Joint forest planning and management in the eastern plains of Karnataka: a rapid assessment

Joint Forest Management (JFM) has become the key concept through which forest generation activities are being implemented in most parts of India. This study uncovers several lacunae in the way Joint Forest Planning and Management (JFPM) was undertaken.The authors find that many of the basic tenets of joint planning and management, like consultation with villagers and setting up of Village Forest Committees (VFCs) are being violated from the outset. The selection of villages has been poor. Most VFCs exist in name only with poor participation of the village general body. Some of the lacunae in JFPM implementation are due to lacunae in the basic framework for JFPM. The eastern plains region presents special challenges to JFPM implementation but genuine JFPM is generally absent even in pockets where favourable conditions exist. On the contrary, the few success stories are often cases of exploiting existing hierarchies to meet narrowly defined goals. Thus, the major cause of the poor quality of JFPM processes and outcomes is the refusal of the implementation agency to seriously commit itself to the concept of participatory, people-oriented forestry.The findings of this paper call into serious question the current approach towards participatory forest management being adopted not just in Karnataka but in many other states in India. This approach is based upon narrow notions of participation, little re-thinking of basic premises within the forest bureaucracy, largeflows of bilateral and multi-lateral funds (usually loans) resulting in target rather than process orientation. Moreover the findings highlight the need to significantly restructure institutions of community management so as to avoid the imposition of elite preferences in the name of forest regeneration, given the differentiated and changing relationship between local communities and common lands.Specific recommendations for changes in JFPM policy include that:there must be clear, statutory provisions for ensuring that all lands used by the village or hamlet community are brought under the management of VFC and that this is done by properly resolving or pre-existing and overlapping de jure and de facto rightsthe planning for management of these lands must be by the villagers, with the KFD’s (Karnataka Forest Department) role being strictly limited to providing information on the sustainable-use norms for different ways of managing the landsthere must be clear, statutory provisions for ensuring that the partnership in JFPM is enforceable both ways: villagers must be able to demand JFPM as a right if they demonstrate willingness to manage their forests, and VFCs must be able to force the KFD to meet its commitments towards joint protection, sharing of returns, and so on.