WALTER FERNANDES: Indian Social Institute, New Delhi
RAJIV BUDDHIRAJA: Secretary, Indian Paper Makers" Association
RAJ CHAURASIA: General Manager, Ballarpur Industries Ltd., in-charge of raw materials co-ordination
PIARELAL: Vice-president, (Plantations), iTc Bhadrachalam Paperboards Ltd; also, chairperson of the Raw Materials Subcommittee of the Indian Paper Makers"Association
UDAYAN BANERJEE: Chiefforestry Advisor, Titagarh Paper mills
P V MEHTA: Executive Director, Federation of Indian Plywood and Panel Industry
BHIM SINGH: In-charge of the agroforestry sector of WIMCO
C CHAUBEY: DIG (survey & utilisation) ministry of environment and forests
K MUKHERJEE: Honorary Vice-chairperson, National Afforestation and Eco-Development Board
ANIL AGARWAL: Director, Centrefor Science and Environment
MADHU SARIN: Social activist
N C SAXENA: Director, Lai Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, Mussoorie
DULEEP MATTHAI: World Wide Fundfor Nature-India,
SAMAR SINGH: World Wide Fund for Nature-India
V S ESWARAN: Former revenue secretary, andformer chairperson,"Society for the Promotion of Wasteland Development
KAMLA CHOWDHRY: Social activist, andformer chairperson, National Wasteland Development Board
R RAJAMANI: Fortner environment secretary
C H HANUMANTHA RAO: Fortner Member, Planning Commission
S R HIREMATH: Samaj Parivarthana Samudaya, Dharwad, Karnataka
MOHAN HiRABAi HIRALAL: Social activist with Vrikshamitra, Gadchiroli, Maharashtra
R C RASTOGI: Khatima Fibres Ltd; also, representative of the All India Small Paper Mills Associaqon
S S RIZVI: Executive Director, Society or the Promotion of Wastelands Development
ANUMITA ROY CHOWDHURY: Centrefor Science and Environment
ANIL AGARWAL: The issues we are here to discuss today are as relevant for the industry as for the environment. I hope there will be a free and frank discussion.

The paper industry is critically important for promoting literacy and communication. However, the paper consumption pattern does not show that the industry is meeting its social goals. Some 50 per cent of the paper consumed is accounted for by industry. The use of paper for cultural purposes - printing and writing - is shrinking. It is obvious that paper consumption is not moving in the appropriate direction.

Two, the industry is going through a critical period. A lot of companies run obsolete and energy-inefficient plants. Studies by the Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India, Bureau of Industrial Costs and Prices, and other organisations, show them to be very polluting. The paper industry has a poor investment level in research and development (R&D).

Three, there is a raw materials crisis. The industry is moving towards imported pulp, paddy residues, waste paper and, in the past few years, bagasse. Alternative methods need to be explored. Paper is hardly recycled in India for papermaking. The belief that India is the greatest country in terms of recycling is a lie.

Four, quality paper needs raw materials with a high yield of long fibres. There could be a shortfall of 4.65 million tonnes (mt) of wood by AD 2015, if one assumes that the demand for wood remains constant at the current level of 1.23 mt. Potentially, however, there is a lot of land to grow wood.

Five, the industry has had a bad track record in terms of managing forests. During the "50s and "60s, the government believed that forests were inexhaustible. Forests were given out to industry on long-term contracts at abysmally low prices. It was industry that initiated deforestation and land degradation. In the "70s, as environmental awareness grew, the government began to realise the importance of forests. It reneged on those contracts and increased wood and bamboo prices." Around the same time, World Bank- inspired social forestry programmes began to be targeted to meet the poor people"s fuel and fodder needs. Their 3 components were strip plantations, farm forestry and village woodlots. Through the "80s, village woodlots fared miserably, while strip plantations were moderately successful. But farm forestry was a tremendous success.

According to data collected by N C Saxena, 10 billion trees were planted in farm forests between 1980-1988, over roughly 5 million hectares (mha) of land; about 60 per cent of this was eucalyptus trees. Taking into account survival rates, this gives us 7 million tonnes (mt) of pulpwood annually. Unfortunately, the government"s decision in the mid-"80s to allow cheap pulp imports forced the farmers to panic-sell the entire produce.

These imports were first allowed during Rajiv Gandhi"s tenure. It was argued in Parliament that we must save our forests, and so we must allow pulp import. The pulpwood market went out of the farmers" hands, and they were left only with the urban fuelwood market. Growing tree crops, thus, became unremunerative. Many farmers pulled out growing seedlings.

Today, industry is strongly demanding captive plantations on state forest lands. Indian industry must be profitable and competitive, but it must also meet the social objectives of generating employment and reducing poverty. Industry must do things in a way that helps expand the domestic market.

Ecological objectives demand that state forest lands grow genetically diverse species. And that monocultures be restricted to farmlands. Also, there is no reason to believe that genetically diverse regeneration on state forest lands - through Joint Forest Management (JFM) or other kinds of participatory mechanisms involving local people in for" margement - can"t meet some of industry"s pulpwood needs.

Captive plantations on state forest lands will destroy the wood market of the farmers; and a market is absolutely essential if we want poor people to grow wood.

I am sure that industry will point to some problems here; but none of these is unsolvable. To my mind, farm forestry, especially by poor farmers on poor land, is the most appropriate approach to meet the industry"s needs, both socially and ecologically.

DULEEP MATTHAI: It is important to remember that the demand for captive plantations is also coming from other industrial sectors, like tea and coffee plantations, horticultural crops, and so on, which are concerned with accessing raw materials from forest areas.

I believe that the availability of paper is going to be more difficult and costlier in the future. I would urge the paper industry to look at alternatives: bagasse and agricultural waste have enormous scope. Today, about 30-40 per cent of paper is made from agricultural waste. PIARELAL: Let me start with the status of India"s land resources. Some 130 mh a-, or 40 per cent of India"s geographic area, Lomprise degraded forests and wastelands, and need urgent reclamation and reforestation. This is true also of 31 mha of recorded forest area. The gap between demand and availability of fodder, fuelwood, timber and industrial wood is continuou,r1dy growing.

Figures supplied by the ministry of rural development show large deficits in the fields of fuel-wood, dry fodder and green fodder. Even industrial timber, whic 1i has a comparatively insignificant demand, will suffer a 15 million cubic metre (mcm) deficit.

According to the Food and Agricultural Organization"s (FAO) estimates, the demand for firewood and charcoal in AD 2010 will be 344 mcm - and only 36 mcm for industrial roundwood and 33 mcm. for sawn timber. The figure is insignificant for paper and paperboard.

These demands just can"t be met from our shrinking national forest resources. There is a need for technology-based restoration of the green cover through plantations. The truth is that not even I mha have been planted under social forestrv schemes of the government, although we hear that billions of seedlings were planted.

Social forestry failed to meet the farmers" expectations because of the poor quality of land and faulty silvicultural practices. Farm forestry can only meet a part of the raw material demands- Importing pulp will mean foreign exchange outflow - Rs 9,920 crores by AD 2010. All the major indirect developmental benefits from reforestation will then go to other countries.

It will take 26 years to reclaim 130 mha of degraded wastelands, at the rate of 5 mha a year, and will cost a colossa"I Rs 3,90,000 crore at current prices, at the rate of Rs 30,000 per hectare. The government alone cannot manage this task. It must involve the corporate sector, through innovative policy changes, and by making land available for industry.

By investing the funds that India would otherwise spend on pulp import in reforestation, all the degraded forest-areas can be converted to productive plantations in 10 to 12 years. The country"s entire pulpwood needs, and bulk of its firewood needs, can be met from this.

R RAJAMANI: Piarelal says that not even 1 mha has been planted. Where does he get this figu