Forest dwellers intensify protest

21 years on, profit sharing under joint forest management remains unclear in Maharashtra

Industries eye forest land for plantations

Wood-based firms want to convert forest areas to their own use for raw material. In doing so, they ignore the fate of millions of rural poor, who …

Precious time is being wasted in formulating a forest convention

Ola Ullsten , former prime minister of Sweden and co-chairperson of the World Commission on Forests and Sustainable Development, spoke to Amit …

A lesson for India

Despite disputes over commercialisation of forest produce, experts believe the movement will not be derailed. Meanwhile, India can take a lesson …

A troubled frontier

A government circular aimed at ending commercialisation of forests in the terai affects the hills, too. In the process, it threatens to derail …

Chronicling CFM

Community forestry, as it is practiced today, is a result of the government's willingness to learn from its past mistakes. Also, traditional …

10 villages to get forest benefits

Maharashtra to finally give JFM villages their due, but the share is bigger, say activists

10 Maharashtra villages to finally get Rs 74.5 lakh as benefits under joint forest management scheme

Detailed accounts of revenue earned from each village forest should be made public, says activist 

Seeking Solutions

POLICY THAT WORKS FOR FORESTS AND PEOPLE·James Mayers and Stephen Bass·International Institute for Environment and development (IIED)…

Trouble in Dewas

Deforestation, corruption or politics? The killing of four tribals in Madhya Pradesh's Dewas district leaves many questions unanswered

Community forest management THE NEPALESE EXPERIENCE

Nepal government decided to hand over certain forest areas to rural communities.

Time to act

The Madhya Pradesh government has recently sent a letter to the Prime Minister seeking changes in the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980. The …

Not a bankable strategy

World Bank's forestry projects have not helped reduce poverty, says its own evaluator

Seeking Reliance

The Andhra Pradesh government is giving forests that sustain tribal communities to the Reliance group of industries for plantations. That, too, …

Forestland benefits

Under the Lok Vaniki scheme, a farmer can extract benefits from his land by selling its produce, including timber

Model development

Every village has its own way of protecting the forests, but each one is a success story

Jobs and the environment

At loggerheads

While the state government is keen to introduce JFM, villagers say there is no need for that since they have been carrying out all protection …

Message in a baton

The decades after Independence saw rampant destruction of trees. This was followed by years of drought. It was then that the villagers realised …

Case for CFM

COMMUNITY FOREST MANAGEMENT — A CASEBOOK FROM INDIA·Joe Human and Manoj Pattanaik·Oxfam Publishing, Oxford·176pp·…

Promised Moon, Paid Pittance - Madhya Pradesh

Spreading root

OLD ROOTS, NEW SHOOTS: A STUDY OF JOINT FOREST MANAGEMENT IN ANDHRA PRADESH·C S Rangachari and S D Mukherji·Winrock International …

Forests for people

Newly democratic Bhutan pushes community forestry to tackle rural poverty  

Gaps galore

BRANCHING OUT: JOINT FOREST MANAGEMENT IN INDIA Nalini Sundar et al • Oxford University Press • New Delhi • 2001 • 289pp

On The Warpath

They prefer to be called the 'forest castes'. They are the 2,000,000-odd villagers living in some 10,000 villages across Orissa. After …