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Good practice Imported

Joint Forest Management — India's Devolved State-Community Forest Co-Management Programme

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Evidence: Observational / pre–post Top 89% 27/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

A 1990 India circular launched Joint Forest Management, devolving protection and usufruct rights over degraded state forest to village committees; it once covered 14M+ hectares, but declining donor funding and documented elite capture have left many committees defunct.

63,618
Forest Protection Committees (FPCs) (March 2002)
14 million+ hectares
Area managed (2002)
21.58 million person-days across 6 states
Employment generated (2000-01)
Joint Forest Management — India's Devolved State-Community Forest Co-Management Programme

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (Government of India) with State Forest Departments
Period
1990-present
Keywords
community forestry, co-management, forest protection committees, livelihoods

Context

Following India's 1988 National Forest Policy, a 1990 circular formalised Joint Forest Management: village Forest Protection Committees co-manage degraded state forest with State Forest Departments in exchange for non-timber forest product access and a timber-revenue share.

Results

By March 2002, FAO recorded 63,618 FPCs managing 14 million+ hectares (about 18% of state forest land), generating an estimated 21.58 million person-days of employment across six states in 2000-01; independent peer-reviewed research documents chronic elite capture and, as donor funding dried up, many committees now defunct.

Implementation
Indicative cost
High (€500k–€5M)
Time to results
Long (> 3 years)
Staffing & skills
State Forest Departments, village-level Forest Protection Committees / Vana Samrakshana Samithis

Conditions for success

  • sustained donor/state funding beyond initial rollout
  • coordination with elected panchayats to limit elite capture

Common failure modes

  • chronic elite capture of forest-based benefits by locally dominant groups
  • committees becoming defunct as donor funding dried up

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes

Indicative funding routes for practices of this type — always check each programme's current calls and eligibility rules.

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Data sources

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