What new trends and developments have affected the forestry of today?
Since the 1980s governments across Asia and ** have begun to see that scientific forestry and the policy of keeping forest communities away from forests has resulted in many conflicts. Conservation of forests rather than collecting timber has become a more important goal.
The government has realised/recognised that in order to meet this goal, the people who live near the forests must be involved.
In many cases, across India, from Mizoram to Kerala, dense forests have survived only because villagers protected them in sacred groves known as sarnas, Devarakudu, Kau, rai, etc. Some villages have been patrolling their own forests, with each household taking it in turns, instead of leaving it to the forest guards. Local forest communities and environmentalists today are thinking of different forms of forest management.
