Joint Forest Management at Soliya, Gujarat, India

Abstract

"The important lessons that I derive from this case are as follows. First, economic incentives are important bringing institutional change but they are just the necessary condition, not sufficient ones. In this case , there were enough economic incentives to attract villagers to agree to come on to a single platform; these incentives were in terms of fuelwood, grasses, bamboo , other nontimber forest products, and cash from sales of timber and bamboo, etc. A social change was needed prior to the fact that villagers could come to the terms to each other to understand the economic gains that can be reaped from collective action. In this context, formation of social capital was very crucial before the activities leading to physical capital formation were initiated. Second, peoples participation was always present from participatory rural appraisal in the very beginning to planting, protection, and the decision making at every step; the transparency automatically brought accountability. Third, commitments of change agency, here AKRSP, played the decisive role. Many other villages which were adopted by the FD did not fare well. The credible commitments by the change agency and more humanized relationship between the agency and people enhanced the grasp of ideas by villagers. All these findings are replicable irrespective of place and culture."