Communal forests of India

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A "Common Important Forest" in

History of communal forests

Many village communities in India have traditionally used forests on a sustainable basis. However, the

The JFPM calls for the existence of an elected village level organisation (VLO) which would actively administer and maintain the communal forest. Such an organization is sometimes an existing elected body, like the gram sabha, or gram panchayat. However, a new body is usually elected for administrative purposes, usually referred to as the Forest Protection Committee (FPC), but known as the Van Panchayat in the Kumaon region.[4]

As of September, 2003 all 28 state governments had initiated the JFPM, and many had passed appropriate legislation as well. According to the 2002-03 Annual Report of the

The introduction of the protected area category community reserves under the Wildlife (Protection) Amendment Act of 2002 has introduced legislation for providing government protection to community held lands. While this does not pertain to communal forest sites, communally owned forests may be candidates for protection under such legislation. (See Conservation reserves and community reserves of India)

Types of communal forests

Typically, communal forests are formed in two ways:

• Joint forest management program: Designation of marked areas in reserved forests and protected forests of India as a communal forest for villages inside the reserved or protected forest or in the fringe areas. More infrequently, an existing forest may be directly designated as a communal forest.
• Social forestry program: Afforestation schemes in disused farm lands, degraded forests or other wasteland. Such community afforestation schemes are referred to as social forestry in India. See Social forestry in India for details.

Other forms of communally managed forests exist in India, but do not enjoy any form of legal protection if the Government of India is not a collaborator.^[6] The two major forms of such communal forests are:

• Community forest management programs: These are typically collaborations between local villagers and non-governmental organizations for the purposes of according protection to a tract of forest. The responsibility of the participants are increased without legislation protecting such areas. However, as the government is not involved in such work directly, a much larger share of the proceeds from the forest resources go to the villagers. Recently, the Government of India has also acknowledged and legally protected several such communal forests. In such collaborations, the Government retains a far smaller and less powerful role with respect to the role in the Joint Forest Management Program. The new Rajaji National Park is being built on such a model.
• Indigenous forest management programs: These are indigenous initiatives taken by local villagers alone to save forested lands. Typically, these lands are protected on a religious basis. Responsibility for the protection is often shared by the community in turns ^[7] The most famous communal forests of this type are the "sacred groves" of India, which are protected for local deities and contain great biodiversity and many rare flora in small forested regions. See sacred groves of India for details. it should be searched.

Community forests in North East India

In North East India community forest management is most prevalent, where people are managing their forest resources since time immemorial. Mostly these communities manage these forests for variety of reasons, including resource enhancement and/or maintenance, countering ecological threat, expressing religious sentiments, cultural concerns and/or continuing traditional systems, political expression and managing biodiversity concerns.^[8]

External funding

Funding for such communal forest management and staff training usually comes from the Government of India, but often comes from external non-governmental agencies. Notably, the World Bank has put forward several large loans for the purposes of accomplishing such projects, including a statewide co-operative drive in Andhra Pradesh in 2002. This project was, however, criticized for lacking transparency and focus.^[9]

See also

• Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education
• Van Vigyan Kendra (VVK) Forest Science Centres

References