Building Partnership for Conservation : A case study on Joint Forest Management in Harda Forest in India.

Identification of the Case The Forest landscape of Harda lie in central Indian State of Madhya Pradesh which is about 160 Km south-west of the state capital Bhopal. The total forest area (both reserve and protected) is 1417 sq.km of which reserve forest, constitute 983.93 sq.km. while 433 sq.km make up for the protected forests. 85% of the forest area is classified under Southern tropical dry deciduous forest (Tectona grandis or Teak being the dominant species), another 15% includes dry deciduous mixed forests. About 205 villages dot the forested landscape which is administratively divided into 6 forest ranges (Handia, Rahatgaon, Temagaon, Magardha, Makrai and Seoni). The population mainly consists of Tribals (Korku & Gonds). However in one of the range i.e. Handia, the caste heterogeneity can be seen where Jats, Vishnois and Rajputs dominate the otherwise numerically strong caste of Harijans and Tribals. The tribal society of the tract has largely remained unorganized and majority of it remains tradition bound. Most of the villages in the forest interior are legally designated forest villages which were settled during colonial rule in late 19th and early 20th century when the forests were extensively worked to meet colonial requirements. The villages have stayed there since then and have earned their livelihood from agriculture (limited) NTFP collection, wages on forestry work and as agricultural labourers. The Initial Situation Reserve forests of 3 ranges though fairly stocked (0.5-0.8; however face problem of inadequate regeneration due to various biotic factors. The working Plan Officer Harda attributes rampant grazing as one of the reason why natural regeneration of even the hardy species like teak is missing in large number of area (Working Plan of Shri R.K. Shukla, for Harda Division, 1983-84 - 1993-94). The Bamboo (Dandrocalamus strictus) flowered in 2 cycles, first in 1976 when 20142 hect area flowered and then in 1986 when 15900 hect area flowered gregariously. The declining availability of the Bamboo to the people has been a cause of concern following the gregarious flowering and failure of adequate regeneration in a fairly large extent of the area due to uncontrolled grazing and fire. Protected forests of Handia faced the brunt of axe. Organised illicit fellings have not been uncommon in the past. Such areas are dominated by upper caste Vishnois, Jats and Gujjars. Pollards frequent the area. Density less than 0.3. The area covers more than 100 revenue villages. The forest of Handia range have been severely depleted because of the intense biotic pressure and illicit felling. Most of the money from teak plundering has been cornered by the dominant caste people while using the tribals to fell the trees for them. This contributed largely to further social

disparity amongst the castes. This range provides a scenario where the very existence of the resource has been at stake for quite some time.

The Reform Process The reform process basically involved soul searching within the forest department with an eye on the resource use sustainability in the face of ever mounting pressure of demands leading to gradual decline of resource potential. It also meant that the department questions the very strategies being deployed by them to control the resource degradation till date and work out a more pragmatic strategy. In the case being presented this started with a series of orientation camp being organised by the Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) with the staff. Through these camps the staff was given a chance to do the introspection on the cause of the problems/threats facing the forests and the best possible option to mitigate the same in the given socioeconomic and political set up. Gradually a agreement was built with the staff that communities involvement in conversation should be a key to the resource use sustainability. Early in the process, even the staff members who accepted the necessity of the community involvement had to reckon with the long prevailing mistrust of the communities towards the department. There were the questions related to the "attitudes" of the staff in working with the people. If the communities involvement was to become a reality, it should require a change in the attitude of the staff. The pro-changers were given free hand by the D.F.O. to experiment. The D.F.O. himself led the process with the small team of so called pro-changers. A large majority of the staff still wanted to be the fence sitters, waiting and watching for some early response to the process till the time the early results came as an eye opener. Building up of the village level institutions to meaningfully involve the communities in protection, and management of the natural resource was one of the key plank of the strategy. By the time the state government came out with a policy resolution of Joint Forest Management in the state (December 10, 1991), the Harda forest were already showing as to what could be done to forests and the local communities if the later were to be involved in forest management. It was through the village level protection committees that the agreements over forest protection and its management along with the programmes concerning people's other needs were reached through the process of village level microplanning. Staff orientation to help them relate better with the local communities, capacity building of the staff and the community members in various issues related to microplanning were meant to be the software for the entire programme. The reform process also meant that horizontal linkages are built into the programme to synergies the situation in terms of the fiscal and technical resources that could be found with other government agencies including the non-government organisations. The forest department started playing the role of a facilitator to tie up different line agencies programme with village level micro plans.

The Outcome The key institutional reforms could be seen through the village level institutions VFPC (Village Forest Protection and Management Committees) which came to occupy a centre-stage of the programme. Over a period of 4 years from 1990, as many as 150 committees involving local communities started functioning with varying degree of strengths. The co-ordination committees at district and block level brought in much needed synergy as far as the fiscal and technical resources were concerned to meaningfully address the concerns put up in the microplan by the village committee. The role of the NGOs like Kasturba Gram Trust, Indore; PRADAN, Suktawa and Action Aid run project in nearby district was critical in capacity building and local enterprise development. Working collectively the VFPCs and the forest staff have ensured almost a total control on organised illicit felling in Handia range. The figures of offenses show a sharp decline in offense cases with the up coming of the village committees (by 1994 the major offense recorded an all time low of 16 offense against 70 offense recorded in 1991. Further decline of the offenses has been reported from the area in successive years). With the management prescriptions applied in the protected forests under VFPCs, the area has shown tremendous regeneration wherein the participating VFPCs are now ensured of the availability of forest produce on the principles of sustainability. The people have also resorted to bridge the gap of demand and supply by building in non-conventional sources of energy like biogas and solar energy. Improvement in stove designs has also contributed towards demand management for the fuel wood. The grazing management practice by the VFPCs in the forests covered under three ranges namely Rahatgaon, Temagaon and Magardha has been able to bring back bamboo regeneration in more than 7000 hect of the forests. It has also been able to contribute sizeably to the village committee through the sale of grass which could hardly be thought of earlier on. The VFPCs have also become a sound instrument of decentralized developmental planning by integrating the component of rural development in it thereby further contributing to the socio economic development of the participating communities. One of the major fall out of the working of the committees pertains to the Village Common Fund that has been built at the village level from the saving made out of the wages agreed voluntarily, the money that the community get for forest protection and the charges that the committees levy on use of community assets like micro minor irrigation schemes. The fund can be accessed by the community members to meet their social and developmental needs without having to go through institutions of moneylenders. The funds are also used to make further investments on building and maintenance of community assets. This has given the VFPCs a tremendous confidence to manage the affairs on their own. The Lessons Learned

The key lesson coming out of the experiment lie in the strength of collaborative management where the communities working with the forest department functionaries and other agencies/organizations have become instrumental for resource sustainability, social mobilization and decentralised development. The encouraging results from the experience were taken due note by the higher ups in the department and it was modelled for wider application under World Bank sponsored Madhya Pradesh Forestry Project which became operational in year 1994-95. The case study area now serves as a learning centre in Joint Forest Management within the country. Another lesson coming out of the experience relates to the fact that if the forest department is willing to critically look at itself and re-orient its staff to work with the people then tackling the problem of forest conservation becomes easier. Forest department's role too in such a situation becomes the one who facilitates the process rather then the one who merely controls the resources. [Note : The author had the opportunity of building the process at Harda Forest Division during the period of transition i.e. from 1990-1994 while he was posted as Divisional Forest Officer, Harda.]