The Role of Joint Forest Management in Enhancing the Productive Capacity of Household: A Case Study on Tripura State, India

Abstract

In India, Joint Forest Management (JFM) is one of the recognized organizational systems to regenerate forest resources, meeting local needs of people and sharing expected benefits. This study examines the factors that affect success of JFM program by testing the hypothesis that JFM committees' activities play a major role in poverty alleviation in North and South Districts of Tripura. The study hypothesis has been analyzed through Multiple Regression based on information obtained from primary survey of 200 households. In South District, expenditure pattern indicates that non-JFM households' expenditure is high on nonproductive activities whereas that of JFM households' is more on productive activities. Income and asset possession of JFM households is high as compared to non-JFM households. In North District, income of non-JFM households is higher than JFM households, but their expenditure is very high on both productive and non-productive activities in comparison to JFM households' expenditure. These expenditure patterns indicate some finer points about their socio-economic condition which are later discussed in the paper. In short, South District JFM households contribute significantly to their socio-economic conditions compared to North District JFM households. North District JFM households' contribution to their socioeconomic condition is less, because of lack of awareness arising from limited interactions of households with the Forest Department officials. The overall study concludes that the effective functioning of JFM committees is critical towards reducing poverty in the region, as evident from the comparative study of South and North Districts.