The National Forest Policy 1988 emphasises on creating massive people's movement through involvement of village communities living close to the forest in protection and development. Government of India issued a notification on June 1990 requesting the State Governments to involve local communities in management of forest.

The local institutions engaged in the task are known by different names in different states like Forest Protection Committee (FPC), Village Forest Committee (VFC) Van Samrakshan Samiti (VSS), Village Forest Protection Management Committee (VFPMC) etc.

The philosophy of JFM (joint forest management) in essence aims at involving people in resource generation activities through motivation, and eliciting their participation in forest management and the sharing of benefits through adequate institutional arrangements.

The new Forest Policy of India has encouraged joint forest management (JFM) agreements between government and the people who depend on the forest for their livelihood. The policy also, for the first time, allows for non-governmental organisations to play a role as catalysts and intermediaries.
Source: http://www.facweb.iitkgp.ernet.in/~stripathy/cforest.html

Forest management in India has been rewritten with the introduction of the concept of joint forest management (JFM). JFM means different things to different people. As Jeffery Campbell puts it, “Foresters may view JFM primarily as a means to ensure forest regeneration; community members may see it as a solution to a growing shortage of biomass, a means to ensure daily requirements of food, fodder and NTFPs, and/or a way to increase incomes; NGO workers/activists may view the programme as a vehicle for grass roots empowerment; academic researchers may see in JFM an experiment in collective action; while politicians may view JFM as a means to decentralise control over resources. It is a dynamic initiative still very much in its evolutionary stage, full of variation, uncertainty, and conflict.

The stewardship and use of forests and forest lands in a way, and at a rate, that maintains their biodiversity, productivity, regeneration capacity, vitality and their potential to fulfil, now and in the future, relevant ecological, economic and social functions, at local, national, and global levels, and that does not cause damage to other ecosystems.

JFM, in simple words, is a concept of developing partnerships between fringe forest user-groups and the Forest Department (FD) on the basis of mutual trust and jointly-defined roles and responsibilities for forest protection and development. In response to the adoption of the JFM at the national level, the Government of Karnataka also issued an order in 1993 for comprehensive implementation of the scheme in the State.

I.. Study on Joint Forest Management conducted byTERI for Ministry of Environment and Forests

The increasing depletion of India's forest resources has brought into sharp focus the inherent inadequacy of traditional state owned and run systems of forest management in sustaining the forest resource base against the growing human and livestock population pressures, industrialisation, urbanisation and overall economic development. The crisis in Indian forestry relating to high rates of deforestation, and unregulated and unsustainable use of forest produce in the past, can be attributed to the twin processes of erosion of customary resource management regimes and the acquisitive tendencies of the state in the period following independence. The effective and meaningful involvement of local communities has been attempted under the Joint Forest Management System in India by linking socio-economic incentives and forest development.

To read full report click here.

II.. Study on Joint Forest Management

In India Joint Forest Management (JFM) has emerged as an important intervention in management of forest resources. In many parts of India, small village groups have started to protect and reclaim degraded forestlands through collective action. The Joint Forest Management Programme seeks to develop partnerships between local community institutions and state forest departments for sustainable management and joint benefit sharing of public forest lands. The primary objective of JFM is to ensure sustainable use of forests to meet local needs equitably while ensuring environmental sustainability. The central premise is that local women and men who are dependent on forests have the greatest stake in sustainable forest management.

Given in this study are glimpses of some initiatives taken in different states across the country. While some are promoted by the Forest Department or by NGOs, some are collaborative attempts between government and the rural population or rural population alone to reverse degradation, restore productivity and conserve biodiversity and move towards sustainable development.

To read the full report click here.

Recommended readings:

1.. An Issue on World Bank and Forests in India, 1997 CED R.E23d.9

Though differing opinions prevail about the effectiveness of the highly centralized forest conservation models in our country, however there is little doubt about the effectiveness of these protected areas in terms of alienating the local communities from their traditional territories, lifestyles, cultures and livelihoods. RLEK firmly believes that the local communities play a key role in protecting and sustainably managing their forests. Based upon traditional knowledge and through a process of trial and error the tribal/indigenous communities have devised certain 'best practices' for the use of the forests. Over the years, such practices have become an inherent part of the traditions and customs of the communities. However, with more and more forest areas, in different parts of the country, reserved as parks and sanctuaries, forest dwelling/dependent communities are being forced to resettle outside their traditional habitats. This speaks volumes of the insensitivity and inadequacy of the post-independence forest policies, which, instead of making way for the involvement of local communities in forest management, have asserted the monopoly rights of the state over the forests.

The indigenous nomadic Van Gujjars comprise one such community, facing threat of expulsion from their traditional forest homes in the Shivaliks, subsequent to the government declaring its intentions to reserve the area as a National Park.

This community is culturally homogenous; it is a tribal community; it has a high level of dependence on the forest for survival; it has low economic disparity; it has clearly defined forest use areas; it has a good perception of gender equity and involvement of women. This makes it an ideal community to undertake the implementation of the CFM-PA.

1.. "Van Sahyog" - Joint Forest Management Network Newsletter. (Quarterly Newsletter).

2.. Tribal Self-Rule and Natural Resource Management - Community Based conservation at Mendha-Lekha, Maharashtra, Kalpavriksh. Available with CED.

3.. Does Community-Based Conservation Make Economic Sense?, Kalpavriksh, Sushil Saigal. Avilable with CED. No. - E23c.S.5