Participatory Forest Management for Conservation and Sustainable Use of Plant Diversity in India

The paper discusses the problems of plant diversity conservation under the present forest management systems. Besides establishing protected areas, need for reorienting management of other forests for plant diversity conservation is stressed. Peoples participation is necessary for plant diversity conservation in the forest irrespective of their degree of degradation. Suggestion is made to extend participatory management to non-degraded forests also for sustainable production and utilization of non-timber forest products.