Dietrich Brandis

From Freepedia

Sir Dietrich Brandis (1824-1907) is considered the father of tropical forestry. He worked with the British government in India and introduced scientific forest management.

German foresters were hired by the British government in the late nineteenth century to train forestry students who were candidates for the Indian Forest Service.

Brandis joined the British service in 1856 as superintendent of the teak forests of Pegu division in eastern Burma. During that time Burma's teak forests were controlled by militant Karen tribals. He introduced the "taungya" system (See KING KFS (1968). Agro-silviculture (the taungya system). University of Ibadan / Dept of Forestry, Bulletin no. 1, 109pp.), in which Karen villagers provided labour for clearing, planting and weeding teak plantations. In return they were allowed to plant crops for the first few years between the trees. As the teak trees grew, villagers were moved to new land and the process was repeated. As a result of this process, many villagers became dependent on the state forestry service and local resistance to the state takeover of forests became increasingly difficult.

Brandis later became inspector general of forests in India.