Almost one quarter of India’s land area is officially classified as forest, yet only 12 percent of its land actually has dense forest cover. Rather than identifying actual forests, past classification often focused on asserting state ownership over the uncultivated commons. As well as undermining customary conservation practices, this has deprived many forest-dwelling communities of their rights to forest resources and means of survival.

India’s forests are rich in biodiversity and have been the ancestral habitat for many tribal and indigenous communities. In response to environmental threats and degradation, the last few decades have seen the government develop a range of laws and policies to stop the rapid loss of forests and wildlife. Independent research published by the International Institute for Environment and Development, UK, assesses these government interventions. The research suggests that, rather than supporting conservation and protecting tribal communities, these policies are creating new conflicts and hampering the very efforts they should support. The research identifies three key causes of this:

• Premises and procedures for identifying and defining forests are poor, resulting in land use conflicts, unclear boundaries, legal disputes and inappropriate management objectives for lands wrongly classified as ‘forest’.
• Policies ignore the role of forests in tribal livelihoods and cultures, violating the overlapping laws protecting the rights of these communities.
• Forest governance has remained a centralised and top-down process which is inappropriate for achieving ecological and social justice objectives.

Besides laws making the central government responsible for major forest management decisions, India has adopted the objective of bringing 33 percent of its land area under forest or tree cover. The combination of unrealistic objectives and centralised planning means forest management remains insensitive to social, economic, ecological and cultural realities. This has led to the harassment and eviction of local communities due to their customary lands being declared ‘state forests’. Since 1990, a framework has existed for resolving disputes over forest land between forest dwelling people and the state, but this is yet to be implemented. Central and state governments have been the biggest abusers of laws protecting tribal economies and livelihoods. Furthermore, 90 percent of the country’s natural grasslands have been destroyed by being declared ‘forest’ and planted with non-local tree species to be used for timber.

Around the world, land and forest rights of indigenous communities are being restored as an integral part of conservation initiatives, through a process of decentralising governance. Yet in India, until recently, there has been almost total refusal to acknowledge such claims. Unless new policies deal with these problems, forest management cannot achieve conservation and social justice goals. The research recommends that policymakers should:

• ensure real forest areas are clearly demarcated by their ecological characteristics and livelihood functions,
• implement decentralised forest management, with a focus on community-based responsibility and authority
• strengthen and implement mechanisms for accountability and conflict resolution by making forest governance institutions more democratic
• replace the national objective of 33 percent forest cover with state-specific objectives based on  ecosystem surveys
• harmonise conservation laws with those protecting the cultures, livelihoods and rights of tribal communities
• nurture local self-governing, democratic and gender-equal institutions for managing natural resources.

Source(s):
‘Laws, Lore and Logjams: Critical Issues for Indian Forest Conservation’, International Institute for Environment and Development, Gatekeeper Series No 116, by Madhu Sarin, 2005 Full document.

id21 Research Highlight: 18 November 2005

Further Information:
Madhu Sarin
48, Sector 4
Chandigarh 160001
India

Tel: +91 172 2741429
Fax: +91 172 2741135
Contact the contributor: msarin@sancharnet.in

International Institute for Environment and Development, UK

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id21 insights #57 'People and protected areas - New agendas for conservation'

'Working together to protect forests in India'

'Who conserves the world’s forests?'

'Resettlement in Central Africa: balancing conservation and people'

'Mainstreaming participation in global conservation'