traditional forest dwellers, which include nomadic or settled pastoralists, on all forest lands.
The Forest Rights Act therefore provides us with certain rights as a community, including:
• The right of ownership and access to collect, use and dispose of minor forest
produce which has been traditionally collected within or outside village boundaries
(Section 3c);
• The right to protect, regenerate or conserve or manage any forestry resource which
we have been traditionally protecting and conserving for sustainable use (Section
3i);
• The right of access to biodiversity and community right to intellectual property and
traditional knowledge related to biodiversity and cultural diversity (Section 3k);
and
• The right to traditional rights we customarily enjoyed (Section 3l).
We acknowledge the limitation of these rights under Section 4 of the Act in cases in which
forests are designated as National Parks or Sanctuaries, but point out that the processes set
out under Section 4(2) - such as ascertaining whether other reasonable options such as coexistence are not available - remain to be complied with.
Finally, under Section 5, holders of any forest right, Gram Sabha and village level
institutions in areas where there are holders of any forest right under the Act are
empowered to:
• protect the wildlife, forest and biodiversity;
• ensure that adjoining catchments areas, water sources and other ecologically
sensitive areas are adequately protected;
• ensure that the habitat of forest dwelling Scheduled Tribes and other traditional
forest dwellers is preserved from any form of destructive practices affecting their
cultural and natural heritage; and
• ensure that the decisions taken in the Gram Sabha to regulate access to community
forest resources and stop any activity which adversely affects the wild animals,
forest and the biodiversity are complied with.
It is clear from the above that we are committed to these activities and seek to foster
cooperation with local Forest Officials to develop joint management plans.
We call on the National Biodiversity Authority
We call upon the National biodiversity Authority to:
• Recognize our traditional knowledge as it has been recorded by JJVS and to include
it in the Peoples’ Biodiversity Register (under Rule 22(6) of the Biological Diversity
Rules);
• Facilitate the setting up of Biodiversity Management Committees under the local
bodies (Panchayats or Municipalities) in Rajasthan and to support these Committees
in ensuring the conservation and sustainable use of our biodiversity and traditional
knowledge (as per Section 41 of the National Biodiversity Act);
• Strengthen in situ conservation of medicinal plants and include them in the BMC
being initiated by the government (under Sections 36 and 41 of the National
Biodiversity Act);