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India's forest policy regime enacted so far had alienated the common users of their property rights in the name of forest and wildlife conservation. However, poor conservation outcomes have forced planners to reconsider the role of the forest community in resource use and conservation. Presence of a deep-rooted economic, social, cultural and ethical difference between members of Forest Protection Committee (FPC) constrains group behaviour and their capacity to modify regulations governing resource use. This paper studies the forest policy regimes of India in detail and seeks to investigate the influence of emerging socio-economic issues towards formulating a more robust and sustainable future forest policy by selecting the district of Bankura in West Bengal, India, as a study area, where forest protection regime is practiced rigorously for nearly two decades. The exercise reveals that tribal populations are reluctant to be non-workers and prefer to protect the forest by being a stakeholder in the process of Joint Forest Management (JFM). Thus formulating a more egalitarian distributive JFM mechanism for sharing of benefits fairly across the resource users requires cognizance of collective-choice rule used and the type of heterogeneity existing in the community.

The study examines extent of women's dependence on forest and their participation in gender sensitive planning of joint forest management programme in West Bengal, where the provincial government made pioneer attempt during early 1990s by establishing separate female forest management unit to accommodate women's preference, needs, knowledge and values on forest resources providing separate provision in institutions. It suggests that women's participation in their own management unit is substantially higher than men's in the general (joint) forest management unit, and the former ensures women's major contribution to their household's income with women's greater physical involvement in forestry works.

SUMMARYCommunity-based natural resource management (CBNRM) projects and policies often aim to improve the livelihoods of rural people who depend on natural resources, and to promote democratic decision making and equitable benefit distribution at the local level. However, a growing number of critics argue that CBNRM is susceptible to elite capture. This paper contributes to the debate on elite capture under CBNRM by studying joint forest management (JFM) in Andhra Pradesh (India) and, in particular, the case of Mohammed Nagar village. The paper addresses the following four questions: (1) How has the Indian Government formally addressed the risk of elite capture? (2) What actually happened over time when formal structures of JFM interacted with the pre-existing social structure in Mohammed Nagar? (3) When JFM results in elite capture, is this owing to the formal structures and/or the pre-existing social structure? (4) How can CBNRM be designed to avoid or minimize elite capture? Based on a reading of official government documents, the Indian Government has addressed the risk of elite capture, by ensuring representation of different social groups in the decision making bodies, regular elections, collective action in rule making and implementation, and transparency in record keeping. Nevertheless, during Mohammed Nagar's 10 years of JFM history elite capture did occur. This confirms that elite capture is a possible outcome of CBNRM. Yet, the subsequent fall of elite capture in the village also indicates that this is not necessarily a permanent outcome, and that CBNRM may in fact promote democratic and equitable resource management in the long-term. In Mohammed Nagar elite capture was largely owing to pre-existing social structures and to weaknesses in the official rules that were meant to safeguard the interests of marginalized groups. Accordingly, in CBNRM project design and implementation, pre-existing social structures' potential promotion of elite capture need to be taken into account and formal measures that might alleviate the adverse effects and/or reduce this risk must be identified.

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.

The study looks at forestry policies in India in conjunction with the Kyoto Protocol (KP) to assess the possibilities for synergy between them. It assesses how far existing national initiatives, namely the Joint Forest Management and the more recent Forest Rights Act, are able to contribute to the dual objectives of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), Article 12 of the KP specifically reducing greenhouse gas emissions, while ensuring sustainable development for the host country. The paper analyses policy documentation in conjunction with key informant interviews to assess perceptions of and attitudes towards the CDM. Analysis of the in-depth key informant interviews identifies that the main obstacles to the CDM in its aim to bring about sustainable development are the lack of suitable lands for afforestation and reforestation, and access to those lands and the resources they provide for rural communities dependent on them for their livelihoods. Results indicate that the CDM is not generally seen as a s...

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.

This study suggests that there is a narrower scope to expand income inequality with the increase in forest source of income to total income relative to non-forest income irrespective of the type of forest fringe villages. The addition of forest income after joint forest management (JFM) reduces measured income inequality by about 12%, all else equal, in the JFM involved households. But no such perceptible decrease has been found for non-JFM households during this period. Categorically, forest income plays the dominant role in reducing measured income inequality for those households who are relatively asset poor and that also live below poverty line. The study also shows that the non-involvement in JFM programme by the non-JFM households might bring about a major environmental shirking, because illegal timber income constitutes the major part in total income for non-JFM households even after JFM scenario.

This paper describes a framework of criteria and indicators to evaluate the status of performance of the forest protection committees of India in managing community forests under the Joint Forest Management programme. The framework consists of 3 principles, 6 criteria, 12 indicators and 18 verifiers and was applied for assessment of forest protection committees operating in south-west West Bengal, India. The study area is dominated by dry deciduous forests, mostly in degraded state. An analysis guide along with a set of questionnaire was prepared to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the forest protection committees. An ecological study was also carried out simultaneously in the forest areas protected by the corresponding forest protection committees to measure the condition of forests. Results from the study suggest that the developed criteria and indicators form an effective framework for assessing the extent of implementation of sustainable forest management principles in the context of community forestry. The methodology used in this study is designed to be simple, easily comprehendible and quantifiable so as to implement it in the grass-root level by field persons without any major difficulty. Regarding performance of the committees, the study reveals that there exists a highly positive relationship between the level of functioning of the committees and the status of health of the forests and vice versa. It is also found that the functional status of a forest protection committee depends mostly on the extent of group cohesiveness present among the members of the committee.

In this study, an attempt has been made to unravel the impact of forest protection committees (FPCs) under JFM on stress migration in four forest divisions of Orissa. In order to undertake this study, field investigations have been carried out in 12 villages of four forest divisions of the state. Our study has covered 318 households comprising of landless and agriculture labourer, marginal, small, and medium farmers from 12 different villages where FPCs are operating since early 1990s. The household level benefits have been estimated in terms of employment generation, income from timber and non-timber forest products (NTFP), and fuel wood collection from community managed forests. Further, we have examined the impact of JFM via FPCs on environmental stress migration (ESM) by adopting a Logit Regression Model at household level. It has been found that the employment opportunities have increased significantly since the establishment of FPCs. The findings of the study establish that the improvement in forest cover under JFM has positive impact on the reduction of stress migration in the study area. The ESM, which was severe in these villages before the implementation of JFM, has come down significantly over the years. Our results have also established that the health of local labour market has improved a lot due to the proper and sustainable utilization of the CPRs through JFM.

article i nfo Individual landowners may capture non-timber benefits from both their own forested parcels and adjacent parcels owned by different landowners. These benefits may affect incentives for landowners to cooperate in their forest management decisions. Landowner survey data is used to examine incentives to cooperate concerning joint forest management and coordination of harvesting. We find spatial factors to be particularly importanttotheseincentives.Thepercentageofneighboringlandemployedinagricultureorcropusesandthe number of bordering landowners are important positive predictors of willingness to cooperate concerning joint forest management, while the latter has a negative effect on willingness to coordinate timing of harvest. We also find that the non-timber values an individual receives from adjacent land are important positive predictors of cooperation incentives in general. Our results confirm, first, that cross parcel externalities modeled in theoretical work do in fact exist, and, second, that there is merit to formulating future policies with the incentives of landowners to participate in cooperative agreements with neighbors in mind. Such information could be important to addressing landscape level threats to forest health and sustainability.

In a major deviation from conventional joint forest management approaches where the emphasis of management is on provision of forest products to the participating villagers, the Tamil Nadu Afforestation Project (TAP) focused on poverty alleviation as the principal means to achieve sustainable forest management. This study assesses the effectiveness of TAP’s strategy in improving the ecology and socio-economic conditions of forest fringe villages using a diverse set of research methods. Results indicate that in a span of four to seven years, there was significant increase in forest cover, biodiversity, and agricultural productivity. The project villages have also shown considerable progress in various indicators of socio-economic development. The authors, however, suggest continued poverty alleviation and promotion of alternative livelihood opportunities to place the programme on a stable ground. Meeting the development needs of local villagers through strong and durable institutional linkages is also suggested for the programme to sustain and succeed.

This study seeks to explore the impact of a moral hazard problem in the Joint Forest Management (JFM) programme between the government and forest fringe communities of a province in West Bengal, India. It suggests that if there is no incentive plan for the poor, it is hard for the government to monitor their actions. The poor tend to take welfare subsidies and yet harvest optimally. A good incentive fee dependent on their work (output) is required for livelihood sustenance of poor people and sustainability of forest resources.

SUMMARY Participatory forest management (PFM) is being promoted throughout Tanzania as a means of achieving conservation and improving livelihoods. This paper presents the results of a study in nine villages in the Eastern Arc Mountains to investigate the impacts of two institutional forms of PFM — Joint Forest Management (JFM) and Community-Based Forest Management (CBFM) — on the livelihoods of different well-being groups within communities. PFM was found to provide a new, though small, source of community-level income that was used to improve community physical capital. Household incomes from PFM forests generally increased slightly for most groups. However, technical and administrative obstacles prevented the poorest from taking full advantage of the benefits of forests under CBFM, while benefits from JFM-related income-generating activities were captured by village elites. Overall the results suggest that PFM implementation in Tanzania is improving forest conservation but not realising its potential t...

This paper analyses the governance characteristics of an innovative policy instrument for sustainable forest management in Flanders, namely a mechanism based on social learning and collaborative planning within joint forest management organizations. These organizations have been successful in involving non-industrial private forest owners in managing the transition towards sustainable management in small-scale forestry. Why was this innovative scheme successful? And what are its shortcomings and possible limitations? The hypothesis developed in this paper is that the success of the forest groups has been made possible by the explicit organization of a process of social learning, leading to change in the beliefs and the social norms of forest owners and users. Based on the analysis of this case of cooperative forestry, and on theoretical insights from governance theory, the contribution to fostering social learning from three distinct mechanisms is established, these being (1) the recourse to sustainability criteria and indicators as an open-ended learning device, (2) the experimentation with disruptive action strategies to put new beliefs into practice, and (3) the building of new forms of social cooperation around these new beliefs and practices.

SUMMARY Forests are closely linked to socio-economic systems in India. The projected climate change is likely to produce adverse impacts on forest ecosystems. India is one of the few countries with a documented forest policy from 1894. This conservation-based forest policy has prevented the diversion of forest. Joint forest management (JFM) promotes the participation of communities in the management of forest. Estimates of forest carbon stock (biomass and soil) are in the range of 8.58 to 9.57 gtC. The growing energy demand provide a strong basis for inclusion of a share of biomass energy in energy production and consumption. India's proposal for compensating forest conservation was included in the Bali Action Plan of COP 13 of UNFCCC. With this approach India can claim to be maintaining the baseline stocks (8.79 gtC), as well as the increment (0.96 gtC).

SUMMARY An account is given of the fodder situation in rural India with a view to developing a strategy for optimising fodder production and its efficient utilisation by the poor, especially those living in or around forest regions. The emerging trend in livestock growth suggests an overall rising trend with an increase in small ruminants in coming years. This is likely to put greater pressure on natural fodder resources like forests and other grazing areas. To enhance farm income, incorporating fodder into joint forest management programmes is a welcome step but requires greater impetus. Optimisation of fodder production from arable lands and efficient utilisation of crop residues are expected to relieve at least some of the pressure on natural fodder resources. There is also an urgent need to adopt appropriate technologies backed by policy and institutional mechanisms to enhance rural incomes from livestock enterprises.

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.

The system of participatory (or joint) forest management was commenced in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) of Pakistan in 1996 through Asian Development Bank's funded project. These forest reforms seek to initiate the process of eliminating the main causes of forest depletion through participation of local communities. Nevertheless, despite decades of the donor's interventions the deforestation rate in NWFP is still alarming. In this paper we have attempted to analyze the participatory forest management in Northwest Pakistan through livelihood lenses. More specifically this paper explores the impact of joint forest management initiatives on financial assets and livelihood strategies of local people. The overall results indicated that majority of the respondents were not dependent on the natural resources for their cash income rather they had adopted diverse non-natural resource based activities such as migration, labour etc. The results also indicated that the main priorities of the local people were financial and food security; where as the NWFP model of joint forest management gives more emphasis on forest protection and regeneration. Although the joint forest management enhanced the social assets of the local communities yet the omission of immediate financial benefits from the institutional changes in the forestry sector of NWFP was a barrier in motivating the local people in forest protection and was one of the main issues hindering the effectiveness of the forest reforms process.

A study was conducted in Kullu district in the province of Himachal Pradesh in Indian Western Himalaya, to investigate the perceptions of Indian for- esters about aspects of forest management relevant for effective Joint Forest Management (JFM). A lack of uniform understanding was found amongst forestry staff about almost all the studied issues pertaining to JFM. A need is identified to emphasise social aspects in the training of the foresters (including in-service training), along with the existing silvi-technical aspects. For JFM success, measures need to be devised to reduce the political interference in JFM, reduce hierarchical rigidity, and increase interaction between field staff and the administrative hierar- chy. Strategies should be devised to make JFM participants as well as forestry staff equally responsible to honour their commitments with respect to JFM.

Over 3,000 plant species produce economically significant products known as non-timber forest products (NTFPs). Their use and trade are integral components of local economies and culture. Governments and policy makers have overlooked the importance of NTFPs as an enterprise for a long time due to various reasons. However, recent studies have shown their potential. Policies concerning NTFPs were often formulated without addressing enterprises or rural livelihood; as a result, they usually failed to provide adequate incentives. In addition, they were often conflicting, causing stagnation. Very few states had a definite procedure to govern the exploitation of NTFPs, though most had rules for timber extraction and marketing. As with policy, direct institutional support requires co-ordination among the agencies that deal with non-wood resources and NTFP producers. The Joint Forest Management (JFM) illustrates one mode of government collaboration with communities to manage resources and share benefits. The intangible, non-economic roles of NTFPs can be more important and even provide a foundation for the economic roles that development programmes usually address. The commercialisation of forest produce seems to marginalise certain people, especially the lower classes. Sociocultural issues play an important role in ascertaining the success of Small Scale Enterprises (SSEs) and the sustainability of NTFP resource base. Policy makers should be made aware of the nature of historical and cultural patterns of NTFP use and its implications. By providing communities with technical, financial, managerial, marketing and training support, they will have a new economic incentive to conserve the resource base of their raw material, thus conserving the biological diversity of their area for the benefit of all. It will require vision and creative imagination on the part of the political leaders and administrative managers who are responsible for the effective delivery of programmes and activities to the people.

Joint Forest Management (JFM) has been analyzed using an evolutionary-game-theoretic approach. The interactions between the different groups of a community, for forest use under state regime and JFM regime, are modeled as n-person asymmetric games, and the concepts of evolutionary stable strategies (ESS) and asymptotically stable states (ASS) are used to understand the variations in the outcomes of JFM program. The n-person game of forest use under the state regime has a unique Nash equilibrium in which the defectors or lawbreakers will continue to harvest forest resources illegally until the net returns from harvests become negative. The n-person forest resource use game under JFM regime has many Nash equilibriums, but has only one sub-game perfect defection equilibrium. However, the n-person game for JFM regime has four evolutionary strategy equilibriums: cooperators (C) equilibrium, defectors (D) equilibrium, defectors–enforcers (D–E) equilibrium and cooperators–enforcers (C–E) equilibrium, but has only two asymptotically stable (C–E and D–E) equilibriums. Implications of these results are discussed, and a need to enhance evolutionary game-theoretic formulation of JFM is highlighted.

Joint forest management (JFM) has emerged as the most promising institutional arrangement for sustainable forest management, and village-level organizations (production units) are responsible for all the productive activities of JFM. Employing a parametric linear programming approach, a deterministic input distance function is estimated characterizing the production structure of JFM organizations, in the Gujarat state of India, using the production data from 50 organisations. The distance function includes economic, biological and social outputs, and neo-classical – land, labour, and capital – as well as non-neo-classical – social, political, institutional, and organisational – factors. The results are used to calculate the production efficiency and shadow prices of neo-classical as well as non-neo-classical factors of different village-level JFM organizations. Policy and management implications of production efficiency and shadow prices are discussed.

Forest is one of the most important resources for the very survival of human beings, especially those who are living in and around the forest. However, one of the major reasons for its depletion is unsustainable exploitation often by the same very people whose survival depends on the forests. Several attempts have been made in different countries to save this invaluable resource. Joint Forest Management (JFM) in India is one of such attempts which is characterised by active participation of the community institutions together with the Department of Forests. In this paper an attempt is made to discover the underlying institutional factors that enable or inhibit functioning of the Joint Forest Management Committees (JFMCs) and their effectiveness. Primary data were collected from 200 members of 63 JFMCs from four territorial forest divisions of Paschim Medinipur district of West Bengal. Apart from JFMC members, 19 forest department officials and staff were also interviewed to know about the performance of the JFMCs. Collected data were coded, assigned scores and analysis was done with the help of statistical package for social sciences (SPSS10.0) for windows. Results suggest that locally evolved institutional arrangements are major factors that contribute to JFMC functioning which is represented by gradations. Moreover, among various parameters of institutions, control mechanism plays the most significant role in influencing the functioning of JFMCs. Therefore, to assess the performance of JFMCs in a shortest possible time, review of control mechanism only will represent a fairly accurate picture.

Community based natural resource management (CBNRM) has received considerable attention in recent years and is being actively encouraged across the world as a successful strategy in promoting natural resource governance. Its efficacy in the field, however, is highly variable. The present study, based on an empirical analysis of the Joint Forest Management program in Tamil Nadu, India, explores the variation in the perceptions of collective action among community members, and analyzes the factors influencing perceptions of its performance. The results underline the need for a shared understanding of the collective action among community members for the joint venture's success and sustainability. Further, the analysis highlights the role of costs and benefits entailed in collective action in influencing the perceptions of its performance. The authors suggest careful consideration of differences in community members' understanding of the collective action and its impacts, before and during the implementation of CBNRM strategies.

Whereas past research has treated co-management of common pool resources as if villagers and project implementing authorities were the only relevant actors, numerous external factors beyond the control of these two partners create barriers to successful co-management. This paper draws on discussions with Forest Department officials to examine the influence of these forces on the outcomes of Joint Forest Management (JFM) in Tamil Nadu, India. An empirical inquiry into the operational aspects of JFM indicates the important roles of political parties, powerful people, and other state institutions and functionaries as well as the flow of foreign funding. Further, the strong demand by local people for socio-economic development interventions as opposed to improvement of degraded forests belittles the role of the Forest Department relative to other departments. Numerous other conditioning factors and relationships are explored. The authors call for reforms in public governance to allow better participation of all the actors involved for this participatory management approach to succeed and sustain.

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.

SUMMARY Madhya Pradesh is the leading state in the implementation of Joint Forest Management following the Government of India Resolution in 1990. Though the state has vast areas of natural resources including forest, degradation and deforestation are very much in evidence due to various socio-economic factors. One of those is the poverty of the tribals whose main economic activity is centered around the forest as they depend on forest resources for survival, livelihood and occupation. Lack of income generating activities and economic choices has forced these communities into the exploitation of forest resources. The introduction of Joint Forest Management activities in the last decade has provided the employment opportunities and income generation to alleviate poverty in the area to some extent. Madhya Pradesh Forestry Project ran from Sept. 1995 to Dec. 1999. Within the organizational development and institutional mechanism the project took various steps in asset creation; including natural, social, hum...

Recent forest management initiatives in developing countries emphasize active participation of local people. However, many such attempts have been unsuccessful because little attention was directed at promoting conscious and joint learning processes. One way to enhance joint learning is through collaborative monitoring (CM) and reflection processes. This article explores the contribution that collaborative monitoring processes make toward improving forest management within a context characterized by multiple stakeholders with often-conflicting interests. The Mafungautsi case has shown that initiating CM processes requires careful facilitation of negotiations related to the goals, approach, sharing of information; and development of platforms on which learning will take place. We conclude, based on evidence from Mafungautsi, that CM processes can contribute to improving forest management in multistakeholder landscapes if sufficient attention is paid in creating appropriate reflection and learning ...

Joint forest management (JFM) has been argued as an optimal institutional arrangement for economic, ecological, and social sustainability, and village-level organizations (production units) are responsible for all the productive activities of JFM. A deterministic output distance function characterizing the production structure of JFM production units, in the Gujarat state of India, is calculated using the production data from 50 village-level organizations and employing a deterministic linear programming technique. The distance function includes economic, biological, and social outputs, and conventional and non-conventional factors. The results are used to calculate the efficiency and relative shadow prices of social and biological outputs of different village-level JFM organizations. Policy and management implications of efficiency and shadow prices are discussed.

SUMMARY Owing to the failure of the earlier system of managing forests without inputs from local people Joint Forest Management and Community Forestry came into practice over the last decade based on psychological principles of management with people's participation. Its establishment has allowed forest department staff to redefine their relationship with villagers in order to regain their trust and alliance by changing attitudes, perceptions and leadership styles. Although both India and Nepal share the principles of community-based forest management, owing to the cultural differences it has been considered that there was a likelihood of differential preferences for leadership styles. Since leadership is essential to the introduction and efficient implementation of Community Forestry a study was conducted in the western Terai region of Nepal to examine this issue. Results indicated the existence of a participatory style of leadership in Nepal which the local people support. They indicated their desire fo...

Despite the critical role of government agencies in decentralizing natural resource governance, little work to date has focused on the organizational aspects of the responsible government bureaucracies. Based on a qualitative investigation of the perspectives of Forest Department employees involved in India's Joint Forest Management (JFM) program, this paper aims to provide an understanding of these internal dynamics. Elaborating on why bureaucracies with a learning orientation are essential if participatory natural resource management is to succeed, the paper underlines the constraints to transforming forest agencies' hierarchical work cultures. Foresters describe JFM as a radical departure from traditional forest governance, but suggest that corresponding transformation within the Forest Department has not occurred. Foresters cite as reasons: (1) a target-based incentive system that leaves little room for establishing the relationships with local people needed for collaborative management; (2) rigid rul...

This article examines the role of the state in the Joint Forest Management (JFM) programme in the northern province of Haryana in India. In the past two decades, significant developments pertaining to institutional reforms in promoting community–state partnerships in protecting and managing forests have been undertaken in the province. By reviewing the experiences in management of water-harvesting structures and lease of forest area to local communities, the article demonstrates that the adoption of ‘joint management’ rhetoric does not guarantee successful partnerships at the field level. The implementation of the programme calls for a radical redefinition of the role of the state in order to establish credible commitments to the local communities in terms of both policy and practice. Umar Shankar Vashisht is a retired forest officer and consultant to TERI. Besides working in his capacity as government official, he has more than 20 years' experience of working with village communities on Joint Forest Mana...

A village forest near the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro managed under Joint Forest Management (JFM) by the government and the local people was studied to assess its growing stock and to suggest interventions and management to promote its sustainable use. Data were collected using the methods of the International Forestry Resources and Institutions (IFRI) research programme. 19 tree species were identified and enumerated; the stocking was 714 trees/ha, basal area 27.5m2/ha and standing wood volume of 310 m3/ha. Almost half the standing volume was Macaranga kilimandscharica, a canopy tree species that was less desired for sawn timber and had not been over-harvested. Commercial timber production of other species that has been the dominant object of management is currently not sustainable. However, M. kilimandscharica is now the most preferred for firewood and light timber by the local user groups. Limited removal of over mature trees of this species by the local user groups for subsistence and community...

Joint Forest Management was introduced as an innovative method to realize sustainable forest utilization in India. Since the central government issued the first Joint Forest Management guideline in 1990, it has been accepted by the state governments and also supported by local communities. In the state of Kerala, 28.9 % of the land is maintained as forests, despite a high population density. Research on the livelihoods of local people and the role of Participatory Forest Management (Joint Forest Management in Kerala), is expected to benefit other regions with similar conditions. Since information on the forests in Kerala is not sufficient, firstly we outlined the Participatory Forest Management programs and the implementation process, and secondly selected a program and conducted in-depth interviews of 40 households. The results of this study indicate that the guidelines of the central government were duly modified to meet the local conditions. The local stakeholders were well organized to implement Participatory Forest Management. Rehabilitation activities were completed smoothly at the initial stage, but after that the process was stalled. Pressures on forest resources were originally not so serious and agroforestry on farmlands is common so it seems difficult to maintain the activities and enthusiasm of the participants. As a result, incorporating some measures for local communities to an earn income through forest management is recommended. Using non-forest land tree crops for firewood is another alternative solution to forest issues.

The relationship between the state and communities has been an overriding issue in the development of forestry institutions globally. In many countries, the trend is for communities to become co-managers of public forests. Meanwhile, in development co-operation both poverty and multiple rural livelihoods have received increased attention. In this article, the potential of joint community-state management of forests is discussed. Forest production has several characteristics that make it suitable for joint management where both parties benefit. Involving communities in management decreases the state's monitoring costs, while communities benefit from better access to market information. For this to take place, however, the state forest apparatus needs to be free from undue rent-seeking. The most advantageous solutions are case- and context-specific.

Community forestry is practiced in various countries throughout the world, with respect to both native forests and plantations, for livelihood and forest protection purposes and also for urban amenity values. While forests have been managed to some extent by communities for thousands of years, modern models of community forestry have been practiced widely for only about 30 years. Community forestry takes many forms; there is no unique definition or categorisation, although a number of characteristics are frequently present. There is in general, involvement of a local community in forest planning as well as management, for a form of forestry which is usually relatively small-scale, motivated by multiple objectives, and receiving some financial support and organisational assistance by government and non-government organisations. Where plantations are established, these may be managed as common property, individual property rights may apply, or there may be a combination of both. Analysis of the specific research studies included in this issue reveals that community forestry systems have been refined over time as experience is gained in program designs, and notable successes have been achieved. However, ‘the jury is still out’ on whether community forestry has lived up to the optimistic expectations of its proponents.

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.

A framework for the production analysis of collaborative forest management (CFM) is proposed. The framework has four main features: (i) a social organization, not an industrial organization, responsible for the production process of CFM; (ii) conventional factors (land, labor, and capital) as well as non-conventional factors (social, cultural, and organizational factors) as inputs (iii) social, biological, and economic outputs; and (iv) a production model that includes transformation and transaction components. The framework is used for the production analysis of joint forest management (JFM) in the Gujarat state of India, by estimating the production functions of social, biological, and economic outputs on the basis of data from fifty villages having JFM. The outcomes indicate that the inclusion of non-conventional factors is critical for un-biased analysis, and the contributions of non-conventional factors dominate the contributions of conventional factors. The social output – social empowerment – and the biological output – forest canopy cover – are associate products, the social output and the economic output – supply of forest produce to meet local demand – are rival products, and the biological output and the economic output are associate products, but the degree of association and rivalry between the two outputs are not the same in different ranges.

In recent times, we have come to witness many new forms through which the state has sought to engage people in processes of governance. Among them, the creation of local institutions for representation, deliberation and decision making at the village level is perhaps the most important. Seldom existing in isolation, these local developmental institutions intersect, interact and, at times, overlap with other local institutions. What shape participation eventually takes within these developmental spaces is thus contingent not only on the dynamics taking place within them, but also to a large extent on their relationship with coexisting local institutional spaces. This article explores the institutional dynamics within and between local institutions, for forest management in the hilly villages of Uttaranchal in northern India. Shaped by institutional procedures, by actors with affiliations and interests across other spaces, by competing perspectives on forest management and by a variety of forms of participation ranging from formal representation to employment to inclusion in deliberation and decision making, the dynamics of participation within spaces such as Uttaranchal’s village forest protection committees (VFCs), is complex. Creating and institutionalising spaces such as these, the article argues, provides necessary, but insufficient conditions to ensure the democratisation of participation. It shows how multiple versions of participation coexist within the spaces created by a single developmental project, in this case Joint Forest Management (JFM). Practices, which treat people as beneficiaries, those which treat them as users/consumers who need to pay for the services, and those which make them citizens with the right to elect their representatives, demand transparency and accountability overlap and exist simultaneously. It is this complex intersection of normative ideals and practices which influences participation, as we encounter it in the villages of Uttaranchal. Institutional spaces, I argue here, are vulnerable to contestations and conflicts of various kinds, which means participation does not remain a virtuous normative phenomena, though the normative desirability of participation remains unquestioned. Such spaces are never created in a vacuum, they react upon already existing spaces, on spaces which are simultaneous and overlapping and on the wider social-economic-cultural setting in which they are embedded. Even when they are created by exterior agencies, institutional spaces cannot be seen purely as an external or state creation. A certain amount of interest articulation, through overt or covert protest or through deliberation and negotiation, has generally gone into the shaping of what later comes as invited forums. Such spaces are constantly being created, altered, defined and redefined, with positive promise amidst manipulation, misuse and abuse. Even the most unpromising of institutions may open up possibilities for learning the skills and arts of governance, which people can use in other spaces. Spaces can emerge as arenas of solidarity as well as contestation, which may move between relative

SUMMARY The long-term success of Joint Forest Management (JFM) appears doubtful unless people's dependence on forests is reduced to non-timber forest produce, small timber, firewood for bonafide domestic use and indirect benefits. For this the issues of poverty alleviation, sustainable development, empowerment and forest regeneration have to be dealt with simultaneously. While elucidating the concept and approach of Sustainable Livelihoods (SL), this paper makes a case for its adoption in forest areas. Further it analyses the Tamilnadu Afforestation Project and its evolution into a Sustainable Livelihood Project. The paper concludes with the observation that JFM projects can be converted into SL projects through enhanced outlay for buffer zones, integration of line departments, increasing the duration and decentralisation of more powers to JFM institutions.

Energy is a vital component of any society playing a pivotal role in the development. Post oil crises shifted the focus of energy planners towards renewable resources and energy conservation. Biomass is one such renewable, which accounts for nearly 33% of a developing country’s energy needs. In India, it meets about 75% of the rural energy needs. In Karnataka, non-commercial energy sources like firewood, agricultural residues, charcoal and cow dung account for 53.2%. The energy released by the reaction of organic carbon (of bioresources) with oxygen is referred to as bioenergy. Bioresource availability is highly diversified and it depends on the region’s agroclimatic conditions. Inventorying of these resources is required for describing the quality, quantity, change, productivity, condition of bioresources and requirement in a given area. The present study assesses bioresource status across the agroclimatic zones of Karnataka, considering the bioenergy availability (from agriculture, horticulture, forests and plantations) and sector-wise energy demand (domestic, agriculture, industry, etc.). Bioresource availability is computed based on the compilation of data on the area and productivity of agriculture and horticulture crops, forests and plantations. Sector-wise energy demand is computed based on the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO study) data, primary survey data and from the literature. Using the data of bioresource availability and demand, bioresource status is computed for all the agroclimatic zones. The ratio of bioresource availability to demand gives the bioresource status. The ratio greater than one indicates bioresource surplus zones, while a ratio less than one indicates scarcity. The study reveals that the central dry zone (1.4), the hilly zone (3.79), the southern transition zone (3.12) and the coastal zone (3.40) are bioresource surplus zones, whereas the northeastern transition zone (0.48), northeastern dry zone (0.23), northern dry zone (0.58), eastern dry zone (0.39), southern dry zone (0.93) and northern transition zone (0.45) come under bioresource-deficient zones. Among the bioresource surplus zones, horticulture residues contribute significantly towards bioenergy in the central dry zone, southern transition zone and the coastal zone, while in the hilly zone the main contributor of bioenergy are agricultural residues. Amidst the bioresource-deficient zones, agriculture is the major contributor of bioenergy in the northeastern transition zone (52%), northern dry zone (59%), and northern transition zone. Based on the bioenergy status of the zones and land use pattern, feasible management and technical options have been discussed, which help in optimising the available bioenergy and in building a sustainable energy society. This study also explores various programmes that can be initiated and implemented like social, community and joint forest management involving public participation. Such schemes will lessen the burden on the existing resources and also help the rural masses to procure biomass on a sustained basis.

Exclusive control of forests by the State has proved to be inefficient in India, but there are communities that have made their own attempts to manage their forest resource and some NGOs have promoted resource management among local communities. These successful, independent efforts have lead to the acceptance of community participation in forest management by the State, and this is reflected in programmes such as Joint Forest Management (JFM). None of these have involved the unambiguous transfer of land tenure to communities. While JFM includes arrangements for sharing future profits from timber, the other two involve the communities investing labour and time in exchange for de facto usufruct only. Despite the absence of land-tenure rights, three case studies reveal evidence of successful collective action in managing forests. In the long run the sustainability of such efforts will come under threat in the absence of legal backing, and in the short run—if there is a change in the initiators in t...

SUMMARY Joint Forest Management (JFM) has emerged as an operational framework to involve the local communities in forest resource management in India. Almost all the States in India have adopted the framework and it has also become a focal point of all the externally—aided forestry projects. The institutional arrangements created under this framework for the management of village common lands in 22 villages in the Aravalli hills of Gurgaon district in Harayana State were examined. The conclusions were: • Degraded land resources can be rehabilitated with involvement of local communities despite heavy human and livestock pressures. • Collective action for sustainable resource use requires an institutional mechanism to provide the necessary assurance that would encourage the local communities to establish a ‘regulatory access’ regime. • Only an institution with clear administrative and legal jurisdiction and adequate financial resources can provide the basis for collective action. It must be seen to act tran...

In the last two decades while ‘decentralized governance’ and ‘participation’ have become buzz words among policy planners and bureaucrats, in actual practice communities are being pushed to the margins. National and state laws still define the major concerns of Indian society and polity. The present paper aims to highlight the dominance of statutory laws over local self-governing institutions and how community space is constricted in the name of participatory governance. It argues that communities are treated as mere beneficiaries rather than as active partners. It also highlights the fact that the introduction of New Joint Forest Management in 1996 has overridden the customary claims of communities on forests practiced over decades. Further, it shows how boundaries and fences have become sites of anxiety, creating artificial enclaves and plots, and in the process excluding communities from their rightful access to resources.

A ban on grazing, particularly by small ruminants, forms an important component of the Forest Policy and Joint Forest Management arrangements in India. Some caste groups keep larger number of small ruminants than the others. It is considered as a social trait that is sought to be corrected through extension efforts. This paper analyses the livestock structure of households by using a model of household behaviour based on profit maximisation. It shows that landholding plays a crucial role in livestock structure of households and because certain caste groups have smaller landholding they tend to keep small ruminants that can feed on the common lands and forest areas. The policy of a ban or restriction on grazing adversely affects such caste groups who therefore come to resent it.

The last two decades have seen the emergence, spread, and institutionalization of par ticipatory processes. In the natural resource management sector, it has taken various forms under the terms community forestry (in Nepal), joint forest management (in India) or, more generically, participatory forestry. As this model is built around the concepts of participation and partnerships, there is an assumption that everybody in the community would have an opportunity to participate and benefit. Yet emerging evidence from the field shows that this is not the case. The social reality of rural societies and their relation ships with natural resources are more complex and entangled than first acknowledged.This article, based on relevant literature and recent fieldwork in Sindhu Palchok and Kavre Palanchok districts of Nepal, will attempt to address the reasons for the failures of formal institutional models like community forestry to integrate gender as a funda mental variable. The current dominant focus on the biop...

This study tests whether participation and values favouring forest protection vary in different forms of community forestry, and whether members' identification with institutional values and forest central ity determines people's participation. Three hundred ninety seven members from 17 forest institutions and their leaders were interviewed. Participation was significantly higher in indigenous community forest management than in crafted community forest management and joint forest management. Values of 'livelihood security from forest', 'sacrificing the present benefit', and 'avoidance of free riding' emerged as important for indigenous and crafted community forest management compared to joint forest management. Members' identification with institutional values and centrality of the forest to the lives of members in forest institutions were higher in indigenous and crafted community forest manage ment than in joint forest management. Irrespective of forest institutions, the higher the value congru ence and centrality of the forest, the higher was people's participation.