Undoing the Historical Injustice? Drawing Implications of Forest Rights Act (2006) on Resource Governance

Abstract

"The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act was passed in December 2006 and notified in January 2008. After over two decades of debate on principles of participatory management and its execution in the form joint management, this delayed justice has posed questions in the realm of forest resource governance. There are now concerns and apprehensions about the implementation of the Act and its implications for resource and the resource dependent communities. Some of the apprehensions/fallout in implementation may actualize on the resource sites considering the local political and administrative structures. Whether such fallout is characteristic of decision-making within multistakeholder context is a question that would need thorough review of such decisions.

"This paper tries to assess the implications of the recent Act in light of the historical performance of the policies in managing forestland and protection of tribal rights, with special reference to Nabarangpur district of Orissa. Nabarangpur is predominantly a tribal inhabited district with highest encroachment over forestland among the forest divisions of Orissa. The stated causes for encroachment restrict the understanding of encroachment to incident(s) of physical infringement into the boundary of the state (land owned by the State Government), mostly by the tribals. However, there have been ample instances of proxy encroachment that are unaddressed despite the existing institutional arrangements. The paper critiques the traditional understanding of encroachment, examines the institutional changes with regard to encroachment on forestland and draws implications of these changes on resource governance.

"The paper is based on review of policies and findings from empirical study conducted by the author in Orissa between 2005-2007. The study adopted qualitative approach, including a mix of document-based review and case study of forestland encroachment issues in Nabarangpur district of Orissa. The study partly adopts the framework for study of politics of policy implementation by Grindle (1980)."