government (linguistics) , forest management , agroforestry , geography , environmental resource management , forest ecology , forestry , ecology , archaeology , ecosystem , economics , environmental science , agriculture , philosophy , biology , linguistics
This paper examines the history of forest restoration in India. While contemporary literature often emphasizes the novelty of forest restoration programmes as exemplified in large‐scale global pledges such as the Bonn Challenge or the Trillion Trees initiative, we show that forest restoration has thousands of years of history in India. Furthermore, this history plays an important role in shaping current restoration efforts, in ways that often undermine restoration goals. We find four themes in this history: the definitions of forests changed as the national administration metamorphosed, the philosophy behind the afforestation practices transitioned from commercial to a focus on forest cover that still underemphasizes ecological and subsistence values of forests, the involvement of forest‐dependent people in forest restoration has been limited by government policies through much of this period, and current restoration practice draws more from the history of commercial timber production than from contemporary restoration science. Drawing on these insights, we argue that restoration programmes need to be reconsidered in India.