Joint Forest Management In India Research Articles

A paradox of the ‘community’: contemporary processes of participatory forest conservation in the Sundarban Biosphere Reserve (SBR) region of West Bengal

ABSTRACTThis article provides a comprehensive critique of the culturalist idealizations of community, associated with an essentially tenuous version of environmentalism. To this end, it analyses an ‘eco-governmentality’, observed in the implementation of joint forest management (JFM) policy in India and, in doing so, engages with a rethinking on the historical definitions of community. An explanation of community, popularized by the works of pioneering sociologists like Ferdinand Tonnies and Louis Wirth, had largely built on some immutable dimensions. Most of such dimensions offered are organized on the notion that communities are intractable as well as organic, inhabit a distinct geographical location and have a socio-cultural system relatively undisturbed by external forces. The present study, based on empirical observations from the eco-governmentality of JFM in India, brings in insights to critique the aforementioned line of thought. It offers two levels of insights: (1) a collective can represent itself as a community through shared experiences of marginalization as well as subject-formation, (2) the solidarity of a collective as a community is often invoked as a ‘moral rhetoric’, to ‘exploit the political obligations that the government have for looking after the poor and the underprivileged section of the population’.1

Joint forest management in India – an assessment

SUMMARY Joint forest management (JFM) in India has been instrumental in changing the socioeconomic lives of forest dependent communities (FDCs) from being forest-centered to one based on the money economy. JFM has resulted in the elite capture of forest resources, and enabled regeneration of degraded forests though the evidence on the quality of regeneration is mixed. The government records suggest that with the drying up of donor funds for the JFM program. FDCs are losing interest and many JFM committees are now defunct in many states. Finally, JFM related work compels forest officials to spend more resources on a disproportionately small swathe of forest land which may have implications for biodiversity conservation in the long run. The study advocates privatization of forests as a possible alternative option to address these concerns, and enable the transition of our traditional linear economy towards a circular economy.

Joint forest management in India – an assessment

Joint forest management in India – an assessment

Status differences in collective action and forest benefits: evidence from joint forest management in India

Does status matter in community-based forest management? If so, are the high-status households more benefited than the low-status households? What drives status differences, if any, in the appropriation of forest resources? To address these questions, we draw on a theory of status and resource use that defines one’s status as one’s relative position in a group on the basis of power, prestige, honor and deference. Following this perspective, we surveyed the heads of 341 forest-based rural households in India from 2009 to 2010. We find that collective actions themselves are status-driven and the high-status households are more interested and involved in status-maintaining collective actions such as decision-making and implementation, while the low-status households perform general tasks like forest patrol. Moreover, the high-status households derive benefits from local forest significantly more than the low-status households. Further, decomposition analysis shows that a household’s prestige and honor measured by its access to social resources, problem faced and useful contacts explain about 56 % of the status gap in forest benefits, while socioeconomic characteristics explain only 16 % of the gap. Thus, due emphasis on household status from a broader socioeconomic perspective is required to reduce inequality in participation and the distribution of forest benefits in co-management.

Making the Fringe Region and Joint Forest Management in India

Making the Fringe Region and Joint Forest Management in India

Presence and effectiveness of material benefit provisions under Joint Forest Management in India: the cases of World Bank-aided Village Forest Committees in Madhya Pradesh

Provision of material benefits by external agencies has been widely adopted in developing countries' forest management, although their effectiveness in improving local livelihoods and conservation has been controversial. We provide empirical evidence of the presence and effectiveness of material benefit provisions under Joint Forest Management in a forest division of Madhya Pradesh State, India. We conducted an extensive survey of 18 World Bank-aided Village Forest Committees and case studies of two committees, one tribal and one non-tribal. Material benefit provisions by the forest department were the most predominant type of economic activity. Provisions were dispensed in a top-down manner lacking communication and facilitation, and consequently were not sufficiently effective in improving local livelihoods and conservation, especially in tribal communities. The policy implications we derived are the following: the provision of material benefits should be properly explained to beneficiaries for them to be effective as conservation incentives, technical assistance for the maintenance of the dispensed materials should be provided by village development specialists, and collective forest-based activities should be gradually promoted so that beneficiaries gain a sense of ownership for forest resources and programs. These improvements should be implemented with particular attention to disadvantaged or marginalized populations.

JOINT FOREST MANAGEMENT: A COPING STRATEGY IN THE LOSING BATTLE OF FOREST MANAGEMENT

Forest management has been a problem for many countries. The practical evidence pointsto the fact that it has been a losing battle, because despite all the measures taken to stopforest degradation and denudation, forests have been depleted. Joint Forest Management isa strategy to bring two parties together, the state sector and the local people. Tomaterialise the system many requisites must be fulfilled. There is a need to integratedifferent tenurial situations primarily the de jure rights of the state and the de facto rightsof the people that have been socially accepted in relation to their territorial occupancy overgeneration. The integration of traditional practices with technical management systemsintroduced by the state sector is also required. It also points to broader linkages betweenforest resource management and the non-forest resource management and livelihood.The partnership between the well established formal institutions equipped with technicalstaff and legal provisions and the people whose resources and concerns differ from the stateagencies seems to cause problems. Our experience reveals that the state agencies havesuffered from their inability to enforce state policies. People also have failed toinstitutionaJ.ise their rights and most of the cultural features and social regulations havealready been lost.The economics of the products that people gather for subsistence and in some cases for themarket cannot be taken as stimulations for which people will come forward. Theexperience regarding Joint Forest Management in India and Nepal for example hasrevealed that the two parties can be brought together under the strategy. The lack of apeople centred approach other than the state controlled mechanism has been found to be athreat to the system therefore this paper argues that for a better future more ground work isneeded to see when and where the strategy could be adopted.

Joint forest management: A study of West Bengal in India

The execution of Joint Forest Management (JFM) is a paradigm shift in the history of Indian forest conservation policy. Joint Forest Management is a strategy in which Forest Department and forest fringe dwellers jointly engage in protection of forests as well as sharing of benefits from forests. West Bengal is the pioneer state in India for the successful achievement of Joint Forest Management. The first successful model of Joint Forest Management in India is known as the ARABARI MODEL, started in 1972 in Paschim Medinipur District in West Bengal. As on 31st March 2009, the total forest area under Joint Forest Management in West Bengal has been recorded as 557,063.13 hectares. An attempt has been made in the present paper to analyze the nature of community participation in Joint Forest Management in West Bengal. The conflicting issues emerged from Joint Forest Management in the study area has also been explored in this paper. Finally an endeavor has been made in this paper to formulate effective proposals to resolve these conflicting issues. The study has revealed that the adoption of Joint Forest Management in West Bengal ensures protection of forests through significant community participation in forest conservation and generates rural employment and income. However the Joint Forest Management has achieved limited success in establishing traditional rights of the indigenous people over forest resources.

インドの共同森林管理（JFM）における分収インセンティブの制度設計とその有効性

インドの共同森林管理（JFM）における分収インセンティブの制度設計とその有効性

Joint forest management in India: implications and opportunities for women’s participation in community resource management

In recent years, state decentralization of control over community resource management has been increasing on a global scale. This process is largely intended to compensate for bureaucratic inefficiencies through the involvement of local users in state conservation efforts. Since India established its National Forest Policy of 1988, such a shift has occurred in natural resource management from the national to the local level. During the 1990’s this process of decentralization was accelerated under India’s Joint Forest Management (JFM) Policy. This paper examines the implications of JFM in involving local stakeholders with forest management practices, and specifically, women’s role within JFM and the degree of their participation within village forest institutions. Women are the primary collectors of forest products in rural India, and it is recognized that as a forest-dependent group, they ought to be involved in decision-making within these institutions for the sustainability of village livelihoods and conservation efforts. The success of JFM programs in this regard requires that a greater role for women be established through a gender policy within JFM. Both within and outside of state policy, measures to enhance women’s participation must take into account social relations and structures that perpetuate women’s exclusion, and identify ways through which these structures can be transformed. Ultimately, promoting women’s empowerment and livelihood rights and opportunities are essential preconditions to their effective participation.

Curse or blessing? Local elites in Joint Forest Management in India’s Shiwaliks

This article suggests that local elites play an instrumental role – either with positive or negative consequences – in shaping struggles for power over processes and outcomes of participatory forest management interventions, when implemented in communities characterized by social hierarchies. We show how the contrasting outcomes of joint forest management in two case study villages cannot be attributed to institutional reform, but appear to be caused largely by differences in the role assumed by local elites. The evidence indicates that institutional reform itself does not guarantee changes in the actual management of natural resources. Rather, vested interests at the local level and among State actors may continue to shape events while working within or beyond the new institutional landscape. On the basis of the results of our case studies, the article poses the hypothesis that a network theory of social capital could be a useful way of analyzing such diverse outcomes of similar institutional reforms implemented in relatively similar communities. We conclude by arguing that attempts at institutional reform at the level of the community in hierarchical societies should proceed with modest expectations, and an eye for the incentives facing local elites and the implementing and facilitating State actors.

Joint forest management in India: Experiences of two decades

Joint Forest Management (JFM), embracing the philosophy of forest conservation and livelihood improvement through cooperation between state and civil society, has emerged over the past decades both as a specific paradigm of forest governance in India and as India's largest community forestry program. The JFM program, evolved during early 1970s covering a few forest villages as a model for reversing the trend of degraded forest ecosystem through the active protection by local villagers. The JFM program is implemented currently by 106,482 Joint Forest Management Committees (JFMC) and it covers 22 million ha of forests spread across 28 constituent states of India and union territories. JFM emerged against a backdrop of two centuries of centralised bureaucratic control over forest management in India. Centralized control during the 19th and 20th centuries failed either to conserve resources or to contribute substantially to the well-being of local populations. However, inconsistent persuasions from decentralization policies in India under present forest policy (1988) have prompted people to analyse the theoretical basis for accepting that decentralization would bring improvements in forest ecosystem management. Still others have contested the de facto rationale for decentralization (i.e., improved forest management) and have suggested that decentralization may be a manipulation by elites to serve their own interests or to shift power, for example from national to international agencies that have funded decentralization. Thirty years from its inception, there are now concerns for the recent effectiveness of JFM (over the past 20 years) because it is a group action that is getting old and is perhaps losing some of its pioneering drive and innovativeness. Although JFM has been administered nationally, decisions on implementation detail have been left to the individual states, resulting in different strategies. The long history of JFM has also provided scope for experiences with it to change over time as well as between places. Given the range of experiences with and perceptions of JFM, as well as the importance of the objectives JFM ostensibly serves, the time is ripe therefore for a retrospective evaluation to take stock of its actual achievements, its status and ways forward. The current paper seeks to provide such a review and analysis. The paper highlights design and implementation issues related to government resolutions, benefits-sharing and forest offences. It also assesses the critical design factors and key drivers responsible for institutional reforms. The paper evaluates impacts of protection on forest productivity and on the livelihoods of local communities. It highlights that the JFM program, by virtue of the diversity of its implementation, provides an ideal laboratory for exploring why similar reforms can lead to different outcomes. The paper argued that though there are supporting government policy and guideline and massive fund support, why there has been a low down of enthusiasm for JFM in the last two decades. From experiences, it suggests strategies for its revival and JFM can further contribute effective toward forest conservation and enhanced livelihood opportunities in the future.

Explaining the performance of state–community joint forest management in India

This paper seeks to identify and analyze the factors that explain differential outcomes of joint forest management (JFM) in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. Factors affecting the performances of JFM communities are analyzed using an ordered logit model. The results indicate that JFM communities are more likely to perform well when they are smaller in size and when forest resources in the JFM community are scarce. Presence of social capital and high value forests are also likely to promote good forest growth. Effective protection of forests is likely to contribute to the growth of forests. JFM communities that were initiated by NGOs are more likely to manage forests effectively than the one initiated by the Forest Department.

Factors Determine the Progress of Forest Demarcation and Implementation of Joint Forest Management in India(Feature Articles for the Symposium)

Factors Determine the Progress of Forest Demarcation and Implementation of Joint Forest Management in India(Feature Articles for the Symposium)

Perceptions of incentives for participation: insights from joint forest management in India

The participatory approach in management of forests is now well established in forest policies of many developing countries. Incentives for different groups to participate have been argued by many to be desirable characteristics to promote participation. A key challenge for government and donor agencies is to develop better understanding of the incentives for different groups to be able to achieve and sustain their participation. Based on a case study of a joint forest management (JFM) programme in the northern state of Haryana in India, this paper highlights the relevance of understanding people's perception of the incentives. It specifically examines three hypotheses related to perceptions of villagers about incentives offered under the JFM programme and relates them to their participation in joint management. It concludes that a better understanding is likely to help in improving project implementation at the local level and the design of participatory forest management programmes more generally.

Joint forest management in India: An attitudinal analysis of stakeholders

Participatory approach to forest management started in India with the National Forest Policy, 1988, when joint Forest Management (JFM) was introduced. The study conducted the attitudinal analysis of 110 stakeholders from 14 villages forest committees of Madhya Pradesh State of India, which were constituted under JFM programme. Results indicated that both forest officers and rural communities were in the process of developing positive attitudes towards each other and a significant improvement in the inter relationship between the two was found. Rural communities were not able to express a clear attitude towards functioning of forest committee and role of women. However, they had a clear positive attitude towards forest protection and management. Forest officers were also not clearly positive in their attitude towards forest department in terms of freedom of working and participatory approach as they wanted more freedom in their work environment with limited external pressures. It was felt that JFM is yet to be institutionalized and joint efforts on the part of all the stakeholders are essential.

Institutional analysis of evolution of joint forest management in India: A new institutional economics approach

Abstract This paper analyzes the evolution of the Joint Forest Management (JFM) institution in India in the light of the New Institutional Economics. To structure the analysis and shed light on different sources of persistent problems related to JFM, the paper uses the ‘four levels of institutional analysis’ framework developed by Williamson. In this paper we focus particularly on level 2 and 3. The second level of institutional analysis refers to the institutional environment (‘formal rules of the game’). We argue that the shift from state to co-management is a step in the right direction given the realities encountered in India. The insecure, incomplete and often incoherent transfer of specific rights from the state to local communities is, however, an important source of incentive problems on the part of communities. The third level of institutional analysis deals with the governance of contractual relations (‘play of the game’). Here, the interactions between forest departments and communities are discussed at a more disaggregate level. It is shown that information asymmetries and lack of accountability lead to a prevalence of enforcement problems and rent-seeking activities, putting into question the efficiency of the current system. We conclude with policy recommendations and issues for future research.

Attitudes and institutions: contrasting experiences of Joint Forest Management in India

The growing disenchantment with state management of natural resources has led to increasing reliance on co-management. This involves devolution of the rights to manage and control access to the resource from the state to the resource appropriators. Co-management has been introduced in many Third World countries with varying success. Co-management programmes have typically assumed that the resource community wants to conserve the resource and is prevented from doing so by their inability to form a collective choice arena. Hence such programmes have attempted to provide a collective choice arena. However, these attempts overlook the need to change the attitudes of resource users and create a demand for the resource regime. In this paper we have presented two case studies of Joint Forest Management in India to illustrate this point.

03/02443 Evaluation studies of Joint Forest Management in India: social and Institutional implications: Murali, K. S. et al. Environment and Sustainable Development, An International Journal, 2003, 2, (1), 19–35

03/02443 Evaluation studies of Joint Forest Management in India: social and Institutional implications: Murali, K. S. et al. Environment and Sustainable Development, An International Journal, 2003, 2, (1), 19–35

Improving forest governance: Experience of Joint Forest Management in India

There is an increasing interest in community-based forest management as a potential approach for improving forest governance. India is among the few countries in the world where such an approach-called Joint Forest Management (JFM)-has not only been successfully introduced but also achieved large-scale implementation, covering 18% of all state forests. Forests cover 23% of India's geographical area and almost all are under state ownership. However, over half the forests are in a degraded condition. Forests also provide livelihood support to a large proportion of the population, especially the poor. Around 147 million people live in and around forests. But until the 1980s, the focus was on commercial forestry and people were excluded from forest management. This led to forest degradation on the one hand, and conflicts between the Forest Department and local communities on the other. A new policy in 1988 stressed forest management for ecosystem services and meeting local communities’ needs. Under this policy, Joint Forest Management promoted agreements between the Forest Department and village communities to jointly protect and manage adjacent forest land and to share responsibilities and benefits. JFM has had several positive impacts on forest governance in the form of improved forest condition, increased income and livelihood opportunities for participating communities and, most importantly, a dramatic change in the attitude of communities and the Forest Department towards each other and toward forests. Although challenges still remain, if implemented in its true spirit, JFM can be a viable long-term strategy for contributing towards the goals of sustainable livelihoods and forest management.