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Joint forest management in India: a sapling with feeble roots?

Although a fifth of India is covered by forest (a livelihood source for 200 million people), almost half is patchy or degraded. Joint Forest Management (JFM) may be good for forests but is it good for people? Can India regenerate forests and meet the subsistence requirements of forest residents? How can tussles between foresters, industrialists, conservationists and social activists be resolved?

A booklet from the World Wide Fund for Nature – India and the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) reviews the history of forestry policy in India and assesses the prospects for JFM to fulfil its potential. Arguing that sterile forest policy debates have stereotyped people by creating goodies and baddies, conservatives and pragmatists, it calls for greater understanding and tolerance of divergent interests.

JFM emerged out of recognition of the need to prioritise conservation and meet the timber and non-timber forest products (NTFP) needs of poor, predominantly tribal, forest residents. Since it was pronounced as state policy in 1988 it has had a chequered development. Although authorities and government foresters in some states are committed to JFM, their counterparts elsewhere see it as a donor-imposed cross which they have to bear.

In most states, village organisations have no autonomous status and can be dissolved by forestry officials who fight hard to retain authority. While in some parts of the country a slow attitudinal change away from centralisation towards participation can be observed, elsewhere forestry departments are attempting to increase authority via JFM rather than vice versa.

The booklet also notes that:

Forestry policy continues to be shaped largely by the unequal battle between forest-dependent communities and a powerful industrial lobby and government agencies hungry for revenue.
JFM has often benefitted better-off villagers with minimal forest dependence while imposing opportunity costs on the most marginalised.
The trend towards denationalisation has often allowed state or commercial enterprises to establish monopoly rights to collect NTFPs.
Many paper and pulp mills are sited far from the country’s most abundant timber producing regions, a factor leading to unnecessary import of pulp and paper.
Regulations designed to prevent illicit felling, while well-intentioned, can set up a barrier between producers and the market.

Lubricating stuck debates requires all stakeholders to search for flexible negotiated solutions and accountable ways of working together. Farm forestry is the key to JFM success. Among the recommendations are:

central government to agree common definitions and promote democratic setting and monitoring of shared goals and targets
improved demand-driven information on existing and projected forest resources and the goods, services and markets that can be accessed
removal of legal hurdles to community rights over forest resources and removal of monopolies on sale of particular NTFPs
monitoring denationalisation of NTFPs to ensure that small producers are not harmed by market forces
incentives to plant trees and encouragement of tree growers’ associations so that farm forestry can fulfil its pro-poor potential
staged removal of legal and procedural restrictions on felling and transport
training of forestry staff in participatory techniques.

Source(s):
‘Joint forest management: policy, practice and prospects’, International Institute for Environment and Development, by Arvind Khare, Madhu Sarin, N.C. Saxena and S. Palit, 2000 Full document.

Funded by: DFID, Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation

id21 Research Highlight: 14 November 2003

Further Information:
Forests and Wildlife Division
World Wide Fund for Nature – India
172-B Lodi Estate
Max Mueller Marg
Lodi Estate
New Delhi 110 003
India

Tel: +91 (0) 11 2462 2972
Fax: +91 (0) 11 2462 6837
Contact the contributor: fwl@wwfind.ernet.in

World Wildlife Fund - India

N.C. Saxena
68, Friends Colony West
New Delhi, 110065
India

Tel: +91 11 469 0401 ext 1228
Fax: +91 11 469 1410
Contact the contributor: nareshsaxena@hotmail.com

Forestry and Land Use Programme
International Institute for Environment and Development
3 Endsleigh Street
London WC1H ODD
UK

Tel: +44 (0)7388 2117
Fax: +44 (0)7388 2826
Contact the contributor: forestry@iied.org

International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED)

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