(i) Forest products: Forests provide us with timber, fuel wood, hard wood, medicinal herbs, spices, etc. They also provide us with raw material for manufacture of paper.
(ii) Environment: They provide the environment and habitat for wildlife.
(iii) Ecological balance: They provide and help sustain ecological balance vital for the sustenance of all life forms-humans, animals and plants.
(iv) Livelihood: Forests provide livelihood to many forest communities and tribes.
(v) Fertility of the soil and soil erosion: Forests help in increasing fertility of the soil and hence crop production. Large quantities of leaves, twigs and branches after decomposition from humus. Roots of plants and trees help hold soil together. So forests help in prevention of soil erosion by winds, water, etc.

Since 1980s governments' policies in Asia and Africa have undergone a sea change.
(i) Instead of scientific forestry6 and the policy of keeping forest communities away from forests, conservation of forest, and not collection of wood, has become the most important goal.
(ii) To meet its goal government had realised  it must involve people who live near the forest.
(iii) Governments instead of being in a conflict situation or ousting the local people and their participation in policies and actions are an essential ingredient for success in conservation and development of forests.
(iv) In fact in India, dense forests have survived due to local efforts. Villages protected them as sacred groves known as kan , rai and sarnas .
(v) Some villagers patrolled their own forests with each household taking turns instead of leaving it to forests guards.
(vi) Local forest communities and environmentalists today are thinking of different forms of forest management.

(i) Respect for non-violence and civil disobedience.
(ii) Peaceful living
(iii) Rightists
(iv) Love and respect for nature
(v) Dignity of labour
(vi) Fight for justice and against exploitation.

(i) The Dutch colonised Java.
(ii) Surontiko Samin began questioning state ownership of forests. He argued since the state had not created the wind, earth, water and wood, it could not own it.
(iii) His followers the Saminists protested by lying down on their land when the Dutch came to survey it.
(iv) They cut teak despite Dutch efforts to guard the forests.
(v) They refused to pay taxes, fines, to accept wages, and to leave rented or communal land when the leases expired.
(vi) Some piled stones on the roads which they had been ordered to build.

Forests were important for poor people because they satisfied their needs for fuel, fodder, leaves.
Examples:
(a) Forest people put to good use various products of the forests like roots, tubers, leaves and fruits. Fruits and tubers are eaten especially during the monsoon season. 
(b) Herbs are used as medicines.
(c) Wood to make agricultural implements like yokes, ploughs.
(d) Bamboo is used for making fences, baskets and umbrellas.
(e) Dried gourd is used as portable water bottles.
(f) Leaves are stitched together to make plates and cups.
(g) Creepers like sal creeper are used to make ropes.
(h) Tendu leaves are used to make bidi.

(i) The Forest Act of 1878 divided forests into (i) reserved (ii) protected and (iii) village forests.
(ii) The best forests were called reserved forests.
Villagers could not take anything from these forests even for their personal use. They could take wood for building their houses or for fuel from protected or village forests.

Some of the communities that live in Bastar are Maria and Muri Gonds, Dhurwas, Bhatras and Halbas.

In scientific Forestry
(i) Natural forests which had different types of trees were cut down and new ones belonging to one tree type were planted in rows. This is called as plantation .
(ii) Forest officials surveyed the forests. They estimated the area under different types of trees and made working plans for the forest management. They planned how much of the plantation area was to be cut every year.
(iii) The cleared area was replanted to enable recutting after some years.

Tea, Coffee and rubber

The Indian Forest Service was set up in 1864 to introduce proper system to manage forests and train people in the science of conservation.

Dietrich Brandis was the First Inspector General of Forests in India.
(i) Proper system had to be introduced to manage the forests and people had to be trained in the science of conservation. Legal sanctions were needed for forest management.
(ii) Rules about the use of forest resources had to be formed
(iii) Felling of trees and grazing had to be restricted so that forests could be preserved for timber production.
(iv) Anybody who cut trees without following the system was to be punished.
(v) He set up the Indian Forest Service in 1864 and helped formulate the Indian Forest Act of 1865. In 1906 the Imperial Forest Research Institute was set up in Dehradun.

Colonial rulers consider forests as unproductive because:
(i) they regarded forests as wilderness
(ii) they did not yield any agricultural products
(iii) they yielded no revenue and income for the state.

Forests around the railway tracks started disappearing (after 1860's) because:
(i) From 1860's railway network expanded rapidly and by 1890 about km 25,500 km of track had been laid.
(ii) As tracks spread, a large number of trees were felled to meet the demand for sleepers needed to hold the tracks together (approximately 1760 to 2000 sleepers were needed per mile)
(iii) The government gave out contracts to individuals to supply the required quantities.
(iv) Individual contractors began cutting trees indiscriminately.
(v) Moreover decided to take up an area for logging one of the first things they did was build wide roads so that trucks could enter to carry logs of wood. This also was a factor in disappearing of forests near railway tracks.

The colonial managers of Bastar were the British, while those of Java were the Dutch.
Similarities
(a) In both cases, forests came to be owned by the state.
(b) They restricted villagers from practicing shifting cultivation.
(c) They enacted laws to allow themselves to exploit forest trees for timber, to build ships and railways, to protect and further their imperial interests.
(d) Both enacted forest laws to restrict villager's access to forests, grazing, etc.
(e) Both were exploitative by nature, they displaced the local communities from their traditional means of livelihood, and exploited them to further their interests. Defaulters of forest laws were harassed, punished and fined.
(g) Both introduced exploitative policies to get the support of the locals. The British introduced 'Forest villages'. Under this, some villages were allowed to stay on in the reserved forests on the condition that they would work free for the forest department and would help in cutting and transporting trees and protecting the forests from fire.
(g)In Java, the Dutch introduced the Blandongdiensten system. Under this, the villages were exempted from rent if they would work collectively to provide free labour and animals for cutting and transporting timber.
(h) Policies of management in both cases resulted in the enforcement of alien concepts of private property, taxes and penetration of forest societies by outsiders.
(i) The atrocities of the managers led to increasing frustration among the forest communities, which found an outlet in rebellions. These rebellions though crushed with a heavy hand were not without results.

A forest is an area with high density of trees.