Restoration of Commons through Peoples Institutions: Study on the Process and Impact of the Attappady Wasteland Comprehensive Environmental Conservation Project in Kerala, India

Abstract

"In India Watershed and Joint Forest Management programmes created participatory local institutions for regeneration of natural resources like land, water and forest. The local institutions are involved in the implementation of the projects under these programmes and made arrangements for utilisation and sharing of benefits accrued out of natural regeneration. Similarly 'Attappady Wasteland Comprehensive Environmental Conservation project' in Kerala state of India has created what is called people's institutions as local organizations to implement the project and manage the commons. In the process, it has evolved new rules and regulations and access rights and sharing of resources thereby affecting the existing formal and informal arrangements. The project area of Attappady block in Kerala State is characterised by acute poverty and degradation of natural resources. The purpose of the paper is to understand and analyse how the project evolved new institutional arrangements at village level for regeneration, development and management of natural resources and its impact on the existing access rights to commons and present and future benefits for different sections of the society from commons."