Browsing by Author "Sarap, Kailas"

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Decentrilised Forest Governance and its Functioning in Orissa, India
(2011) Sarap, Kailas; Sarangi, Tapas Kumar
"Decentrilisation and devolution have been a major policy theme in Common Property Resources (including forest) governance in developing countries over last few. Participatory Forest Management has become one of the key objectives of forest policies and programmes in India including in the state of Orissa since late 1980s. Simultaneously efforts by local communities, which have evolved since early 1960s in different areas, have resulted into evolution and development of self initiated forest protection groups in the state. These groups have grown and matured into viable institutions with self governance and they have been protecting and conserving forest of their own. There is provision for incentives for the members which influence them for effective participation in the protection and development of this natural resource. However the present status of decentralisation of forest governance has a number of problems including exclusion of marginalised groups including women in decision making process and in the distribution of benefits. The nature of decentralisations of forest governance is analysed by using three contextual components, namely, access to resource, rules designed to govern it and the characteristics of the community and its involvement. Successful decentralised governance creates opportunities for agents for effective participation in decision making that reduces transaction cost of monitoring the behaviour of agents. It also provides incentives for hard work for safeguarding and development of resources. Based on historical evidences, secondary sources of materials and authors’ own findings this paper tries to understand the nature of forest governance in general and in the context of Orissa in particular with a view to understand its functioning. It also studies the implications in regard to the access to benefits accruing to the primary stakeholders and its impact on management and conservation of forest."
The Indian Forest Rights Act 2006: Commoning Enclosures?
(2008) Springate-Baginski, Oliver; Sarin, Madhu; Ghosh, S.; Dasgupta, Purnamita; Bose, I.; Banerjee, A.; Sarap, Kailas; Misra, P.; Behera, Sandeep; Reddy, M. Gopinath; Rao, P.T.
"This paper considers the process of 'commoning enclosures', how tenure of enclosed forest land is reformed, taking the example of the Indian Forest Rights Act 2006. The issue of forest rights in India, affecting forested landscapes that cover about 23% of the country and the livelihoods of at least 200 million, have been highly conflictual for at least a century and a half, and intensifying in recent years. The process of formal state enclosure of forests, from the late 19th Century on, criminalised the normal livelihood activities of millions of local forest-dependent people. In recent years the Forest Departments sought to complete this process through the eviction of what had become, in the eyes of the law, 'encroachers'. This finally united and mobilised movements working with forest users across the country to action. "Despite severe opposition the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act (or simply 'Forest Rights Act' was passed in December 2006 and came into force in January 1st 2008 with notification of the rules. It provides for restitution of deprived forest rights across India, including both individual rights to cultivated land in forested landscapes and collective rights to control manage and use forests as common property. The livelihoods of perhaps 100 million of the poorest of the poor stand to improve if implementation can succeed. "Based on currently ongoing primary research in three eastern states (West Bengal, Orissa and Andhra Pradesh), this paper assesses this reform process and how implementation is really happening on the ground. We are establishing baseline information about pre-existing legal rights or the lack of them, and the processes through which these may be changing. "We have found that so far there has been only spasmodic state action, often inconsistent with both the spirit and letter of the Act, and thus rights are yet to be secured on the ground. Only where committed NGOs and movements are active is awareness of the issues and process becoming clarified and the process gathering momentum."