Forest produce

About: Forest produce is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 137 publications have been published within this topic receiving 891 citations.

“Shifting agriculture”: the changing dynamics of Adivasi farming in the forest-fringes of a tiger reserve in south India

Abstract: This article examines trends in farming and livelihood activities among forest-dwelling Adivasi farmers (Soligas) in a tiger reserve from 2008 to 2015. In-depth semistructured interviews were conducted in two contrasting, but representative, villages, where traditional mixed-crop farming was being replaced by cash crops such as coffee, maize, and cotton. Access to state-subsidized food supply and increase in cash income through wage labor, coupled with increasing depredation of food crops by wild animals, were some causes for the shift to cash crops. Declining supply of non-timber forest produce (NTFP) and the subsistence cash it provided has also impacted farmer livelihoods and indirectly contributed to this shift. The changing aspirations of younger Soligas and inadequate state support for mixed-crop farming also could be contributing factors. Soligas consistently maintained that increased wildlife depredation of food crops, reduction in supplies of wild foods, and the decline in NTFP was due to...

Forest fights in Haripur, Northwest Pakistan

Abstract: This thesis is an inter-paradigmatic exchange between political ecology and post-structuralist interpretations of actor-structure relationships. The study is founded on multiple discourses where different interpretations of a particular phenomenon by various actors have been analysed. The thesis is meant to show that relationships between society and nature are dynamic, entail multi-sited struggles among many actors at several terrains and are deeply rooted in earlier history.The study transpires that the forest is shaped by a loosely knit network of actors that are linked together by a kaleidoscope of rights, claims and social relationships which seem to determine the fate of the forest in a village. Chapter 2 elaborates the theoretical foundation and methodological trajectory of this thesis. The concept of arena is central and analytically useful for this study as it connotes and involves social actors, their social relationships, practices and struggles between them. The notion of social arena is a metaphor for the site or place where action takes place between social actors. These places are not limited by geographical, natural or administrative borders. Arenas are social locations in which contests over issues, resources, values and representations take place. These are either spaces in which contestation associated with different practices and values of different domains takes place; or they are spaces within a single domain where attempts are made to resolve discrepancies in value interpretation and incompatibilities between actor interests. I argue that the forest as a social arena stretches beyond its natural and physical borders.The arena as the site of the struggle is not just geographically confined within natural (e.g. forest) and/or administrative (e.g. political) boundaries but it stretches beyond the locality. These arenas are diverse, they overlap and co-exist, and the boundaries at a given time are defined by networks of relationships between forest users and consumers, relationships between the State, bureaucrats, forest owners, dwellers, and so on. Chapter 3 gives a detailed account of history of Haripur and how forests were legally categorised and distributed. History helps understand the political alliances and the power struggles in the region, the district, and (sub district) Khanpur. The State, during British rule introduced a new management regime for natural resources which changed the entire social landscape of Khanpur by attaching private property rights to the trees as well as forest lands in the region. The government authorities, notably the Forest department have most often seen forest dwellers destructive for the forest, depleting its resources and interfering with nature. This premise lays foundation of mistrust between people and the government. Contrary to this, the initiatives to introduce people in forestry governance are based on the realisation that the ownership, or at least management control over forests, is critical to responsible management by the people. Chapter 4 provides a detailed account of how the Forest department operates in relation to people and forest resources. There are multiple scales of articulation, alliances and struggles within and around the department and these positions are changeable from time to time with several internal and external factors. The case of Forest department manifests that the State is to be seen as a multifaceted organ and not as an individual actor. Structural changes were introduced in the department but the core on which the foundation of the department was laid, was never changed. Many women firmly believe that the department must continue to use authority to control local people who cause degradation. Each reform initiative taken in the name of participation ended up with basically continuing the same centralised system. Forests were never handed over to the community along with management responsibility (e.g. Guzara forests). Only joint management of forests was enacted – yet not implemented. Trust remained a major issue in all these struggles. The subject of forest fire, which I perceive and have experienced as a strong manifestation of resistance and also as a tool to manipulate natural resources, has been dealt with in different places in this thesis, but particularly in Chapter 5. Burning forests is an old practice for clearing land for agriculture.Fire therefore had a significant role in defining farmers’ territories. Gradually these practices changed but grazers continued to light up forests to produce lush green grass for their livestock. This led to a persistent discourse based on appropriating every fire incident to the grazers’ practices. This study highlights that fire is now increasingly used as a management tool for manipulating the resource. Firewood collectors and big owners use fire for obtaining dry firewood or build the case for felling dead / dry trees which is allowed in the policy after ban on green felling. Even if fires may occur due to the will of the forest owner, the policy blindly holds grazersresponsible for their wasteful and damaging practices. The collectors of Non-Timber Forest Produce (NTFP), mostly women, are not happy with fire since their resources are burnt down due to the productive fire requirement of Chir pine (Pinus roxburghii). There is an incline in the graph of forest fires, decreasing self initiative among people to control fires, along with the Forest department’s management bias towards Chir pine trees in fire control operations; these concerns echo in various voices from the field. The chapter also highlights a form of connivance between the owner and the occupants of lands (peasants / tenants) and also the owners and Forest department staff. Chapters 6 deals with actors in their struggle to secure their rights to the forest through acquiring forest land title deeds. This initiative from the side of the new owners can be understood as a response to what is explained in Chapter 5. No forests have been handed over with management responsibilities to non owner forest users in nearly one and a half centuries. Non owners have resorted to buying forest lands in little parcels in creating private forests. This way, new meanings are given to the forest and new spaces are created through tactical networking among various actors. Field evidence and opinions from several actors suggest that Reserved forests are frequently being accessed by people for their needs in a de facto manner. Several new owners have acquired land entitlement comprising small pieces of lands which do not have a huge timber value in future. Followed by this, it is also visible that the nature of power in the contemporary society of Khanpur (and beyond) is changing. Power, which was once measured through landholding, is now measured through other symbols, such as political connectivity and affiliation. Regular access to NTFP by non-right holders for the sake of earning an income (Chapter 7) is an illustration of their struggle, or more strongly put, an in-between expression of resistance. Poor women remain invisible in their daily practice to access NTFPs. They use spaces that are considered undesirable by other forest actors. These spaces cannot be completely separated within the social arena, but they are knitted into the day to day practices of people. State intrusion into women’s customary and de facto practices concerns them. They fear that this will only reduce their chances of earning a modest livelihood from the forest. However, the women are also highly creative in reshaping their practices and relationships with every change that takes place around them. Firewood collection is the most visible, uninterrupted and non-compromising activity for women. In their daily struggle to feed the family, they virtually manage and control the forest. Contrary to this, women are not part of any dialogue on forestry reform. They need to be part of the negotiation process in which their spaces remain secure. The most important challenge is to create the mechanisms for discussion, negotiation, and arbitration of gendered access regimes under a variety of circumstances.

Competing Visions: Domestic Forests, Politics and Forest Policy in the Central Western Ghats of South India

Abstract: Rural people in developing countries including India continue to access a number of types of ‘forests’ to meet specific needs such as fuelwood, fodder, food, non-timber forest produce and timber for both subsistence and income generation. While a plethora of terms exist to describe the types of forests that rural people use—such as farm forests, social forests, community forests and small-scale forests—the expression domestic forest has recently been proposed. Domestic forest is a term aimed at capturing the diversity of forests transformed and managed by rural communities and a way to introduce a new scientific domain that recognises that production and conservation can be reconciled and that local communities can be effective managers. This paper argues in the context of the central Western Ghats of south India that while the domestic forest concept is a useful umbrella term to capture the diversity of forests used by rural people, these domestic forests are often not autonomous local forests but sites of contestation between local actors and the state forest bureaucracy. Hence, a paradigm shift within the forest bureaucracy will only occur if the scientific forestry community questions its own normative views on forest management and sees forest policy as a means to recognise local claims and support existing practices of forest dependent communities.

Structuring financial empowerment for localized development within Joint Forest Management (JFM): examples from Madhya Pradesh, India.

Abstract: Joint Forest Management (JFM) in India provides local communities with forest usufructs such as fuelwood, fodder, non-timber forest produce and a share in the final timber harvest in lieu of their forest protection and regeneration activities. Such usufructs, alone, are unlikely to sustain interest in the JFM programme. Instead, village resource development activities may provide a potent mechanism for reducing dependence on forests, for enhancing participation in the JFM programme and for leading to improvements in people's livelihood status. Through case studies on the experiences with village development in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, this paper attempts to make a case for using JFM as a medium for localized development and for diversifying and encouraging fund sources for this purpose, particularly village common funds. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

The hunt for the precious wood: Illegal trade of sandalwood as an international criminal enterprise in Kenya

Abstract: Purpose This paper aims to explore the complex underpinnings and dynamics of increasing trend of illegal trading of high-value forest tress such as sandalwood in rural parts of Kenya, which has moved from highly opportunistic and culturally accepted activities to highly complex, commercial, criminal and entrepreneurial activity. The paper focuses on two theoretical frameworks: the first concerns with criminological concepts which underlie illegal logging, perpetrators and criminal network of smuggling of sandalwood from Kenya to overseas; the second focuses on the entrepreneurial process of the illegal trade of the endangered species. The central aim is to establish a confluence of criminology (rural and environmental) and entrepreneurship – the product of which can be useful in understanding emerging and highly sophisticated international crimes such smuggling and trafficking of sandalwood tree product. It proposes that sandalwood poaching just like other transnational crimes such as wildlife poaching is a highly organized international crime that involves more than one individual. The paper concludes by suggesting that sandalwood poaching is an entrepreneurial activity that impinges on criminological process, and to fully address the problem, we must address the supply and demand forces and the normative and social structure of source area. Design/methodology/approach This paper uses a systematic review and immersion in literature from journals, books, government and non-governmental organization publications to raise debates and discourses on issues pertaining to the phenomena of sandalwood poaching in Kenya. It also entailed sieving through court judgments, newspaper articles and TV news to backup above information. Findings First, what has emanated from this study is that criminal cartels have directed their criminal business of sandalwood poaching to Kenya because force of demand and supply of precious wood, institution failures and regulatory and policy failures. Second, sandalwood poaching is ostensibly organized international enterprise crime that relies on division of labor to succeed. Third, more restrictive controls act as incentives to criminals to smuggle the wood. Finally, the more endangered the sandalwood, the more valuable and profitable it is and the more the poor countries and rural areas suffer from environmental degradation. Research limitations/implications Methodologically, one of the major limitations of this paper is that it is based on documentary analysis, because of a lack of research time and available finances. Prospective studies should consider utilizing in-depth interviews to gather evidence from offenders, police, rural residents and other government officials. Practical implications The paper contributes to growing fields of entrepreneurial, environmental and rural criminology. Methodologically, certain crimes such sandalwood poaching requires an intertwine of concepts of criminological and entrepreneurship for better understanding. Social implications To environmentalist, foresters, jurist, law enforcers and rural local residents; there is an urgent need to rethink how poaching of valuable endangered biodiversity species is treated, responded and promoted. To end poaching of sandalwood, there is a need to fundamentally realign tactics from criminalization and enforcement to address endemic cancer of poverty, unemployment and corruption present at source countries. This will indeed reduce economic vulnerabilities that cartels take advantage by engaging the locals in extracting sandalwood from trees. It will also reduce the power of networks but instead increase guardianship measures. Originality/value The originality of paper is the utilization of two theoretical frameworks: the first concerns with criminological concepts which underlie illegal logging, perpetrators and criminal network of smuggling of sandalwood from Kenya to overseas; and, second, the paper focuses on the entrepreneurial process of the illegal trade of the endangered species. The central aim is to establish a confluence of criminology (rural and environmental) and entrepreneurship – the product of which can be useful in understanding emerging and highly sophisticated international crimes such smuggling and trafficking of sandalwood tree product.