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Abstract:
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"Environmental resources such as forests pose a particularly challenging and complex issue in the world of commons not only at the local and national level, but also at the international level. The issue of preservation of forests has led to an unending debate about the validity of conflicting approaches towards development- the anthropocentric approach vis-à-vis the conservationist approach. For forests, apart from constituting a resource held by the government for the people of a nation, have deep cultural and socio-economic linkages with forest communities and it is here that one of the most interesting debates about regulation is fostered. Even while states declare their sovereignty over such forests in a manner impossible in the case of more intangible resources, international commitments and growing national consciousness of the importance of preserving and enhancing forest cover, has contributed to forests constituting an important element of commons theory. Interestingly, there has been a significant shift in the governments’ stance towards forest communities and an acknowledgment of the need to collaborate in evolving participatory regulatory models for the forests. This paper reflects our identification of key reformatory measures which should be undertaken in order to treat the forest as a commons resource in which the forest communities have a legitimate and legally recognised stake, specifically in the areas of traditional knowledge and the REDD programme. It is submitted in this paper, that the protection of forests as commons resources at a national level nested within an international level is beneficial, and could be seen, with the incorporation of adequate safeguards, as a mechanism for generating synergies, rather than trade-offs and irreconcilable deadlocks over national and international commitments especially in the abovementioned areas since they necessarily require participation of States from both sides of the development divide."
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