Question

Give examples for the people’s participation in management of forests

Answer 1

What is participation?

The concept of participation originally grew out of radical criticism of mainstream development projects in the 1960s and 1970s. Critics who asked why development projects often failed to meet their objectives came to the conclusion that a lack of participation was the reason. Too many projects, they argued, were designed and implemented without consultation or cooperation with the people whose lives they affected. Since then, participation has become one of the buzz words of development. It now seems that every project description or plan adopts a 'participatory approach', often because this is required by donor organizations for political reasons. Unfortunately, project planners and implementers frequently use the word 'participation' while continuing a traditional style of management that does not involve local people (Wily 1997). Nevertheless, true participation may lead to more effective conservation of forest resources (Box 1). Joint forest management in India.

About half of the states in India have endorsed a strategy of joint forest management (JFM), in which forestry departments and communities jointly manage forests and share rights and responsibilities. The idea of JFM originated from the management of sal (Shorea robusta) forests in West Bengal. Here, community involvement had a remarkable effect on the rehabilitation of degraded sal forests. Landsat images have shown that the area of closed sal forest increased from 11% to 20% in Midnapore District alone, and that many square kilometres of degraded scrub forest have been restored to open forest.

Encouraged by this success, the Indian government expanded the programme during the 1990s. Under JFM, the ownership of the land remains with the government. Village committees, who are the co-managers, are entitled to the benefits from forest products. Forest protection committees control access to jointly managed forests. These local institutions are demonstrably more effective in protecting forests than the state forest departments.

The JFM strategy has required a change of attitude from both forest departments and rural communities. Rural communities have had to organize themselves in new ways, overcome village and inter-village conflicts, and work together with forestry officials. Foresters have had to communicate with local people and share the responsibility for decision-making. To facilitate this process, the Indian government has provided legal and institutional backing, including land reforms, social forestry programmes, sharing of user rights with local people and educating foresters in participatory processes.

A key lesson of the JFM experience in India is that involving local communities in forest management can lead to more effective forest protection. Another lesson is that successful conservation depends on cooperation from local people and forestry officials, and on legal and institutional backing from the State.

Source: Based on Singh (1996).

When developers and conservation planners use the term participation, they often mean very different things. Adnan et al. (1992) have defined three basic meanings of participation:

i) Participation is a process in which information on a planned project is made available to the public. This type of participation often involves only community leaders. These people are consulted but decision-making power rests with external planners and project implementers.

ii) Participation includes project-related activities and not merely the flow of information. These might involve community labour or a longer-term commitment by local groups to maintain services or facilities, or even to plan for their future use. Although involved, people are not in control.

iii) Participation means that a project is a direct outcome of people's initiatives. A famous example of this is the Chipko movement, which began in the Himalayas in the 1970s when local women mobilized themselves to protect trees that were vital to the local economy (Shiva 1988).

Of course, we find many intermediate forms between these three categories. Some people have even claimed that participation has become a meaningless term, too often used to disguise continued top-down planning (Rahnema 1992). Others have argued that it is unreasonable to describe a process as participatory if local people are merely asked to supply information or labour to a project already designed and decided by planners (Gardner & Lewis 1996). Following these arguments, we only consider participation as genuine if local people are involved in the planning, organization and decision-mak

Answer 2

✔ Many a times people came forward to take part in the management of forest

✔ Chipko Movement was done to prevent the cutting of trees it was one of the greatest Revolt for trees

✔ In many areas one Mahotsav is celebrated

✔ Awareness spread among people through programs and ceremonies

✔ People are encouraged to grow trees

✔ Children are increased to take part in the conservation of forest and to bring plants and trees and their birthdays to school

hope it helps ☺