2402:8100:200B:41F9:0:0:51AA:D269 at 05:53, 7 July 2021

2021-07-07T05:53:41Z

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[[File:Arabari.jpg|thumb|Joint Forest Movement scheme at work in degraded forests of the [[Arabari]] forest range, [[West Bengal]]]]

'''Joint Forest Management''' often abbreviated as '''JFM''' is the official and popular term in [[India]] for partnerships in [[forest]] [[Social movement|movement]] involving both the state forest departments and local communities. The policies and objectives of Joint Forest Movement are detailed in the Indian comprehensive National Forest Policy of 1988<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://moef.nic.in/downloads/about-the-ministry/introduction-nfp.pdf|title=National Forest Policy, 1988|last=|first=|date=|website=Ministry of Environment, Forests and climate change|access-date=31 May 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170329155216/http://www.moef.nic.in/downloads/about-the-ministry/introduction-nfp.pdf|archive-date=29 March 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name=autogenerated1>http://www.manage.gov.in/managelib/extdig/Untitled-1.pdf#search=%22%22joint%20forest%20management%22%22</ref> and the Joint Forest Management Guidelines of 1990 of the [[Government of India]].<ref>[http://www.fire.uni-freiburg.de/iffn/country/in/in_6.htm Lessons from Joint Forest Management]</ref>

Although schemes vary from state to state and are known by different names in different [[Languages of India|Indian languages]], usually a village committee known as the Forest Protection Committee (FPC) and the Forest Department enter into a JFM agreement. Villagers agree to assist in the safeguarding of forest resources through protection from fire, grazing, and illegal harvesting in exchange for which they receive [[non-timber forest product]]s and a share of the revenue from the sale of [[timber]] products.<ref>[http://www.envfor.nic.in/divisions/forprt/terijfm.html Study on Joint Forest Management] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070111095120/http://envfor.nic.in/divisions/forprt/terijfm.html |date=2007-01-11 }}</ref>

==Origins==
Joint forest management is concept of developing relationships between fringe forest groups and forest department on the basis of mutual trust and jointly defined roles and responsibilities for forest protection and development. Joint Forest Management originated in [[West Bengal]] in 1980's in Asia and Africa . The major hardwood of Arabari is [[Sal tree|sal]], a commercially profitable forest crop. [[Ajit Kumar Banerjee]], a [[Silviculture|silviculturalist]], working for the Forest Department as the Divisional Forest Officer, was conducting trials which were constantly being disturbed by grazing and illegal harvesting by the local populace. At the time there were no initiatives for sharing of forest resources between the government and the locals, with the government considering many of the locals no more than "thieves".<ref>http://www.worldbank.org/wbi/sourcebook/sb0207.pdf#search=%22arabari%20banerjee%22</ref> The forest official, against the suggestions of his co-workers, sought out representatives of eleven local villages and negotiated the terms of a contract with an ''ad hoc'' Forest Protection Committee. The initial program involved 612 families managing 12.7 square kilometres of forests classified as "degraded". 25% of profits from the forests were shared with the villagers. The experiment was successful and was expanded to other parts of the state in 1987. JFM is still in force at Arabari.<ref name=autogenerated1 />

A few years later, Joint Forest Management was employed in the state of [[Haryana]] to prevent [[soil erosion]] and [[deforestation]]. In 1977, villagers were persuaded that instead of grazing on erosion-prone hills, building small dams would help agricultural output on areas currently under cultivation. The program led to reforestation of many hills in the state. However, officially the state of Odisha remains the first to pass the first resolutions for JFM<ref>[http://www.tribuneindia.com/1998/98sep27/haryana.htm#3 tribuneindia... Haryana]</ref>

==Current status==
After the initial successes in West Bengal and Haryana, the JFM schemes received national importance in the legislation of 1988 and thrust in the Guidelines of 1998. As of 2000 27 states of the Indian Union had various JFM schemes with over 63,000 FPCs involved in the joint management of over 1400,000 km² of forested land. In 2010 the areas increased to 2460000 km2 was managed by more than 112896 committees with around 14500000 families getting benefit from JFM programme. <ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.rupfor.org/jfm.asp |title=Resource Unit for Participatory Forestry (RUPFOR) – Joint Forest Management |access-date=2006-09-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060902012906/http://www.rupfor.org/jfm.asp |archive-date=2006-09-02 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

==See also==
*[[Communal forests of India]]
*[[Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education]]
*[[Social forestry]]
*[[Sustainable forest management]]
*[[Sustainable forestry]]
*[[Illegal logging]]
*[[Van Vigyan Kendra|Van Vigyan Kendra (VVK)]] Forest Science Centres

==References and notes==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20060815120453/http://www.jfmindia.org/ A website with extensive research on the history, issues, case studies, and conflict resolution methods in JFM]
*[http://envfor.nic.in Indian Ministry of Environment and Forests webpage]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20060828235453/http://wbln1018.worldbank.org/sar/sa.nsf/a22044d0c4877a3e852567de0052e0fa/acf2b8a3eb9f69878525687f00605632?OpenDocument Detailed World Bank case study of JFM in an Indian state]
*[http://www.manage.gov.in/managelib/extdig/Untitled-1.pdf#search=%22%22joint%20forest%20management%22%22 Government guidelines and highlights of JFM]
* [http://www.myjungle.in My Jungle] – A website appealing for community collaborative forest conservation project by [http://snmcpn.org/ Sahyadri Nisarga Mitra], Chiplun. Maharashtra.

{{Forestry}}

[[Category:Communal forests of India]]
[[Category:Nature conservation in India]]
[[Category:Forest administration in India]]
[[Category:Environmental conservation]]
[[Category:Indian forest law]]

Joint Forest Management - Revision history

2402:8100:200B:41F9:0:0:51AA:D269 at 05:53, 7 July 2021