Reclaiming the Forests?

People's Participation in Forest Management, East India

Jo Lawbuary

Members of Bajrakot Forest Protection Committee, Ranpur, Orissa, beginning a night watch of the forest.

Submitted in partial fulfilment of BSc. (Hons.)

Human Environmental Science, King's College, London

April 16 1999

Abstract

Forest rejuvenation is occurring in the east Indian states of West Bengal, Orissa and Bihar, as a consequence of community protection and the regulation of access. In a significant departure in the relationship between forests, people and the state, a new meeting point between the Forest Department, and rural communities is facilitating a co-operative management of forest land, called joint forest management. In Orissa, however, community forest management, without support from the state, and in what can be interpreted as a new, subtle form of environmental activism, is likewise showing forest regeneration, notably in areas of derelict Reserved forests.

Work undertaken in Orissa, east India, in January 1999, is reported here. Regeneration is providing communities with a critical increase in biomass supply, in contrast to the resource scarcities of recent years that often motivate protection. Increased biomass availability is also leading to improved income generating opportunities. Some forests notably of commercial species such as teak, Tectona grandis appear to be protected for quasi-commercial reasons. Other areas of forest not under community protection are degraded, though usefully employed as grazing grounds, as part of the agricultural economy.

Forest under community forest management may have an uncertain future, due to several factors such as institutional instability, lack of legitimacy according to the state, particularly on land designated as Reserved, which legally belongs to the Forest Department, and a management regime that is too informal. Joint forest management, where a partnership for forest management is undertaken by the forest Department and rural communities, may be more robust and sustainable.

With and without the support of the state, communities are reclaiming areas of forest, and assuming roles of stewardship.

Contents

Tables Figures and Plates

Tables

Figures

Plates

Frontispiece: Bajrakot forest protectors

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the following for their help, without whom this study would not have been possible; Tapan Padhi, Nirmal Jyotishi and Dr Vikasha Kumar Patra of RCDC (Regional Centre for Development Co-operation), Bhubaneswar, Orissa, plus kind assistance in the field by Dilip Kumar Mohanty and Gorachand Mohanty of Budhikhamari Forest Protection Committee.

Thank you also to Vasundhara, Bhubaneswar, notably to Dalku Nayak and Dr Pravat Sutar in the field at Ranpur, along with Laxmiehar Jena and Madhav Jena, and the many more members of Ranpur FPC who gave their time.

A special thanks to Dr David Cartwright, King's College, London, for his kind support and for giving me a free rein, and Purnendu Roy for sustaining me.

all photographs taken by Jo Lawbuary