Forest dynamics in the Indian Western Ghats: the long road from science to policy

Background/Question/Methods

As with most of the tropics, the Western Ghats of India is witnessing a tussle between the needs of biodiversity and humans. Among the most populous of hotspots, land here is a scarce commodity, and even more so for conservation. At the same time, there has been a history of conservation policy and practice, both through centralized legal regulations and decentralized decisions for resource use by local communities. Legal regulations categorize conservation spaces into different levels of protection and permitted harvest, which has resulted in a mosaic of land-uses. Understanding how to maintain biodiversity in this mix, across scales, is a looming challenge. A crucial impediment towards this goal is the lack of engagement with science when shaping policies for forest management. Although India's policy circles seem well up to speed with latest buzz words, be it carbon or sustainable, every new policy paper reveals that the road from science to practice lies broken in places.

Results/Conclusions

I will first outline the main goals of forest conservation in India's Western Ghats. Next, I will synthesize the main lines of inquiry ongoing in the Western Ghats in the realm of forest dynamics and contrast the local vs. global state-of-knowledge. Indian researchers face myriad challenges in trying for quality science, there being a mismatch in requirements to do science that is globally competitive while being locally relevant or even possible. Finally, I will highlight the science needed to aid conservation and management of forests in the years to come. Even though science is but one part of policy, no policy for forest management can succeed without a solid foundation in science. Overall, I hope to provide a broad overview of the state of forests in India's Western Ghats and the information, infrastructure and mindset needed to plan the future of these forests.