What are the political drivers for land rights of forest-dependent communities?

Prakash Kashwan is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science, University of Connecticut. His research and scholarship focuses …

‘Forests can’t survive without communities’

Nepal’s Forest Act of 1993, which allows communities to manage their forests, is admired and emulated by governments and movements across …

Forest conservation is too complex an issue to be resolved by executive fiat

The condition of India's forest and her forest dwellers is extremely grave. A fresh round of police attacks on tribal people -- four dead in Dewas,…

Wealth of forests withheld

Forest departments across the country owe millions of rupees to communities. For 20 years communities toiled under the Joint Forest Management …

Rights without benefits

Over 1.3 million tribals and forest dwellers have got rights over the land they had been using for years under the Forest Rights Act. This can, …

Bamboo rising

Five years after it was implemented, the Forest Rights Act finally takes root. Communities across the country rush to claim rights over forests …

Timeline of an unwarranted act: How India has legislated on forests

Does independent India's first amendment to the Indian Forest Act reflect the changes in forest policy?

Lost in the jungle

The anti-people attitude that environmental NGOs had vehemently opposed in the '80s has resurfaced in the recent draft Forest Policy Bill. The …

To Russia, with love

Russia's forests receive a shot in the arm following a recent international decision to protect them from logging

Telangana’s new forest conflict panels bring Centre-state land rights relation under scanner

FRA empowers Gram Sabhas and the committees headed by the sub collectors and the district collectors to determine and recognise the forest rights …

New model agriculture law aims to increase farmers’ income

The draft law proposes to ensure profitable returns to farmers through features such as electronic registration, direct sale to buyers and …

Streamlining forest protection law

States are complaining that project clearance delays are turning out to be the worst fallout of the Forest Conservation Act, which has otherwise …

Letting go of the colonial hangover should be the goal of the new forest policy

Forest department in India needs to reverse its role from being the owner and regulator of forests to becoming a facilitator in community-managed …

A village in Maharashtra stands up for its rights

Residents of Lavari have blocked the construction of a transmission line to demand compensation for livelihood loss

Plant 10-15 trees to create oxygen banks: Javadekar

The minister was addressing students on the occasion of International Day of Forests

Govt needs to address policy ambiguities affecting shifting cultivation: NITI Aayog

The NITI Aayog report recommends doing away with the practice of having divergent approaches towards shifting cultivation

Forests, tribals and wildlife are not rivals, says environment minister

Anil Madhav Dave inaugurates two-day conference of senior-level forest officers from states

Foliage fever

Galvanising support for the unconditional withdrawal of the new Forest Bill, NGOs and a fifth column within the bureaucracy are harrowing the …

All bark, all bite

Local communities in Nepal and some Central American nations have become invaluable participants in managing their forests

Rights over forests

THE SAGA OF PARTICIPATORY FOREST MANAGEMENT IN INDIA· N C Saxena·CIFOR Special Publication, Jakarta, 1997

India’s first forest-certification scheme gets global recognition

A Geneva-based non-profit recently decided to endorse the Certification Standard for Sustainable Forest Management designed for Indian forests

10 good news we got in 2018

As this year nears its end, here’s a look at stories by Down To Earth that brought some relief to an otherwise climate change-ravaged period

If passed, new forest policy will benefit private sector and hurt local ecology: experts

The draft policy talks about developing “public private participation models” for undertaking “afforestation and reforestation …

In the Parliament on March 8, 2016

Here’s a round-up of today’s debates and reports on environmental and developmental issues

Bandwagon role for joint forestry

Though programmes involving villagers in the regeneration of forest lands have been successful, caution should be exercised while bringing new …