MSP for MFP: 15 years too late

Governance Now, april 16-30 edit

Union and state governments continue to violate the law of the land

In the first week of this month, the planning commission said it had written to both the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) and the finance ministry to fix minimum support price (MSP) for “minor forest produce” (MFP). Environment minister Jairam Ramesh, in turn, said he was already on the job and had, in fact, even taken up the case with finance minister Pranab Mukherjee. At first glance, all these would seem a welcome change, a timely and appropriate move to empower the tribal communities, except that all of them and others in office are guilty of violating the law of the land for 15 long years.

The Panchayats (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Act (PESA) bestowed “the ownership of the minor forest produce” on the tribal communities in 1996. Even while preparing and releasing its Integrated Action Plan for 60 Maoist-affected districts in 2010 (worth a little less than Rs 15,000 crore), the plan panel conveniently forgot to deal with MFP. This was despite the fact that it had, at the time, worked out that bestowing this ownership, which is their legal entitlement, would mean a whopping direct income of Rs 50,000 crore a year for the tribals.

If ever there was any confusion over the definition of MFP, the Forest Rights Act of 2006 removed it completely. It’s definition said: “Minor forest produce includes all non-timber forest produce of plant origin including bamboo, brush wood, stumps, cane, tussar, cocoons, honey, wax, lac, tendu or kendu leaves, medicinal plants and herbs, roots, tubers, and the like”. But see what Ramesh did on as late as March 21, 2011. He wrote a letter to all the chief ministers with a foreword: “I am now writing to you on a related issue of declaring and treating bamboo as Minor Forest Produce.”

Clearly, he hadn’t read the Forest Rights Act that listed bamboo first as MFP. His letter went on to say that the state governments and forest departments should now ensure, among other things: a) Gram Sabha will issue transit passes for bamboo; b)Gram Sabha will decide extraction level of bamboo and c) All revenue generated from bamboo (where FRA has not been implemented) will be shared with the local communities. He didn’t even mention “ownership”, let alone pass it on despite mentioning FRA.

And that is because his ministry has played a key key role in denying this right. Forget bamboo, ownership of none of the other items listed in the FRA - brush wood, stumps, cane, tussar, cocoons, honey, wax, lac, tendu or kendu leaves, medicinal plants and herbs, roots, tubers – has been passed on. Bamboo remained defined as a “tree” and not a MPF in the books of Ramesh and MoEF for ages. Now it is supposed to be a “grass”. Of course, other central ministries and the state governments are equally guilty.

One would be naïve to expect that everything will be alright now that the plan panel and Ramesh have woken up. And that is because even now they don’t acknowledge and haven’t passed on the legal entitlement. It is more for public posturing which will disappear once the Maoists go into a hiding and peace returns to the tribal belt of central India.

There is another crucial resource from which the tribals should be benefitting but don’t. It relates to “minor minerals”. PESA provided that “the recommendations of the Gram Sabha or the Panchayats at the appropriate level shall be made mandatory prior to grant of prospecting licence or mining lease for minor minerals in the Scheduled Areas”. The objective was for the tribal communities to have a say in mining such minerals and benefit from it. The plan panel hasn’t worked out the money involved but its senior officials said minor minerals would be worth a lot more than Rs 50,000 crore of annual trade in MPF. How exactly the tribals should benefit from the extraction of minor minerals like sand and pebbles, stones and chips, even limestone, should have been worked out by now.