18 Oct 2005-19 Oct 2005|Noida | Amity Campus, Sector-44, Noida
2 Day workshop on ‘FOREST CERTIFICATION- IMPLICATIONS ON FORESTRY IN INDIA’
Amity School of Natural Resources & Sustainable Development (ASNRSD) conducted a two day training workshop on
“FOREST CERTIFICATION-IMPLICATIONS ON FORESTRY IN INDIA” at the Amity Campus, Sector-44, Noida on October 18-19, 2005. The workshop was sponsored by Ministry of Environment & Forests (MoEF) to sensitize the important stakeholders like forest managers, scientists and policy makers in the country in the forestry sector on issues related to forest certification in India.
The workshop was inaugurated by
Shri. Namo Narayan Meena, Minister of State for Environment & Forests , who shared with the audience the importance of forest certification, “ India has to initiate a process of certifying forests and forests products to get acccess to green markets and receive a premium price in the international market. It has become imperative to have a national policy on Forest Certification as its certification is necessary to ensure the continuity of forest goods and services through Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) approach.”
Welcoming the august gathering
Dr. Ashok K. Chauhan, Founder President, Ritnand Balved Education Foundation stated: “The world's forests are disappearing at an alarming rate, and with disastrous consequences. There is a great deal to be done to improve the forestation so that our forests are safe and sustainably managed. Amity School of Natural Resources & Sustainable Development (ASNRSD) by conducting workshops aims at better management of natural resources through conservation, sustainable utilization and application of science and technology for the restoration and holistic development of environmental resources.”
Dr. A. K. Mukherji, IFS - Former Director General of Forest & Sp. secretary, Govt. of India stated: “The time has come to assess our forests on the basis of criteria and indicators for Sustainable Forest Management (SFM). We all are aware that forest certification is one of the important tools to translate concept of SFM into practice. I also advocate the forest certification at national level. The very basis of modern management of forestry in India is and has been sustainable yield which in real terms is sustainable management.”
The deliberations focused mainly on issues of forest certification pertaining to timber & non-timber forest products, sustainable forest management in India and International scenario in and on forest certification. The Issues in context of developing countries and experience paper and case studies on relevance of forest certification in India were also discussed.
The participants of the workshop included senior officers of the rank of Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF’s), Chief Conservator of Forests of different states and representatives from various ministries of central government, planning commission and International donor agencies. Some of the eminent speakers on the occasion were:
Dr. A. K. Mukherji, IFS - Former Director General of Forest & Sp. secretary, Govt. of India; Mr. G. K. Prasad- IFS, ADG, MoEF; Dr. S. S. Negi, Director, FRI, Dehradun; Mr. Sudipto Chatterjee, Coordinator, FBCP, WWF-India and Dr. K.S. Shashidhar, Director, IWST, Bangalore.