Community Forest Management vs. Joint Forest Management in Orissa Need to look beyond JFM

This Paper looks at the conflicts and mis-match between the informal community based forest management systems in Orissa and the Joint Forest Management framework in Orissa. Several thousands villages in Orissa are involved in active protection and management of forests. Most started protecting on their own initiative as their response to forest degradation problem. Orissa has been struggling with the process of formalising these initiatives and bringing them to the ‘Joint Forest Management’ fold. The forest protecting villages, find state promoted Joint Forest Management (JFM) arrangement unacceptable and feel that this does not put the management powers and decision-making in the hands of local communities. This has resulted in tension between formal JFM system and locally evolved Community Forest Management (CFM) arrangements. This paper looks at the nature of this tension and mismatch. It also shares the discussion and the debate amongst NGOs and the civil society in Orissa, on the nature and contours of community-based rights-regime. Using this discussion as the back-drop the paper argues about the need to look beyond JFM and address tenurial issues and institutional issues to strengthen JFM.