graduating from jfm to cfm

8/8/2019 Graduating From JFM to CFM

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Introduction

Indian Forest Policy of 1988 envisaged the role of communities in management of forests along

with state forest departments. As a result, Joint Forest Management (JFM) was initiated as a participatory and bottomup programme to regenerate and manage the country¶s forests in 1990.

Subsequently, different states adopted the programme by passing their own JFM resolutions.

Backed by external funding, policy support and community initiatives JFM spread across thecountry. Now there are more than 100,000 Forest Protection Committees (FPCs) under JFM,

which are managing 31.6% of the total forest area of the country. Although the spread of JFMhas been impressive, there are mixed results on the performance of the programme. There has

been a positive impact on vegetation, income, capacities of the communities and relations between

communities and the Forest Department in many areas across the country. But, there are issuesregarding legal status of FPCs, devolution of powers, tenurial security, the role of women and

marginalized sections and equity in benefit distribution. Despite all these, JFM has created alarge institutional base at the grass roots level, which can be exploited for community

development. However, the full potential of JFM in the country is yet to be realized in terms of increased forest utilization, benefit sharing and poverty reduction as there is enormous scope

to modify the current environmental, technical, market and social arrangements required toensure that new incomes actually flow from the management of restored forests.

Thus, India component of LLS would further strengthen the participatory forest managementinitiatives for ensuring new flow of income by using the FLR/LLS approach in selected

landscapes jointly managed by communities and forest departments in the states of Haryana,Uttarakhand and Orissa.

The onset of British colonial rule in India upset the harmonious regime that existed between

the forests and the fringe communities in the name of ³scientific forest management´. TheGovernment established its ownership of forests through indiscriminate acquisitions. The

very crux of this system relied on government ownership of forestlands, in the process

isolating the forest-dwelling and fringe communities from their own traditionally held privilegesand access to forests. It served the strategic British needs, but it proved to be the worst

assault of a colonial power on the wealth of the colonized, by not only taking away the wealth but also destroying a wholesome lifestyle and culture that indeed hit at the very base of

survival of these marginalized sections.



Thousands of social movements against the onslaught provide ample testimony to the bravestruggle of the people to protect their life and culture. One such movement actually started in

a very small way in the early 1970s, when the then Divisional Forest Officer, Silviculture

South) Division, Dr. Ajit Kumar Banerjee, on an experimental basis, entrusted the protection

of the forests under the Arabari range to the local people in return for usufructury rights. Theresult was overwhelmingly successful to the extent that the ³Arabari model´ was recognizedother community-based natural resource sectors. Indian independence in 1947 and

the acceptance of ³democracy´ as the main driving force in the Indian constitution did not haveany immediate effect on the prevailing forest regime of India (Khare, 1992). Destruction of the

forests as well as fringe communities in the name of welfare and democracy continues unabated.A major shift is the apathy of the fringe communities management regimes, worldwide. It took

43 long years for the system to modify itself to the needs of forests, for the involvement of theforest-dwellers to take root in the forests In recognition of the success of the µArabari model¶ at

the international level and began to be replicated not only in the forestry sector, but also inthe Government of West Bengal issued resolution on 12.07.1989

yielding statutory recognition to the Participatory Forest Management Regime as the firstmajor policy shift with respect to forest administration. The Ministry of Environment and

Forests, Government of India came up with a circular on 1st June, 1990,supporting the involvement of village communities and NGOs in the regeneration, management

and protection of degraded forests. Other state governments in India followed suit at ratifying theJoint Forest Management Regimes. West Bengal is therefore considered the pioneer in the field

of Joint Forest Management (JFM). The re-greening of forest areas over South West Bengal was possible mainly due to the community-based forest protection initiatives through the Forest

Protection Committees (FPCs) formed under the JFM regime.The impact of JFM was extensive in West Bengal, North Bengal and the Sunderbans

respectively.

In 1998, there were 280 Forest Protection Committees (FPCs) in North Bengal and 31 in theSunderbans. Those numbers increased to 334 and 33 respectively by 2001. In contrast, by

1998 there were 2023 FPCs in South West Bengal alone, protecting some 72.6% of the totalrecorded forests in South West Bengal. Comparatively the FPCs of South West

Bengal (comprising mainly the districts of Bankura, Purulia, East and West Medinipur) have been found to be more active and efficient in contrast to their counterparts in North Bengal and

Sunderbans (Mishra et al, 2004). The success of the JFM had led to recognition from theinternational community (Locke, 1992; Poffenberger, 1991). In 1993, in recognition of the role

of the FPCs of West Bengal in the widespread regeneration of the forests in West Bengal,they were awarded the Paul Getty Award Community Forestry and Gender Issues



Challenges

The main challenges that need to be addressed in the selected areas are as follows:

Forest landscape restoration

Evidence shows that the implementation of JFM/CFM has improved the conditions of forests in

the country. Control over open and uncontrolled grazing has helped the regeneration and survivalof vegetation in forests. The formation of local institutions as registered bodies with legal status

has been a significant catalyst in ensuring the participation of the community in the decision-making process, and for equitable benefit-sharing mechanisms for forest products. The resultant

incentives have been seen in the form of increased availability of fuel wood, fodder, etc.,addressing basic needs, besides providing an impetus to the socio-economic status of the local

community. However, the limited forest resources are not able to sustain the pressure of the communities for their various needs. As such, apart from forest protection and raising

plantations, interventions would be required on a holistic landscape management level

addressing livelihood security by improving the existing JFM implementation, institutional

mechanisms, trade of forest products, etc. There is also a need to incorporate the local

landscape approach and interventions so as to further strengthen the natural resources

utilization by securing the non-forest related income generation activities to complementthe incomes from forest utilization.

Income and Livelihoods

JFM/CFM programme in the pilot areas has provided benefits of forest restoration and the

enhancement of livelihoods of the participating communities. However, a large proportion of population in the pilot areas remains below Poverty Line (BPL). Thus, in spite of sustained

efforts having made for over a decade and a half in the selected villages under JFM,enhancement of incomes and livelihoods of the local people remain to be addressed adequately.

Limitation in Forest Department to moveforward in implementing policies has been a major issue that LLS will address. Increasing the

incomes of local communities for addressing poverty reduction goals would be an importantchallenge to be addressed by strengthening of the current JFM interventions based on the LLS

approach.



Markets and Incentives

The JFM programme in the pilot areas has not been able to capitalize on production andutilization of NTFPs. The utilization of NTFPs remains mostly unexplored owing mainly to

inadequate mechanisms for NTFP trade and marketing. The development of NTFP-based

enterprises becomes significant as a livelihood support mechanism for increasing the cashincome of the beneficiaries and hence addressing poverty issues. Enterprise development, bystrengthening the institutional mechanisms, building capacities of the local communities and

developing linkages with the market, is particularly significant for the landless and small farmerswho constitute a significant percentage of the population in the selected landscapes.

Institutional strengthening

Joint Forest management practices provide relevant lessons for some of the glaring challenges

that face the Forestry sector in India by formation of institutions for prudent management of resources. The functioning of the local institutions in selected pilot areas over the past 15 years

has shown that the institutions need periodic strengthening to make them more effective,influential and to improve decision making. The baseline analysis study also indicated that there

has been a lack of pro-active functioning of the institutions, poor financial management, etc. inJMF managed areas mainly due to a lack of capacity building and motivation. The situation thus

entails a need to build the capacities of the local institutions not only for better management of the resources but also for benefit sharing, silvicultural practices, production, development of

business and trade of forest produce by strengthening further linkages with the forest and other line departments and with markets and industries. Another major issue related to sustainable

forest management is the absence of participatory silviculture/adaptive forest management(AFM) in a case like Orissa which needs to integrate community initiatives with the formal

processes in a manner that continuously empowers the communities and strengthens thefacilitatory role for JFM in the State.

Uptake and Need for Policy Change

The Livelihoods & Landscapes Strategy programme through forest landscape restoration (FLR)

has the challenge of strengthening the JFM programmes and policies by studying the currentinstitutional framework to enhance the income and livelihood as well as conservation of forest

resources for posterity. The policy makers also need to be sensitized to the dynamic nature andrequirements of the local

institutions for sustainable resource utilization and management with greater degree of accountability, transparency and partnership.



LLS interventions

Indian partner organizations i.e. The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) and Winrock

International India (WII) are already involved with these communities through JFM programme.Both are the major players in JFM in India, having strong links with the Forest Department andexperiences in many Indian states. The LLS programme aims to catalyze the sustainable use and

conservation of forest biodiversity and ecosystem services for the benefit of the rural poor. Thegoal of LLS for India focuses on improvement of the existing institutional arrangements for

community- based forest management, in particular JFM, to promote participatory local-levelforest product marketing and processing, and to integrate these arrangements with LLS

approach. The focus of the activities will be oriented on integrating institutional arrangement likeJFM with a landscape level approach by adopting FLR. The interventions will include the

following elements:

Strengthening the ongoing Joint Forest Management programmes and institutionalmechanisms for sustainable utilization of forest resources and promoting the trade of

forest products, in general, and NTFPs, in particular.

Promoting support for the production, management and enterprise development of NTFPsto increase the income of the local communities

Institutional and policy strengthening for better management of natural resources for

achieving poverty reduction goals.

Expanding FLR approach to locally negotiated landscapes (including other land use) andactivities for supporting the incomes from increased forest utilization.

Monitoring/ supporting the ongoing JFM programmes/institutional mechanisms for greater

transparency and accountability.

Capacity building of the stakeholders for sustainable management of natural resourcesand addressing issues of increased forest utilization, livelihood and income generation

along with FLR/LLS.

Conclusions

Findings



1. Forest protection initiatives are directly influenced by the protection - linked directincentives. Direct incentives create interest among the stakeholders to protect the forest and are

thus more effective than indirect incentives.

2. Non-destructive forest based economic activities like NTFP collection on a commercial

basis, like organic tussar-, lac-, api- and mushroom culture as well as the sustainable collectionof medicinal plants and raw materials for local handicrafts/cottage industry, etc. adds up to the

protection - linked direct incentives, as these activities are possible only when the forests itself was protected. These activities do value-addition to the protection - linked incentives obtained

from the forests.

3. Market forces play a direct role in the effectivity of forest protection through JFM.

(a) Distance of the market above 10 kms. from the raw material base (i.e. the forests) didnot have any direct effect. But ³accessibility´ had a direct effect on forest protection.

What was more pertinent was whether the market is more accessible or not. Easier ³accessibility´ lowers the burden of carriage cost to the market and therefore enhances

the intention amongst the ³free-riders´ to steal, other factors being constant.

(b) Penetration by the market forces, in form of the agents in the fringe-villages to procureillicit forest produce, negatively affects forest protection through FPCs.

However the costs involved in maintaining such agents in the remote fringe-villages and inkeeping clandestine supply-lines functional and the resultant risks therein, are quite high. Hence

this is profitable only when the price obtained from such illegal produce is high enough to commensurate such ventures. This is the reason why mafias are

operational only in the wildlife trophy and sandalwood smuggling sectors.

(c) In this connection however, the factor of existence of ³free-riders´ is to be kept in

mind. This section exists at the cost of the community, even when direct benefits (like

25% of sale proceeds) have been already paid to the community.

4. Other factors being constant, demand for alternative use over the forest land, e.g.agriculture, quarrying, plantations, habitation, etc., has a detrimental effect on forest protection



by FPCs.

It may thus be inferred from the findings of this study, that the Joint ForestManagement (JFM) regime in West Bengal, at least in the study area under the

Bankura (North) Division, is more of a choice of the economic rationale of the

community than a full-hearted peoples¶ movement. Aspirations of returns from theJFM activity have been the main driving force in dominating the behaviour of the

community more than the mere emotional attachments to the forests alone.Ensure that womens traditional right to forest use is not diminished. Ensure that any increase in

the efficiency of access to forests and of forest product use by women and men is not achieved atthe expense of womens access to and control over forest products.

Ensure equal access to project resources for women and men for community, government, andhomestead forests.

Include measures to avoid potential conflicts among competing users or uses, and avoid creatingnegative effects for forest users.

Ensure the cooperation of both men and women in tree planting and tree care insocial/community forestry projects.

Reflect womens preferences for particular tree species in project activities.Train women in required components, such as nursery techniques, site selection, selection of

species, land preparation, planting, weeding, and maintenance, to increase their productivity.Look for ways in which the above inputs and new technologies can be channeled effectively to

reach women.Train female forestry extension agents in the project. Sensitize forestry extension agents to

womens forest use patterns and particular needs and constraints.Help women as well as men understand the value of forests, and instill proper attitudes toward

destructive forest resource extraction, the sustainable use of forest resources, soil erosion, andchoice of trees.

Include measures to provide women or womens groups with access to the lease of governmentland and to roadside forestry for new plantation and reforestation work.

Introduce measures that will provide joint title for women and men for community forest land.Ensure the right to forest resource use for indigenous women and men.

Make use of womens traditional knowledge of forest resource management, choice of trees for social forestry projects, and homestead forests.

Ensure support for womens craft and home-based forest-related industry through creditutilization, business management, and marketing.

If community groups or forest resource management committees are formed under this project,ensure that women are included in the community group or forest resource management

committee

Access rights to trees and forests for men and women are often limited by a lack of clarity in formal and local customary rights. Women are often further disadvantaged byinsecure tenure and access rights to natural resources.Rural women and men have different knowledge about forestry and play different rolesin forest use and management. These differences occur both among and withincultures, communities and households.



Climate change has gender-specific implications for both vulnerability and adaptivecapacity, owing to women¶s limited access to training and participation in decision-making

The JFM experience across the states has clearly brought out that the community

involvement can play an important role in minimising the damage caused by forest

fires. The adage 'prevention is better than cure' is most apt to emphasise the role of village communities in fire prevention. However it needs to be emphasised thatcommunity participation in fire prevention is not an end in itself. Proper planning is

imperative for fire prevention. This calls for the three general approaches to work in

tandem i.e. Education, Engineering and Enforcement (Nair 1992). Motivation of community to participate in fire prevention and control should follow education to

underscore its importance. An important strategy in fire prevention is to educate the

villagers in the forest area and along its fringe regarding the care required to keep fireswell under control if lit for legitimate purposes like for example, subjecting

agricultural plots to a light burn as a pre-monsoon preparation. An education strategy

must appreciate that a series of edicts will not work unless the villagers are convincedabout the harmful effects of fire in context of their dependence on the forest resource.

Also villagers believe most in what they see than what they hear. Taking groups of

villagers to burnt areas and explaining the fire effects will be useful.Hazard reduction or limiting the exposure of forests to fire risks constitutes mainly the

engineering aspect (Brown and Davis 1973). This also included clearing along paths,

early and control burning of vulnerable areas, fire lines etc

Lessons learnt from JFM The JFM program in various states of the country has served to increase the stake of

forest dependent communities in the surrounding forest areas. The lessons learnt from

the experience of community involvement in fire prevention can be summarised asfollowing:

Participatory approach in fire prevention and control The community based fire management has to rely extremely on the positiverelationship between the people in the rural space and their forest. Mutual confidence

and public support has to be created by participatory approaches e.g. incentives,

income generation activities, involvement in production enterprises etc. for involvement of communities in fire prevention and control

The study of fire in the JFM and non-JFM areas clearly reveal that despite similar

kind of dependence on the forest people's response to forest fire differed. This wasdiscerned particularly in the response of JFM villages where people felt duty bound to

put out the fire in the forest because they have a stake in it. Remarks like 'the forest

now belongs to us and we feel obliged to protect it ' were common in JFM villages,whereas the non-JFM villages were non-enthusiastic about such voluntary efforts.

Their efforts were mainly confined to check spread of forest fires to their agricultural

fields.

C reating awareness among the community of loss due forest fires



People's view on the occurrence of forest fires is of vital importance in assessing the

impact of community efforts at fire control. It is not surprising that socio-economicand cultural surveys on fire causes often reveal that most important reason for failure

of prevention of forest fires is related to the fact that communities do not realise the

economic and ecological losses due to forest fires. Therefore, an efficient motivation

strategy for fire prevention requires an initial understanding of the cultural, socio-economic and psychological background of community perception of fire losses.

Within the village forest protection committees (VFCs) in JFM villages, interestinglyit was observed that the assurance of economic incentives in the form of fuelwood,

fodder or non timber forest produce etc. need not be the sole factor which motivated

the communities to protect the forests from fire. What was more important was the

level of community awareness of the potential losses that could result from forestfires. For instance basket making community in Haryana, whose livelihood is greatly

dependent on availability of bamboo, have not only been active in preventing and

controlling fire in their area, but also of the adjoining area to prevent its spread to their forests.

Equity in benefit sharing This experience is related to aspect of causes of forest fires. It necessitates that thestudy of causes of fires should involve besides other causative factors, motives and

behaviour of communities. Detailed information about the causes and through

understanding of the motivation behind the forest fires provides the necessary background for prevention work. The job is then to reach and influence people to do

or not to do something.

Equity in benefit sharing has been another factor, which was found to affect the

community efforts to control forest fires. In the absence of an equitable distributionsystem of incentives, there were cases of the aggrieved group deliberately setting

forest fires.

C omplexity of legal provisions and lack of enforcement Though the subject of law and its enforcement in relation to forest fires is a wide and

complex subject and opinions may differ as to the part of it should play in preventionand control of forest fires in a democratic set-up. Generally speaking an adequate

legal enactment accompanied by enforcement is an indispensable ingredient of forest

fire prevention.

The experience of under reporting due to provision of lodging a First Incidence

Report (FIR) with the local police by the Forest Guard on spotting a fire in his areaand subsequent litigation reflects on the issue of re-consideration of reporting

provisions. Also lack of voluntary participation despite provisions in the Indian ForestAct brings forth the issue of lack of enforcement mechanisms.

C larity of rights and responsibilities of the communities



Clear specification of future benefits (in the form benefit sharing statement) that will

accrue to the community at the time of the final harvest could bolster communityefforts at fire protection.

It was found that some of the village forest committees (VFCs) besides putting out the

fires in the forest areas where they have their rights also voluntarily put out fires in the

Reserve Forest areas where they do not have any major rights. In the various meetingswith these VFCs the issue of availing benefits from these forest also came up. Also

apprehension of future benefits from timber sharing at the time of final harvest of forest crop protected by them was found to cause the decreased enthusiasm of village

communities in fire protection and prevention.

T echni ques of fire prevention Formal training in fire prevention and control is invaluable for preparing a nucleus of

people for leading fire prevention and control programs. This is because with

untrained people the control of fire becomes difficult.

The usual method of fire fighting that is followed by using earth, by beating and bycounter fighting. Usually all mild fires are extinguished by beating them out with

broom made of cut branches and twigs. Counter firing is also adopted if the fire is so

fierce that fire-fighting crew can not stand near the head to beat it out. However it iswas observed that most of the villagers and even some forest staff were not adequately

aware of employing these techniques.

graduating from jfm to cfm

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