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A "Common Important Forest" in
India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
is a forest governed by local communities in a way compatible with
sustainable development Sustainable development is an organizing principle for meeting human development goals while also sustaining the ability of natural systems to provide the natural resources and ecosystem services on which the economy and society depend. The desi ...
. Such forests are typically called village forests or panchayat forests, reflecting the fact that the administration and resource use of the forest occurs at the village and
panchayat The Panchayat raj is a political system, originating from the Indian subcontinent, found mainly in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Nepal. It is the oldest system of local government in the Indian subcontinent, and historical menti ...
(an elected rural body) levels. Hamlets, villages and communities of villages may actually administer such a forest. Such community forests are usually administered by a locally elected body, usually called the ''Forest Protection Committee'', ''Village Forest Committee'' or the ''Village Forest Institution''. Such committees are known as ''Van Panchayat''s in the
Kumaon Division Kumaon (; Kumaoni: ''Kumāū''; ; historically romanized as KemāonJames Prinsep (Editor)John McClelland ) is a revenue and administrative division in the Indian State of Uttarakhand. It spans over the eastern half of the state and is bounded ...
of
Uttarakhand Uttarakhand ( , or ; , ), also known as Uttaranchal ( ; the official name until 2007), is a state in the northern part of India. It is often referred to as the "Devbhumi" (literally 'Land of the Gods') due to its religious significance and ...
, ''Forest Co-operative Societies'' in
Himachal Pradesh Himachal Pradesh (; ; "Snow-laden Mountain Province") is a state in the northern part of India. Situated in the Western Himalayas, it is one of the thirteen mountain states and is characterized by an extreme landscape featuring several peaks ...
and ''Van Samrakshan Samiti''s in
Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to the ...
. Legislation pertaining to communal forests vary from state to state, but typically the state government retains some administrative control over matters like staff appointment, and penalization of offenders. Such forests typically conform to the IUCN Category VI Protected Areas, but protection may be enforced by the local communities or the government depending on local legislation.
Maharashtra Maharashtra (; , abbr. MH or Maha) is a states and union territories of India, state in the western India, western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. Maharashtra is the List of states and union te ...
is the state with the most forest land while
Haryana Haryana (; ) is an Indian state located in the northern part of the country. It was carved out of the former state of East Punjab on 1 Nov 1966 on a linguistic basis. It is ranked 21st in terms of area, with less than 1.4% () of India's land ar ...
has the least.


History of communal forests

Many village communities in India have traditionally used forests on a sustainable basis. However, the
British Rule in India The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent; * * it is also called Crown rule in India, * * * * or Direct rule in India, * Quote: "Mill, who was himsel ...
introduced several legislations in the 19th century curtailing the rights of local people from using forest resources. These included the Forest Act, 1865 and Forest Policy, 1894. While some of the legislation was enacted in a bid to enact restrictions on forest usage for the purpose of sustenance, it was also motivated partly because such legislation provided a legal basis for the British Raj to acquire valuable forest resources like
timber Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, wi ...
for crucial initiatives like the
Indian Railways Indian Railways (IR) is a statutory body under the ownership of Ministry of Railways, Government of India that operates India's national railway system. It manages the fourth largest national railway system in the world by size, with a tota ...
. The British completely changed the way Indian forests were before. Such abrupt curtailment of rights caused protests in forest-dwelling communities in India, especially in the heavily forested Kumaon region, and in what is present day
Uttarakhand Uttarakhand ( , or ; , ), also known as Uttaranchal ( ; the official name until 2007), is a state in the northern part of India. It is often referred to as the "Devbhumi" (literally 'Land of the Gods') due to its religious significance and ...
. The issues of such communities were addressed in the
Indian Forest Act, 1927 The Indian Forest Act, 1927 was largely based on previous Indian Forest Acts implemented under the British. The most famous one was the Indian Forest Act of 1878. Both the 1878 act and the 1927 act sought to consolidate and reserve the area ...
, which initiated the development of ''village forests'' for sustainable use by villagers dwelling in or on the fringes of the forest. The ''Van Panchayat Act'' of 1931 further expanded the idea of local administration and management of forests, even though the first Van Panchayats were formed as early as 1921. Following the
independence of India The Indian independence movement was a series of historic events with the ultimate aim of ending British rule in India. It lasted from 1857 to 1947. The first nationalistic revolutionary movement for Indian independence emerged from Bengal. ...
in 1947, the
Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, c ...
instituted the National Forest Policy, 1952 which classified forested areas into: ''Protected forests areas'', ''National forests'', ''Village forests'' and ''Tree lands'' ''Common Trees Between living places of People''. Laws regarding village forests were based on the state legislature. Numerous state laws and acts regarding communal forests were enacted before 1990, including the ''UP Van Panchayat Rules'' in 1976, and the ''Orissa Village Forest Rules'' in 1985. However, such communal forest development and management came to the forefront only after the National Forest Policy, 1988. The National Forest Policy strongly suggested the idea of empowering and involving local communities in the protection and development of forests. A direct outcome of the National Forest Policy, 1988 was the Joint Forest Management Program (JFM or JFMP) instituted in 1990 by the Government of India. It was started on a pilot project basis in
West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fou ...
as early as 1971, and again in the late 1980s with considerable success. 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. 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
Ministry of Environment and Forests The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) is an Indian government ministry. This ministry is headed by Secretary Rank senior most IAS officer. The ministry portfolio is currently held by Bhupender Yadav, Union Minister o ...
, there were 84,000 JFM committees which controlled 170,000 square kilometres of forest in India. 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 Conservation reserves and community reserves in India are terms denoting protected areas of India which typically act as buffer zones to or connectors and migration corridors between established national parks, wildlife sanctuaries and reserved a ...
)


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 A reserved forest (also called a reserve forest) and protected forest in India are forests accorded a certain degree of protection. The concept was introduced in the Indian Forest Act of 1927 during the British Raj to refer to forests granted pro ...
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 Wasteland or waste land may refer to: * Desert or barren area * an uncultivated area of land, whether wooded or not, whether common land or not Art, entertainment, and media Comics * ''Wasteland'' (DC Comics), 1987–1989 anthology-style horror ...
. 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. The two major forms of such communal forests are: * Community forest management programs: These are typically collaborations between local villagers and
non-governmental organization A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...
s 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 Rajaji National Park is an Indian national park and tiger reserve that encompasses the Shivaliks, near the foothills of the Himalayas. It is spread over 820 km2 and includes three districts of Uttarakhand: Haridwar, Dehradun and Pauri Ga ...
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 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 Sacred groves of India are forest fragments of varying sizes, which are communally protected, and which usually have a significant religious connotation for the protecting community. Hunting and logging are usually strictly prohibited within th ...
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.


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 The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Interna ...
has put forward several large loans for the purposes of accomplishing such projects, including a statewide co-operative drive in
Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to the ...
in 2002. This project was, however, criticized for lacking transparency and focus.K. Venkateshwarlu
Study terms World Bank-funded forest programme a failure
The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It began as a weekly in 1878 and became a daily in 1889. It is one of the Indian newspapers of record and the second ...
, May 14, 2006


See also

*
Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education The Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE) is an autonomous organisation or governmental agency under the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India. Headquartered in Dehradun, its functions are to conduct fores ...
* Van Vigyan Kendra (VVK) Forest Science Centres


References

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