Editing Conservation movement (section)

===Origins of the modern conservation movement===
Conservation was revived in the mid-19th century, with the first practical application of scientific conservation principles to the forests of India. The conservation ethic that began to evolve included three core principles: that human activity damaged the [[Natural environment|environment]], that there was a [[civic duty]] to maintain the environment for future generations, and that scientific, empirically based methods should be applied to ensure this duty was carried out. Sir [[James Ranald Martin]] was prominent in promoting this ideology, publishing many medico-topographical reports that demonstrated the scale of damage wrought through large-scale deforestation and desiccation, and lobbying extensively for the institutionalization of forest conservation activities in [[British India]] through the establishment of [[Indian Forest Service|Forest Departments]].<ref>Stebbing,<!--checkp--> E.P. (1922)''The forests of India'' vol. 1, pp. 72-81</ref> [[Edward Percy Stebbing]] warned of [[desertification]] of India. The [[Madras]] Board of Revenue started local conservation efforts in 1842, headed by [[Alexander Gibson (botanist)|Alexander Gibson]], a professional [[botany|botanist]] who systematically adopted a forest conservation program based on scientific principles. This was the first case of state management of forests in the world.<ref>{{cite book |last=Barton |first=Greg |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WDYlNljAP5AC|title=Empire Forestry and the Origins of Environmentalism|year=2002|publisher=Cambridge University Press|page=48|isbn=9781139434607 }}</ref>

These local attempts gradually received more attention by the British government as the unregulated felling of trees continued unabated. In 1850, the [[British Association]] in Edinburgh formed a committee to study forest destruction at the behest of [[Hugh Francis Cleghorn|Hugh Cleghorn]] a pioneer in the nascent conservation movement.

He had become interested in [[Sustainable forest management|forest conservation]] in [[Mysore]] in 1847 and gave several lectures at the Association on the failure of agriculture in India. These lectures influenced the government under [[Governor-General of India|Governor-General]] [[James Broun-Ramsay, 1st Marquess of Dalhousie|Lord Dalhousie]] to introduce the first permanent and large-scale forest conservation program in the world in 1855, a model that soon spread to [[British Empire|other colonies]], as well the [[United States]]. In the same year, Cleghorn organised the [[Tamil Nadu Forest Department|Madras Forest Department]] and in 1860 the department banned the use [[shifting cultivation]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.hindu.com/mp/2007/11/05/stories/2007110550080500.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071108213227/http://www.hindu.com/mp/2007/11/05/stories/2007110550080500.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=November 8, 2007|title=A life for forestry|last=MUTHIAH|first=S. |date=Nov 5, 2007|work=[[The Hindu]]|access-date=2009-03-09}}</ref> Cleghorn's 1861 manual, ''The forests and gardens of South India'', became the definitive work on the subject and was widely used by forest assistants in the subcontinent.<ref name="Cleghorn">{{cite book|last=Cleghorn|first=Hugh Francis Clarke |title=The Forests and Gardens of South India |publisher=W. H. Allen|location=London|year= 1861|edition=Original from the University of Michigan, Digitized Feb 10, 2006|oclc= 301345427|url=http://www.worldcat.org/wcpa/oclc/301345427?page=frame&url=http%3A%2F%2Fbooks.google.com%2Fbooks%3Fid%3D_ZbC9FY1JqIC%26checksum%3D374d90c92770a514a51708f07461f0b3&title=&linktype=digitalObject&detail=}}</ref> In 1861, the Forest Department extended its remit into the [[Punjab (British India)|Punjab]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Oliver|first=J.W.|title=The Indian Forester|publisher=R. P. Sharma, Business Manager, Indian Forester|location=Allahabad|year=1901|edition=Original from Harvard University, Digitized Apr 4, 2008|volume= v.27 |pages=617–623|chapter=Forestry in India|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2U8YAAAAYAAJ&q=%22Douglas+Hamilton%22+madras++-johnson+-elephant+-whale+-william+1862&pg=PA623}}</ref>

[[File:Sir William Schlich07.jpg|thumb|300px|left|Schlich, in the middle of the seated row, with students from the forestry school at Oxford, on a visit to the forests of Saxony in the year 1892]]
Sir [[Dietrich Brandis]], a [[Germany|German]] forester, joined the British service in 1856 as superintendent of the teak forests of Pegu division in eastern [[Myanmar|Burma]]. During that time Burma's [[teak]] forests were controlled by militant [[Karen people|Karen]] tribals. He introduced the "taungya" system,<ref>King KFS (1968). "Agro-silviculture (the taungya system)". University of Ibadan / Dept. of Forestry, Bulletin no. 1, 109</ref> in which Karen villagers provided labor for clearing, planting and weeding teak plantations. After seven years in Burma, Brandis was appointed Inspector General of Forests in India, a position he served in for 20 years. He formulated new forest legislation and helped establish research and training institutions. The [[Imperial Forest School]] at [[Dehradun]] was founded by him.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Weil|first1=Benjamin|title=Conservation, Exploitation, and Cultural Change in the Indian Forest Service, 1875-1927|journal=Environmental History|date=1 April 2006|volume=11|issue=2|pages=319–343|doi=10.1093/envhis/11.2.319|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233861694}}</ref><ref>Madhav Gadgil and Ramachandra Guha, ''This Fissured Land: An Ecological History of India'' (1993)</ref>

Germans were prominent in the forestry administration of British India. As well as Brandis, [[Berthold Ribbentrop]] and [[Sir William P.D. Schlich]] brought new methods to Indian conservation, the latter becoming the Inspector-General in 1883 after Brandis stepped down. Schlich helped to establish the journal ''[[Indian Forester]]'' in 1874, and became the founding director of the first [[forestry]] school in England at [[Royal Indian Engineering College|Cooper's Hill]] in 1885.<ref>Burley, Jeffery, et al. 2009. "A History of Forestry at Oxford", ''British Scholar'', Vol. 1, No. 2., pp.236-261. Accessed: May 6, 2012.</ref> He authored the five-volume ''Manual of Forestry'' (1889–96) on [[silviculture]], [[forest management]], [[forest protection]], and forest utilization, which became the standard and enduring textbook for forestry students.