The forest and environment of India are under pressure from the rising population, leading into over exploitation, massive deforestation and other natural calamities on account of ecological imbalances, threatening the life support system of the people. Realizing that the future of the country is linked with rational use of the resources and conservation of the forest; the task of improving productivity of the forest and their protection and extension on the degraded areas have acquired national priority in India today. To boost the efficient management of the forest and to develop new technologies required to meet the challenge, Government of India, in 1997, had re-organised the research set up in the country, by establishing Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE) and opening a network of research institutes under it; making the ICFRE, responsible for the forestry research planning, monitoring funding and co-ordination at the national level. This book focuses chiefly on two issues. Firstly, need for developing system oriented planning framework for better resource allocation, control and monitoring research in India has been proposed, and issues of research programmes, international co-operation, and personal requirements and discussed. Second, application of economic principles in deriving interest criteria for forestry research and evaluating the impact of research in terms of cost-benefit analysis are discussed with reference to the recent techniques developed. This project work starts from a brief history of forestry set up to give a better understanding of the situation.
