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 Executive Summaries of Research Reports

Research is one of the important activities at IIFM through which IIFM constantly strives to develop frontiers of knowledge in various areas of forest and natural resource management. Research activities at the institute are focused on finding such applications of management concepts, tools and techniques that can assist a forest manager in achieving effectiveness and efficiency in forestry operations. Most of the research projects undertaken by the faculty at IIFM, are therefore, of an applied nature. Findings of research projects are also used for development of teaching material and case studies on various aspects of forest management. Many national and international organizations fund research projects at IIFM.

Ford Foundation Funded Research

Joint Forest Management (JFM) is one of the thrust areas of research at IIFM. IIFM has received grants from the Ford Foundation under the Ford Foundation Research Grant (FFRG) scheme to carry out research in the area of JFM. Important components of this research project include :

  • Behavioural Analysis of the human component of Forest Protection Committees
  • Marketing Aspects of Non-timber Forest Products and Economic Development of the people.
  • Institutional frame work of the Forest Protection Committee and the Socio-economic Dimensions
  • Ecological Aspects of Protected Forest and their productivity and
  • Development of capacity in Gender Research and Training.

The following are some of the case and research projects that have been completed by the Centre.

  • Interface between JFM and Eco-tourism.
  • Participatory Development and Community Forest Management.
  • Ecological study of Participatory Management in South Chhindwara.
  • Challenges and Opportunities in JFM - A Case Study of West Bengal.

These studies highlight various parameters which strengthen the JFM movement. 

NTFP Research

IIFM recognizes Non Timber Forest Produce (NTFP) as an important research focus area. The Institute is taking a number of initiatives to strengthen research activity in this area. To know more about IIFM's expertise and initiatives in this area, please click here .

Research Under the Forest, Trees and People Programme of FAO

The Forest, Trees and People Programme (FTPP), which was evolved in early 1990s from an FAO-implemented programme jointly managed and implemented with national and regional institutions, covers 17 institutions (including IIFM as one such partner institution) in 10 Asian countries. The collaboration with IIFM started in early 1996 with the activities in the field of community forestry, including need-based action research, documenting case studies, curriculum development, conducting training programmes, workshops, development of training material, dissemination of information and collaboration and networking.

The activities carried out under FTPP programme are:

Case Studies

  • Self initiative for Bio-diversity Conservation and utilization - Betul Case

  • Community Initiative for Village Development - Bero (Bihar) case

  • Collaborative Forest Fire Management: Western Ghat (Tamil Nadu).

Workshops

Case study writing workshop at IIFM on Local initiatives in Natural Resource Management in July 1996. Thirteen case studies were documented during the workshop. The publication of these case studies by FAO, FTPP in the book form is under progress.

COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH

Collaborative Research in Community Resource Management

The institute has collaborated with Japanese Government represented by the Tokyo University, Nagasaki University and National Research Institute of Agricultural Economics, Tokyo in a project on community resource management in Madhya Pradesh as a part of global environmental research funded by the Japanese Government.

Collaborative Research in the Economics of Environment and Development

The Institute has a collaborative Research Project on An Integrated Assessment Model for Sustainable Waste Management - The Case of solid wastes in Bangalore. In this project, the other partners are - Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC), Bangalore and IVM, Netherlands under the Collaborative Research in the Economics of Environment and Development (CREED) Program of International Institute of Environment and Development (IIED), U K.

Executive Summaries of Research Reports

For more information about research activities at IIFM or for initiating collaborative research projects, write to Coordinator Research at IIFM.