Joint Management of State Forest Lands: Experiences from India

India is a democratic republic with a federal structure, made up of 28 states and 7 union territories spread over 329 million hectares (see Figure 8.1). Climatic conditions vary widely, from permanent snowfields in the Himalayas to tropical coastlands, and from virtual desert in the north-west to fertile, intensively cultivated rice fields in the north-east. India is one of 12 megabiodiversity countries and contains parts of two global biodiversity ‘hotspots’. Forest types range from alpine forests in the Himalayas to rainforests in the Western Ghats. Land degradation and pollution are India’s major environmental challenges. More than half of India’s area is degraded to some extent (GoI, 1999).