Give a short note on Joint Forest Management Of atleast 10 lines.
Joint forest management is the concept of developing partnerships between the state forest departments and local communities that are dependent upon the forests for their requirements. The mechanism includes a village committee known as forest protection committee that enters into an agreement with the forest department. The village committee safeguards the forest resources from fire, grazing and illegal harvesting in return for non-timber products and revenue from timber products. Thus, it is dependent upon mutual trust and cooperation and has emerged as a form of sustainable forestry. The national JFM guidelines were issued in 1990 and 22 states are now implementing the programme.