Forest Management

This subcomponent is designed to enhance the forest management capacity of all officers and frontline staff members at the rank of DFO and below. A two-week training course outside Sikkim will be planned throughout the project period. All concerned officers and frontline staff members will attend the training at least twice during the project period. 

There are two types of training courses: refresher training courses and follow-up training courses. The content of training will focus on forest management. Themes will include the followings.
  • working plan, 
  • forest inventory, 
  • nursery techniques, 
  • silviculture, 
  • utilization, 
  • establishment and monitoring of JFMCs, EDCs, and PSS?s, and 
  • micro plan. 

In addition, training on communication skills for frontline staff members will be organized. The training can be conducted at one of the following institutes:
  • State Forest Service College, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu
  • State Forest Service College, Burnihat, Assam
  • State Forest Service College, Dehradun, Uttarakhand
  • Eastern Forest Rangers College, Kurseong, West Bengal
  • Indian Institute of Forest Management, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh
  • Forest Research Institute, Dehradun, Uttarakhand
  • Andhra Pradesh Forest Academy, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh
  • Amity School of Natural Resources, Noida, Uttar Pradesh

Additionally, Darjeeling, West Bengal will be the ?exposure visit? destination considering the similarity in natural characteristics between Darjeeling and Sikkim. The visit will be designed for ACF, range officers, Head Forest Guards and Forest Guards to gain practical skills, techniques and to learn mechanism in forest management and biodiversity conservation in a mountainous area. 

A mixed group of up to 20 persons (one to two ACFs, two to three ROs, three to five Head Forest Guards, and seven to ten Forest Guards) will be selected per district to go on the eight-day exposure visit. Four trips will be organized. Training costs will include transport, board and meals of all trainees in Darjeeling. Tamil Nadu will also be considered as the exposure visit site as well as the venue to learn techniques on GIS and community development. At present, Tamil Nadu is implementing loan projects related to joint forest management funded by JICA.