Community forest management is the future
What does JFM lack?
Even today, most of the major decisions are taken by the forest department. Only a small part of the decision making process has been transferred to the village community, and that too only for degraded forests. Another drawback is that only 15-20 per cent of the forest officials believe in the theory of JFM.
What should be the future course for forest management?
JFM should be now replaced by community forest management (cfm), with members of the village community incharge of all aspects of forest management, including finance. Executive committees, as we have in jfm structure now, should be abolished, as it leads to concentration of power in the hands of a few powerful, vocal and sometimes politically influential people. Forests should be divided into blocks and each block should be allocated to a group of 50 families of the villages. The group should take decisions on all matters pertaining to the forest block allocated to them. Participatory democracy is a must to establish equity within the group. Women must also actively participate in decision making process because they too bear the burden for environmental degradation.
What has JFM achieved in the past ten years?
We have achieved 50 per cent of what we had set out to do. This 10-year period is the first step. It should not be considered as the final step. The final step is cfm. But many, including the forest department officials, say jfm is the final step, and that cfm is an impossible dream.
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