Beyond vanishing woods

Participatory Survival Options for Wildlife, Forests and People.

Natural resource management and con servation efforts are at cross-roads today. On the one hand, threatened is the sus tainability of essential ecological processes and life support systems in the wilderness, and on the other, at stake is the security of a just and dignified livelihood of the people living in and around forests and protected areas.

This work argues that people-oriented strategies for natural resource manage ment can help us overcome the crises of ecological disaster and threatened livelihoods in India. Without a shift in strategy towards a combination of societal and technical inputs, forests and wildlife in India may not survive for long. The study provides a practical agenda for par ticipatory survival options for wildlife, forests and people. Pandey argues how societal inputs can provide sustainable livelihood security to the people living in and around forests and protected areas, and how bio-ecological inputs, can effec tively minimise the depletive forces that lead to biodiversity impoverishment and collapse of ecological processes and life support systems.

The book has practical implications for policy makers, administrators, voluntary organisations, sociologists ecologists, foresters, wildlife experts, international agencies and general readers. This is one. of the most significant works on Indian. forestry to have appeared.