Indigenous Peoples’ Participation in Joint Forest Management: Insights from the Western Ghats, India

The participation of Indigenous communities in forest management has become a crucial component of the global effort to achieve conservation goals. However, involving all Indigenous communities in participatory management has proven challenging in a diverse country like India due to the complexity of its social and political landscape. The present study, based on qualitative surveys and descriptive statistical analysis, aims to analyse the intensity of participation of Indigenous people in the Joint Forest Management (JFM) programme and the factors influencing it, as well as its outcomes in the Kannavam forest, India. Results regarding participation intensity showed significant differences between the initial JFM implementation phase and the present day in the selected settlements. Although Indigenous peoples were involved in JFM, absolute decision-making authority and power-sharing were lacking in all settlements. The sustainability of the JFM programme was found to be affected by challenges such as benefit sharing and NTFT collection. Furthermore, JFM's co-management forest policy was noticed to have the unintended consequence of reducing Indigenous peoples' dependency on the forest. The study also showed that initial enthusiasm was often diminished by long-term management plans that lacked regular and adequate incentive support. This was observed to be one of the reasons for the underachievement of the stated JFM goals in most states where it is implemented. Despite the emphasis placed on the importance of Indigenous participation in JFM policies, the level of involvement was found to be limited in the area studied. Guided by the results of the analysis and the perspectives of Indigenous peoples, the study proposes the active involvement of Indigenous peoples in forest management programmes, incorporating appropriate mechanisms to integrate their practices and knowledge, which could help in achieving the dual objectives of conservation and empowerment.