Forest Resources and Forestry Planning in the Eastern Himalayas: Facts and Policy Implications

Forests are the most important natural resource in the hilly area and they play an important role in the economic life of the indigenous people of the hilly areas. At the same time forest represent a complex economic resource. In addition to their timber value, they are a valuable source of biodiversity, as a carbon store and in reducing the severity of floods. At the same time forest may be regarded as capital stocks of such a nature that they yield two distinct flows of goods fundamentally different in nature-flow of private good such as timber, fuelwood, other minor forest produce and a flow of public goods like maintenance of environment, causation of rainfall, prevention of soil erosion, etc. However, there is a conflict between these two types of goods which the forests yield. Hence in this paper an attempt is made for an in-depth study of environment and forestry planning in context of Arunachal Pradesh which consists of only 2.5 percent of India's land mass but it contains 16 percent of total timber growing stock of the country.