National Working Plan

Working Plan has been the main instrument of forest planning (more exactly forest working) in the country for scientific management of forests. It is a very useful document for evaluating the status of forests and biodiversity resources of a forest division, assessing the impact of past management practices and deciding about suitable management interventions for future. Periodical up-dating and revision of working plan is essential to keep pace with the trends emerging out of forest–people interface and to address national and international obligations.

Preparation of working plan is a highly technical exercise under taken at regular interval in each forest division. The preparation of the working plan is based on stock and vegetation maps which is prepared through ground surveys. Recently, the use of modern tools like remote sensing, GIS and GPS is being utilized for preparing the forest cover maps of forest divisions. Every working plan includes the area specific scientific prescriptions for proper management of forests of a particular forest division, while working schemes are prepared for smaller areas for a specific purpose or for forest areas under the control/ ownership of such bodies as private, village, municipal, cantonment, autonomous district council (especially in north eastern states), etc. These prescriptions enable necessary co-existence of development with nature for simultaneous implementation of Indian Forest Act, 1927, Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, Forest Conservation Act, 1980, Panchayats (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996 (PESA), Biological Diversity Act, 2002, and Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act 2006; and meeting the requirements of the objectives of the National Forest Policy and other international conventions/agreements.

All forests are to be sustainably managed under the prescriptions of a working plan/scheme. The National Forest Policy clearly states “No forest should be permitted to be worked without an approved working plan by the competent authority”. It is the duty of the manager or owner of the forest area to ensure the preparation of the working plan / scheme. The authority as designated by the MoEF, will approve the working plan and ensure its implementation. Even working schemes have all major elements of a working plan and these schemes also need the sanction of the competent authority.

There has been a paradigm shift in the objectives of management of forests and forest management has become more people centric and oriented to provide the goods and services from forests on sustained basis, with an emphasis on ecological services and harvest of usufructs as well. The working plan should be in consonance with general planning, which is village based. Therefore the working plan should encompass the village as a unit and realign the compartments accordingly. Proper guidelines for sustainable use of community forests; extraction, processing, market and trade of minor forest produce, etc. may be provided under separate working circles. Forest community rights related to community forest resources, minor forest produce, grazing grounds, water bodies, etc. recognized under the provision of the Forest Rights Act, 2006, can be exercised within the framework of sustainable use. On the other hand, management of forests adversely affected by mining, industries, urbanisation and other non-forest activities is also of great challenge for which special planning initiatives are needed.

For involvement and benefit of local stakeholders, micro plans are to be prepared within the ambit of working plan prescriptions for Joint Forest Management (JFM) areas and eco development plans are to be prepared for eco-sensitive forest areas adjoining the notified protected areas. The microplan of jointly managed forests is prepared by the members of the Joint Forest Management Committee (JFMC), through Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA), with the technical assistance of forest staff of the territorial division as per MoU, for sharing the responsibilities of implementation and equitable sharing of usufructs among the stakeholders within the broad prescriptions of working plan. Micro plan is approved by concerned Working Plan Officer (WPO)/Divisional Forest Officer (DFO)/Forest Development Agency (FDA) as per prevailing conditions in the state/UT. Proper implementation of the micro plan by each JFMC should be reviewed at least once in two years by the Forest Development Agency (FDA).