Forest Department

The implementation of the Forest Rights Act, 2006 has been opaque and there is serious lack of awareness about its provisions not only among the benefi ciaries but also among the officials in charge of implementing it. Given the complaints from either side, it is time the government reviewed the law and also looked at the objections raised when it was first tabled as a bill.

With the retreat of the interventionist state, development is often perceived as a product of partnership between the state and civil society with increasing emphasis on people's participation at the grass roots. Using a framework of collective action based upon social capital, this paper examines whether social capital is important for successful development outcomes at the grass roots in forest protection and watershed development. Three villages of Adilabad district in Andhra Pradesh are the focus of the study.

Forest planners and forest departments have long ignored local ecological services provided by forests, of which forest communities, have knowledge of, and on which the economic, social and political life of the area is dependent. Joint Forest Management (JFM) is restricted to management of forests as providers of forest and non-timber forest products. This paper investigates in detail the extensive indigenous knowledge of such local ecological services among a forest community. It argues that local ecological services are the missing link in designing plans for successful decentralisation and sustainable management of forests. Enlisting such local knowledge, as is done in this paper, is the first step to incorporating it in the management of forests.