Institutional Imperatives for Promoting Trees Outside Forests (TOFs) to Enhance Timber Production in India

In India, Trees Outside Forests (TOFs) are defined as trees growing outside government recorded forest areas (RFAs) and include trees growing on private lands, farms, community lands, along roads, canals and railway lines and urban areas. With time, TOFs have been recognized as an important resource in provisioning domestic timber and in contributing to the country’s forest cover, growing stock, carbon sequestration and livelihood opportunities for the rural poor. Although being such an important resource, TOFs have no defined government authority or a national level policy for its management, unlike RFAs. Every state in the country has a different TOF regulation, especially in terms of felling, transit regulations and market facilities. The present study analyzed the implications of existing regulations and institutional mechanisms that encourage or discourage farmers to take up TOFs for timber production in two states of India; Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat. The study was comprised of a review of existing policies, regulations and guidelines related to timber production from forests and TOFs across the country followed by a field survey of 286 respondents from 24 villages spread across four districts and two states. It was found that cumbersome TOF regulations for felling and transit of trees and lack of proper market linkages for farm-grown timber were major deterrents towards adoption of tree growing by farmers. We conclude that uniform and simplified policy for management of TOFs, along with developed market linkages, can boost tree growing on private lands, thus increasing timber production. Further, linking this with programmes like REDD + can create an additional sink for carbon which would also help the country in meeting its international commitments and provide additional financial incentives.