Durability in Diversity: Survival Strategies in the Himalayan Country-Side

Abstract

"This paper maps changing patterns of communal forest control and management in the Punjab during the 19th and 20th century with a view to document how graziers and farmers mutually used the shamilat forests held jointly by communities of land-holders as buffers to stabilize and sustain their natural ecosystems. As against shamilat forests, Reserved and Protected forests were created and held categories of a forest department.Three case studies exemplify how state interactions beginning in the mid-19th century affected traditional communal resource use agreements and practices. The outcome has frequently been an erosion of confidence in local management capacities and conflict with the state. But the discussion concludes by observing how communities have survived in contemporary times by constantly integrating communal management traditions to emerging situation and policies such as those of joint forest management initiatives."