Village Voices, Forest Choices

This work offers a comprehensive examination of revolutionary changes occurring in the management of India's forests. Over the past two decades, responding to scarcities, thousands of villages have taken charge of public forests, thereby controlling grazing and cutting. The result has been a striking renewal of once badly degraded ecosystems. Lush, young, secondary forests are emerging in many parts of central India, rich in biodiversity, where degrading, eroding wastelands were recently dominant. Equally remarkable, this has often happened with no outside assistance. This book looks at how this has been happening.