Adequate involvement of academicians and policy makers is most essential for effective and common resources in the country, Delivering the keynote address at the inaugural ceremony of the 13th biennial conference of the International Association for the Study of the Commons (IASC), being held in the city on Monday, the Union minister put the spotlight on the environmental challenges facing the world (particularly in India) and the critical issues restraining authorities from implementing more effective laws to protect common property such as forests and water.

Keeping with the theme of the five-day conference (January 10-14), `Sustaining Commons: Sustaining our future', Ramesh listed out the three broad concerns involving common property: Climate change (which he categorised as a global concern), rivers and usage of water (a regional concern) and forest management (a local concern).

While he attributed the global issue to the lack of communication between academicians and authorities, he said it was the lack of scientific knowledge and skewed ideas that had turned rivers and forest management into serious concerns. "For long we have been hearing that one-third should be under forest cover. But what is the theology behind such a claim," Ramesh asked while stressing on the need to make a radical shift from the quantity of forest to the quality of forest for better management of the 75 million hectares of forest cover in India.

Besides these concerns, the Union minister said that environment issues were still missing from political discussions and the country's Environment Act had remained flawed, as it describes those dependent on forests for a livelihood as "criminals''. Referring to a recently revised law wherein the government has now involved more than one `institution' (as against only one so far) to manage the country's 7,500 km-long coastline, Ramesh said, "We need to allow for a multiplicity of institutions to be part of the process for better management of commons

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