Browsing by Author "Saigal, Sushil"

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Co-management in Community Forestry: How the Partial Devolution of Management Rights Creates Challenges for Forest Communities
(2012) Cronkleton, Peter; Pulhin, Juan M.; Saigal, Sushil
"Forest tenure reform has opened economic and livelihood opportunities for community forestry management through the devolution of management rights under broader decentralisation reforms. However, the transfer of rights and associated power to forest communities is usually partial. The view of property as composed of 'bundles of rights' allows for the disaggregation of rights transferred from government to local people. In practice, it is common that rights held by natural resource stakeholders encompass only part of the rights bundle. This partial transfer of rights shapes community forestry institutions and the manner in which they function. When communities and state agencies share responsibilities and benefits of forest management, they collaborate within co-management systems. Co-management systems are attractive to governments because they open avenues for local participation in resource governance and more equitable benefit-sharing while maintaining some level of state control. However, co-management systems can place a greater burden on community level actors without providing the corresponding benefits. As a result, co-management can fail to meet expectations. In response, the promotion of community forestry may require greater emphasis on adjusting forest regulatory frameworks, institutions, and agencies, to allow more freedom by community-level actors in developing forest management systems."
Commercial Production from Subsistence Forests: An Oxymoron?
(2002) Borgoyary, Mamta; Saigal, Sushil
"There is an ongoing debate on whether to reorient JFM to meet some of the country's commercial needs through JFM forests. It is being argued that about 14 million hectare of country's forest is under Joint Forest Management, not all the forest area is required to meet only the subsistence needs of the forest dependent community. Also given the importance of livelihood and income in the success of this programme, initiating commercial ventures into the programme can further strengthen it. Since a forest can yield much more than just timber, it is very much possible that bringing a commercial orientation does not necessarily mean a sacrifice of subsistence produce. NTFP harvests for commercial sale can easily be integrated with management of the forests for meeting subsistence needs. In this paper we examine the feasibility of introducing commercial ventures into Joint Forest Management. We also analyse and discuss the impact (through SWOT analysis) thereby of commercial production on subsistence needs. "The above discussions will be based on the analysis of actual experience with the marketing of JFM produce in states such as West Bengal and Haryana, where one of the main reasons cited for the success of the JFM programme is the commercial gains associated with the programme. We also provide a brief analysis of the attempts at involvement of industry in JFM in Andhra Pradesh. "In the section below we provide some of the salient features of JFM in the three states of West Bengal, Haryana and Andhra Pradesh."
Greening the 'Wastelands': Evolving Discourse on Wastelands and its Impact on Community Rights in India
(2011) Saigal, Sushil
"This paper explores the evolution of 'wastelands' discourse in India – from the colonial time to the present – and how it has shaped India’s land and forest policies, and though them community rights on these two vital natural resources. The concept of wastelands originated in India during the colonial period. All lands that were not under cultivation (revenue-yielding lands) were classified as wastelands and the state asserted its proprietary rights over them. Some of these were later reclassified as forests or allotted for cultivation and plantation. Thus, the idea of wastelands originated from the perspective of revenue rather than ecology. After independence, the discourse surrounding wastelands changed. The national government was less interested in land revenue but was keen on expanding agriculture to make the country self-sufficient in food. During this period, wastelands came to be viewed as empty lands available for expanding agriculture and settling agricultural labourers. With the country achieving food self-sufficiency in the 1970s, the discourse surrounding wastelands changed again. Now degradation of forests and shortages of fuelwood and fodder were seen as the main challenges. A massive afforestation programme was launched in the 1980s to bring 33% of the country under tree cover. Subsequently, the emphasis shifted more towards the watershed role of wastelands and a watershed development programme was launched for soil and moisture conservation. More recently, the wastelands discourse has moved towards addressing the challenges posed by climate change. This changing national discourse on wastelands has profoundly impacted India’s land and forest policies, and through them livelihoods of many people, especially rural communities. An awareness of this continually evolving discourse helps in better understanding of various land- and forest-related programmes and projects and their outcomes."
Regenerating Wastelands Through Cooperatives: Experience of Tree Growers' Cooperatives in Rajasthan, India
(2008) Saigal, Sushil; Ram Dahal, Ganga; Vira, Bhaskar
"Over the past few decades, there has been an upsurge of interest in community-based approaches to simultaneously address environment and development concerns. Within forestry, these are commonly referred to as community-based forest management (CBFM). CBFM grew rapidly in the past couple of decades and by 2004 there were an estimated 370 million hectares of forests under CBFM. Although the area under CBFM has increased steadily, there has also been a growing debate over its efficacy. "This paper assesses the impact of one CBFM model--Tree Growers' Cooperative Society (TGCS)--employed for establishing and managing fuelwood and fodder plantations on village commonlands (revenue wastelands). It is based on fieldwork conducted in three TGCSs in the Ajmer district of the state of Rajasthan in India. The data was collected through household questionnaire survey, semi-structured interviews, and analysis of TGCS records. "The three TGCSs have been operational for over 15 years and have survived for the past 10 years without any external support. The tree plantations raised by the TGCSs over leased commonlands have also survived. This shows that it is possible for the local communities to manage tree resources and regenerate degraded village commonlands through collective effort, provided there is security of tenure. While the economic and ecological impacts of the TGCSs have been positive, these have been rather limited due to degraded condition of the leased lands and lack of adequate rainfall in the past several years. The social impact of the TGCSs has also been positive though there seems to be limited involvement of most members in running their affairs. A number of factors such as security of tenure, institutional framework, choice of species, role played by the facilitating agency, and rapidly changing external environment have shaped the outcomes of the TGCSs. The study also highlights strengths and weaknesses of the cooperative model for managing common pool natural resources such as commonland tree plantations. One of the major contributions of the TGCSs has to been to preserve the village commonlands in an environment where these are being gradually privatised--legally or illegally."