Context: Recently, the Forests, Trees and the Eradication of Poverty: Potential and Limitations report was launched by the Global Forest Expert Panel (GFEP).

• The GFEP is an initiative of the Collaborative Partnership on Forests (CPF) chaired by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations.

Key Points

• The report highlighted the nexus between SDG No.1 on ending poverty and SDG No.15 on protecting and restoring sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems.

According to the report, Direct and indirect benefits from forests include

• Forest-related employment and income
• Use of timber and non-timber forest products
• The monetary gains from the ecosystem services may not always reach the poorest households.

Recommendations

• Forests and tree-based systems may contribute to achieving sustainable development goal of eradicating poverty (SDG No.1) by 2030.
• The agroforestry, community forest management, ecotourism and forest producer organisations have been successful in reducing poverty.
• The report called for more research on the relationship between forests and inequality.

Sacred Groves

• The sacred groves are sites such as individual trees, rivers, waterfalls and among others which are of cultural and religious importance.
• These represent a traditional form of community-based conservation.
• Sacred groves in India are associated with temples, monasteries, shrines or with burial grounds.  Also mentioned in Hindu, Jain and Buddhist texts such as Vrukshayurveda and Kalidasa’s Vikramuurvashiiya.

The Indian regions having sacred groves

• The Wildlife (Protection) Amendment Act, 2002, provides government protection tosacred groves.

Examples

• Scrub forests in Rajasthan maintained by the Bishnois.
• Rain forests in the Western Ghats of Kerala. 
• Mangar Bani of Delhi protected by Gujjars.
• Kavus of Kerala
• Law Kyntangs of Meghalaya
• Sarna of Jharkhand

Ecological Significance

• The sacred groves are important repositories of floral and faunal diversity that have been sustainably conserved by local communities.
• The groves are often associated with ponds, streams or springs, which help meet the water requirements of the local people.
• The vegetation cover of the sacred groves improves the soil stability of the area and also prevents soil erosion.

Additional Information

• 80% of the world’s vanilla is produced in Madagascar.
• At least 1.6 billion people are dependent on forests for livelihood.
• Extreme poverty is projected to increase for the first time in 20 years, as per World Bank projections. The main reasons are the COVID-19 pandemic, conflicts and climate change.

Major Recommendations

• Secure access to land and forest resources is often seen as a first step for forest-reliant poor to be able to reliably benefit, monetarily and non-monetarily, from forests.
• Overly burdensome regulations keep the forest-reliant poor from engaging in formal forestry sector.
• Sourcing legal timber in international trade has resulted in bilateral trade agreements that have pushed for domestic governance reform – an opportunity for pro-poor policy reforms.
• Payments for ecosystem services are expected to either have no impact on poverty (if they exactly compensate for lost profits from forgone environmental activities) or increase incomes.

Ecotourism can contribute to poverty reduction in four different ways:

• improvements in employment and wages of those who find employment
• visitor fees for forested locations in protected areas
• revenues from visitor purchases of local goods and services, and
• infrastructure development with spillover effects in areas with high numbers of travellers and visitors