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JOINT FOREST MANAGEMENT IN TAMILNADU
PAST, PRESENT AND
FUTURE
Dr . R.Annamalai, I.F.S.
Dean,
Southern Forest Rangers College, Coimbatore.
BACKGROUND AND INTRODUCTION
The systems of Forest Management in India can be
divided into two distinct systems. The "old paradigm" Forest Management which
has treated people as "biotic interference", "anthropogenic pressures"
in forests may be termed as traditional forest management (TFM). The "new
paradigm" Forest Management which recognises the symbiotic relationship between the
forest abuttant community and forests and hence treating people as "partners",
"stake holders"may be termed as Joint Forest Management (JFM).
TFM is the system that prevailed in all the states in India before 1988
and even now it also exists side by side with JFM in some states(Subhabrata Palit: 1994) .
JFM is the system introduced after 1988 and now being adopted in 16
states in India. JFM represents a fundamental shift in the methods and strategies in the
sense, the focus has been shifted to people centered approach involving building up of the
peoples institutions from mere departmental tree planting for arresting the degradation
process in Forests.
JFM as "new paradigm" is not only a new "model" or
"pattern" but it also challenges the fundamental premises of prior knowledge and
previous forest policies and it implies a change in the Indian view of Forestry.
JFM is going to be the system of forest management in the 21st
century in India and this has been realised and accepted by all concerned with forest
management and development in India.
Forest Management in India is in a transitory stage moving from
traditional centralised state controlled Forest management to decentralised local
community based forest management. The traditional system of control, regulations and
policing the forests have alienated the people from developing a sense of belonging to the
forest resources in their immediate vicinity resulting in the development of an attitude
of apathy and lack of any concern for protection and conservation. This has resulted in
continued degradation of forest resources and unsustainable forest management. The
traditional policies and procedures supporting commercial industrial interest resulting in
disempowerment of forest abuttant community in their relationship to forest resources is
in the process of change.
The concept of JFM is of recent origin and it is a significant
departure from the earlier practice of forest management. Earlier, the management of
forest was such that there was a dichotomy between resource users and those responsible
for resource generation and conservation, the users having no responsibility for
protection, conservation, development and maintenance. Conceptually, JFM seeks to develop
partnerships between local institutions of forest dependant villagers and state forest
departments for sustainable management of forest resources on the basis of sharing
benefits and responsibilities ( N. Balakrishnan Raj et al., 1998)
JFM is a program essentially to induct villagers formally into the
forest management system and to make the production system more responsive to community
needs thereby ensuring sustenance of resources. The need for efficient forest protection
by the people for wider ecological consideration and local sustenance is the genesis of
the program.
The National forest Policy `1998 called for discontinuation of
commercial exploitation of forests for industries and envisaged meeting the local peoples
needs as a primary consideration of forest management. It also aimed to effectively
involve local people in forest management. In pursuance of National Forest Policy 1998 the
Government of India issued guidelines in June 1990 to the states to adopt JFM.
The National guideline to support JFM begins by stating that :
"The National Forest Policy, 1998 envisages peoples involvement in
the development and protection of forest. The requirements of fuel wood , fodder and small
timber such as house building materials of the tribals and other villagers living in and
near the forest are to be treated as first charge on forest produce. The policy document
envisages it as one of the essentials of forest management that the forest communities
should be motivated to identify themselves with development and protection of forest from
which they derive benefits".
The guidelines for joint forest management of Tamil nadu runs as
follows
"The National Forest Policy envisages peoples involvement in the
development of protection of forests. The Government of Tamil Nadu stand committed to
involve local people in reforestation and protection of degraded forests and to share with
them the sustainable benefits from these forests. This arrangement will be known as
"Joint Forest Management" and the involvement of the people will be ensured
through village forest council".
JFM in Tamil Nadu is
Project based
Degraded forests focussed
Village forest council managed
Village development focussed
People centered
Micro watershed oriented
Participatory rural appraisal based
Micro Planning - Decentralised
Benefit sharing structured
Entry Point activities involved
Inter departmental coordination based
JFM as a concept demands attitudinal changes among the foresters and
among the forest abuttant community members. Foresters have to develop a positive minds
set for participatory culture with the inclusion and formal induction of village community
in forest Management and have to develop a positive attitudes towards beneficial effects
and impacts of peoples participation based partnership in forest protection and
conservation. People have to change their attitude of treating forester as their enemy or
as a person saying "no" to everything they need and preventing them from
enjoying their access to forest resources. Mutual attitudinal changes can result in mutual
rapport building and mutual trust building resulting in strong bondage of partnership.
JFM Concepts
Participatory approach
Involvement of Local People in decision making concerning forest management
JFM is also known as participatory forest management (PFM)
Participation can reduce degradation and can bring about better protection
Participation is essential for substainable forest management. Substainablity cannot be
achieved without peoples involvement in decision making.
Participation can create a sense of ownership and pride.
Participation can boost to the ego of the local people
Participation can create conducive climate for conservation
Forest cannot be protected without peoples participation.
Participation is easier said than done.
Participation can come only when a felt need is involved. Can forest conservation be
made a felt eed.
Participation should come from within. It cannot be forced or coerced. How to generate
participation from within.
Participation is ensured through institution building and PRA based process approach in
planning.
Participation should be there at all stages of project management - Planning,
Implementation, Monitoring and evaluation.
Participation is a process and not a target
Participation can not be structured or programmed.
It has to evolve endogenously within the socio-cultural frame work of the community. It
is a long term process.
People Centered approach
Local people, Fringe people, Ecosystem people (Tribals). Forest abuttant community
targeted for development.
Local people at the center of development focus.
Not only forest development is focused in JFM but also peoples development.
If you take care of the people forests will take care of itself. No need for any
intervention.
Partnership Approach
Forest department and fringe people - Ecosystem people as partners in forest management.
Creating long term partnership with people for sustainable forest management.
Both the partners have direct stake in the success.
People are our greatest strength. They are not problem but opportunity. Forest
department need not do what people can do or what people have to do. Transfer the
responsibility of protection to the local people by creating a conducive atmosphere.
In partnership approach the attitude of officials that "We know what is best for
them" should be changed and the official should realise that "They know what is
best for them".
Status barrier between forest department and people creates psychological and emotional
barrier. There is need to remove the status barrier for the success of partnership.
The functions, duties, responsibilities and powers of respective Partners should be
defined clearly and there should not be any misunderstanding in this regard.
In this partnership approach the power should be devolved to the actual user groups.
It is important to create partnership because if you take care of people, the people
will take care of forests.
If you don't take care of people............they will take care of forests.
for JFM partnership to succeed, they must be rooted in mutual acceptance of clearly
defined rights,
responsibilities and accountability by both forest department and village forest
institutions,
the functions, duties, responsbilies, and powers of VFC and forest departments should be
made crystal clear without any scope for misunderstanding.
Mutual sharing of
Responsibilities for forest protection, development and conservation
Resources sharing
Concern for conservation
Mutual Trust Building
Whether it is in personal life or official life or in our dealings with people mutual
trust building place vital role. We have to build trust with the people. Trust worthy
relationship alone succeeds.
Trust building involves eliminating the fear of people towards forest department staff.
Centuries old relationship built on mistrust and distrust should give way for mutual
trust building.
Rapport building with the people is highly essential for the success of partnership in
JFM
B.B. Vohra has observed as follows "the very serious limitations from which our
forest establishments suffer in this field arise mainly from their traditional lack of
rapport with local populations (B.B. Vohra 1985 in Greening of India)
Mutual Learning
People learning from us and we learning from people.
Experiential learning for both people and department
Benefit Sharing
As motivating factor for peoples participation and for sustaining peoples interest in
forest protection.
For creation of stake for local people for effective conservation
As a token of appreciation for the peoples efforts in conservation.
As a matter of recognition of peoples contribution.
Realizing the basic Psychology of "People Care" "when they share".
Equitable distribution of benefits - benefits for all, so Envy from None.
Structured mechanism of benefit sharing creates stake for the people for participation.
Benefit sharing is a must for sustaining the peoples interest in forest management.
Institution Building
Creation of village level institutions like village forest council.
For institutionalizing peoples participation in forest management.
As a democratic process of management of natural resources.
Village level institution for sustainable forest management.
The institution structure should ensure that the power is devolved to the actual user
groups.
The institutional structure should able to respond to the overall developmental and
social needs of the community.
Conflict management should be built into the institution structure. The institution must
be able to tackle intra and inter community conflicts.
Financial sustainability of these institutions is a critical concern for sustainable
forest management at local level.
Empowerment
Switching over from centuries old dis-empowerment of local people to empowerment.
Through democratically elected executive committee and village forest council president.
Signing of memorandum of understanding with village forest council.
Transparency in execution of works - getting signature of the VFC president in fund
application.
PRA based participatory micro planning.
Mutually agreed Micro Plan
Planning by the people, Planning of the people and Planning for the people.
Planning with the people reflecting peoples views, perceptions and aspirations in the
plan document.
Duly recognising the felt needs of the people and giving due importance in planning.
Primacy of meeting local peoples needs rather than commercial interest.
Getting approval of the village forest council in the plan document.
Process approach for planning : Process is more important than the product : Plan is
nothing but planning is everything.
Fail to plan - Plan to fail.
Planning must become transparent to allow local input into priority setting, while
de-emphasizing commercial timber production to respond to a wide range of non-timber
forest products.
Reversal of top down approach in planning to bottom up approach.
Reversal of Centralised planning to decentralised planning
Sustainable forest management
Creation of a dense forest in the degrade forest area and sustaining the dense forest.
Sustainable development refers to the concept of meeting the requirements of the present
generation without imparing the chances of the future generations from meeting their own
requirements (Brunt land commission)
Sustainable management refers to "having the cake and eating it too ( Dr. M.S.
Swaminathan)
Sustained yield from forest refers to harvesting the Interest by keeping the Capital
intact. It is defined as yield of timber or other forest produce obtainable from a forest
so managed to produce it on regular basis in perpetuity.
Sustainable use - use of components of biological diversity in a way and at a rate that
does not lead to the long term decline of biological diversity.
Sustainable agriculture in the downstream side depends upon the sustainable water
resources availability from the upstream side.
Sustainable bio-diversity conservation.
Sustainable village forest institution with sustainable village forest development fund;
creating a corpus fund for village forest council : Sustainable fund generation through
revolving fund, self help groups, micro credit and micro enterprises.
The lessons learnt from the interface forestry has shown that sustainability can be
achieved only by the villagers and not by the intensified project inputs.
The issues of sustainability has to be discussed in JFM with reference to the local
situations and local realities.
The concept of sustainability implies that it is an issue to be managed by the local
communities on their own. An endogenous managerial capacity for the community to handle
the natural resources is necessary for the sustainability of the resources. Peoples
participation on a sustainable basis can not be programmed or structured. A true
participation evolves endogenously within the socio-cultural frame work and a strategy or
project should facilitate this evolutionary process. Strategy demands that institution
building should be the major objectives of the program rather than mere planting of trees
(Dr. K. Balasubramaniam)
Sustainable village forest institution is a must for sustainable JFM
Policy sustainability on VFC should clearly spelt out. The IFF VFCs where not sustained
mainly because of lack of policy sustainability there where no policy or post project
strategy for sustaining the VFC. The life span of the VFCs were limited to project period.
Financial sustainability of the JFM demands financial sustainability of the VFC. Hence,
there is need for sustainable fund resources for the VFC. Village forest development fund
of the VFC should have permanent resource base. This can be created from
Corpus fund from buffer zone allotment or from other sources
Recurring income sources from fines and compounding fees, income from hiring charges of
VFC assets like sprayer, utensils, coir robe making machines etc., generating income by
promoting pisciculture in the existing water resources or in the percolation pond.
Share of sale proceeds from the NTFP sources
Contribution from other sources. (v) Repayment of loans and interest from the revolving
fund should be credited to the village forest development fund. Self sustainability of the
VFC can be achieved by financial sustainability of the VFC.
Sustainability of the programme should include
Policy sustainability
Institutional sustainability
Financial sustainability
Technological sustainability
Alternative livelihood System
For forest dependant people.
Creation of employment opportunities in works.
Community asset building as part of entry point activities.
Buffer zone activities for capacity building and competency development.
Creation of self help groups (SHG) with revolving fund.
Micro credit and Micro enterprises for empowerment of women.
Unless alternative livelihood system is created for all forest dependant people JFM may
not succeed.
Watershed based Approach
JFM is old - Watershed is new - So goes a saying
For holistic treatment and development of natural resources in the forested Micro
Watershed.
Focusing primarily on water harvesting structures for water augmentation for improving
productivity of forests in the upstream side and the productivity of agriculture in the
down stream side.
Development in tune with the national strategy of watershed based approach.
Multi-sectoral Integration
Inter departmental co-ordination for holistic development of village people and their
resources.
District level committee for bringing integration of various departments in the district
level - for integrated watershed management and for integrated human resources
development.
State level committee for bringing integration of various departments at the state level
for JFM co-ordination.
NGO Involvement
Tripartite arrangement of forest department, People and NGO's / VO's for better
co-ordination and awareness creation.
One NGO / VO for each village to create awareness and to create confidence in the
peoples mind and to bridge the gap between the people and department.
Degraded Forests Focused
Forests below 0.4 crown density including open forests scrub areas and barren areas are
treated under JFM.
Restoration and rehabilitation plan for degraded forests.
Removing the negative forces that caused degradation disequilibrium and destabilization
of the Ecosystem.
Identification of factors behind degradation and eliminating them through multi-pronged
strategies and appropriate interventions.
Awareness Creation
Awareness creation can create success as in the case of family planning.
Awareness creation for sentitisation of local people towards various issues involved in
degradation.
Awareness creation to facilitate conservation and for collaborative management of
forests.
Awareness creation about the concepts and various aspects of JFM projects.
Awareness creation for better interactive participation.
Bio-Diversity Conservation
Community based conservation approach.
Biological diversity or Biodiversity is an umbrella term covering the variety and
variability of all living organisms.
It includes the variety of living organisms, the genetic differences among them, and the
communities and ecosystems in which the occur.
Biodiversity is recognised at three levies. Species diversity, genetic diversity and
ecosystem diversity.
JFM aims at conservation of biological diversity of forest Ecosystems with the
participation of the community and this is similar to community based conservation
approach.
Transparency
Of projects
Of programmes
Of Concepts
Of funds
Of Implementation
Of Evaluation
Entry Point Activities
Done to create immediate interest of the people to participate in the project
activities.
Community asset building like construction of school buildings, community halls,
threshing floors, community latrines, laying of link roads, renovating temples, repairing
old wells, de-silting old tanks etc.,
Individual benefit oriented activities like supply of material incentives like
agricultural implements sprayers, grafted horticultural seedlings etc.
Capacity building and competency development of the villagers through training in
various avocations like tailoring, coir robe making, candle making, rexin bag making,
basket making etc.
Creating self help groups (SHG) with revolving fund for micro credit and micro
enterprises, particularly focussing on women's groups.
PRA based approach
PRA based process approach for micro planning
Participatory analysis of the past systems of the management and development.
Participatory analysis of the resource inventory and resource potential
Participatory sensitisation of the local people regarding the various problems related
to forest protection and management.
Participatory analysis of the problems and opportunities at the village level.
Participatory future vision analysis for planning
Participatory empowerment strategies through partnership building.
Local need based approach
In JFM meeting the local needs is the primary consideration.
Meeting the commercial interest or commercial needs is not at all a consideration.
Sustainable benefit flow is only for the local people.
JFM is a reversal from meeting commercial timber interest to meeting local peoples needs
mostly NTFP.
Decentralised Management
JFM is a reversal of centralised management to decentralised management
From the management by the department to the management by the people.
From centralised decision making to decentralised decision making.
From bureaucratization to building up of village level institution for decision making
at local level.
From top down approach to bottom up approach in planning.
From macro planning to micro planning.
JFM is a reversal of TFM
from centralised management to decentralised management
from revenue orientation to resource orientation
from unilateralism to participatory decision making
from bureaucratisation to peoples institutionalisation
from macro planning to micro planning
from alienation due to policing to developing partnership
from disempowerment to empowerment
from conflict to collaboration
from exclusion to inclusion
from estrangement to embrace
JFM as stake holder management
Stake holders includes all people and
organisation who have a stake and may be affected by an activity, developmental programme
or a situation or who may have an impact or influence on the intervention. Stake holders
have personal or emotional interest , involvement or share. Stakeholders group includes
user groups and interest group. The primary stakeholders among the user groups which
includes tribals are wholly or completely dependent on forest resources for survival. The
user groups includes primary users like tribals and fringe people and secondary users who
use occasionally for specific period or specific product like non-timber forest produce
collectors. The interest groups includes the people who have an interest, opinion or
impact on a resource or area.
Stakeholder analysis is a process of identification of people and
organisation with a stake in an activity or resource , describing how different
stakeholders have an impact or are affected by it, clarifying the interconnections.
JFM involves a trade off among the stake holders namely the local stake
holders, industrial stake holders, states stake holders and others. Hence a compromise
among the all the stake holders is needed.
All the Forest / JFM project managers should ask the following
questions:
- For whom are we managing this forests?
- Who are all those people who have "stakes" in this Forests?
- What are their current expectations?
- How far are they being met?
- How can we fill the gap?
- What are their likely future expectations?
- How can we gear up?
JFM : GOALS AT LOCAL LEVEL
Creation of dense forest in a degraded forest area in 5 to 10 years and sustaining the
same for ever.
Sustainable alternative lively hood system for all forest dependant people to be
achieved in 2 years and maintaining the same for ever.
Eliminating goat browsing completely in 1 year and maintaining the same for ever. Cattle
grazing may be allowed after 5 years in the project areas if the fodder resources are
sustainable.
Total fire control to be attained in 1 year and the forest area to be free from fire for
ever.
Stopping unsustainable harvesting like illicit fellings or illicit loppings in 1 year
and continuing sustainable harvesting for ever.
Complete removal of encroachment in 1 year and keeping the area free from encroachment
for ever.
- Total conservation of water in the watershed by constructing water augmentation
structures for the benefit of downs stream agriculture complete integration of water
forest and other land resources.
- The first charge on forest management is the wildlife and birds complete habitat
preservation and management at local level. The second charge on forest management is the
Tribals - THE ECOSYSTEM PEOPLE. Taking complete care of them people.
- The third charge on forest management is the fringe people or forest abutantant
community. Taking complete care of the user groups, forest dependant people and other
fringe people sustainable biodiversity conservation at local level forever.
- Matching the demands for requirements of user groups / forest department people without
depleting the resources.
- Creating a sustainable village or institutions - Village Forest Commission / Village
Forest Protection Committee / Village Forest Management Committee for sustainable Village
level Forest Management.
Information on this
page is part of the Forest Information
System Project of IIFM.
Principal Investigator: Dr. Chinmaya S. Rathore
Project Team : Dr. S.K.S. Rathore, Seema Jain
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