Forest development agencies as mechanisms for institutionalizing joint forest management: a critical appraisal

Abstract

The dissertation deals with the role and contribution of the Forest Development Agency (FDA) in institutionalising and strengthening the Joint Forest Management (JFM) in India. It was against the background of the growing realization of the importance of the decentralised governance and bottom up approach in planning and execution of the developmental works and natural resource management that the Forest Policy of 1988 was introduced. It replaced the previous forest policy of 1952. The new policy emphasised management of the forests by local communities. This was a paradigm shift in policy. The rights of the locals to forests were recognised for the first time in independent India. The 1990 circular of the Government of India that followed the 1988 policy suggested that States takes steps to involve Village Communities in the regeneration of the forests. This circular formed the basis of the Joint Forest Management (JFM) in India. More guidelines were issued in 2000 and 2002 to make JFM effective. As on 31.07.05; 99,708 JFM Committees are jointly managing 20.10 million hectares of forests in India. The JFMCs were not envisaged to be work-executing agencies. They were not involved in executing the forestry activity works. They were not involved in afforestation activities. They were supposed to protect natural forests and earn a share in harvested forest produce. To make afforestation participatory and to further scale up the JFM concept the Government of India introduced the concept of Forest Development Agency Scheme (FDA) in the closing years of ninth five-year plan. Under the FDA scheme funds are to be transferred to the JFMCs through the FDA, a registered body of the JFMCs at the territorial Division level to carry out the village level developmental works and afforestation activities. As on 31.07.05, Government of India has sanctioned 639 FDAs which through 21,953 JFMCs is doing works of worth 1,454 crore. This study is an attempt to explore the contribution of the FDA in strengthening of the JFM movement. Chapter 1 deals with the evolution of Forest Management policies in India from the British period up to the advent of the FDAs. Chapter-2 details the concept of FDA.Chapter-3 outlines the context of the research problem, literature review and objective of the research. It deals with concepts in participatory management. Chapter-4 details the research questions and the methodology of the research. Chapter 5 deals with the inferences on the primary data collected through questionnaire and statistical analysis of the primary data collected. Chapter- 6 describes outcomes of interviews and discussions and assesses execution level and impact of FDA on the JFM. Chapter 7 examines the secondary data available with respect to FDA and their findings. Chapter-8 elaborates the conclusions and recommendations.