POVERTY ALLEVIATION AND FOREST CONSERVATION THROUGH JOINT
FOREST MANAGEMENT IN ASSAM
SATYENDRA SINGH
(Conservator of Forests, o/o the PCCF & HoFF, Assam, Rehabari, Guwahati, India-781008)
(E-mail: [email protected])
Abstract
Forest is a unique natural and renewable resource which is important not only for ecological
security but also in providing livelihood support to a sizable tribal and other forest
dependent population. Millions of people in Assam are still highly dependent on forests for
their livelihood needs. But, forests alone can not sustain the livelihood of the people. This
article summarises that alternate livelihood support to the communities not only reduces
their poverty but also results in conservation of forests over which they are traditionally
dependent. Integrated approach for development of forest dependent communities and
natural resource conservation through the Joint Forest Management (JFM) by promoting
forest and non-forest livelihoods brings significant attitudinal change in communities.
Through ―JFM plus‖ approach the Forest fringe communities, earlier involved in forest
degradation for livelihood, can be effectively involved in forest protection and management.
Key Words
Poverty, Poverty alleviation, livelihood, forest, conservation, AACP, NaRMIL, Joint Forest
Management Committee (JFMC)
Introduction
Poverty is the state of human beings who are poor. That is, they have little or no material
means of surviving—little or no food, shelter, clothes, healthcare, education, and other
physical means of living and improving one's life. Approximately 2.8 billion people of the
world's 6 billion people living on less that $ 2 a day1. Between 1990 and 2008, efforts to
reduce this number were highly successful and the amount of people living in poverty
decreased by nearly half, from 48 to 26 percent. Poverty causes hunger. Not every poor
person is hungry, but almost all hungry people are poor. Millions live with hunger and
malnourishment because they simply cannot afford to buy enough food, cannot afford
nutritious foods or cannot afford the farming supplies they need to grow enough good food
of their own. Rural households are the most heavily burdened by the consequences of
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poverty and hunger. In addition to causing hunger, poverty limits a rural community’s
ability to invest in its own development. In this context, the poverty alleviation measures
are those that enable the poor to create wealth for themselves as a means for ending poverty.
Assam is in the north eastern part of India having an area of 78,438 sq km (2.39% of the
Country's geographical area)2 and lies in between Latitude 24
0 07' N to 28
0 00' N and
Longitude 890 42' E to 96
0 02' E. Assam comprises of four distinct physiographic units viz.,
Brahmaputra valley, Barak valley, Karbi plateau and North Cachar hills. The percentage of
people living below the poverty line in Assam went up to 37.9 per cent in 2009-10
compared to 34.4 per cent in 2004-05 as per the Planning Commission of India report. There
were over 1.16 crore people below the poverty line in the state in 2009-10, up from 97 lakh
in 2004-05. While the rate of poverty stood at 39.9 per cent in rural areas of the state, that in
urban areas was 26.1 per cent3.
Poverty should be considered a grave problem. Deforestation and forest degradation are a
problem because these phenomena have been part and parcel of a process of agricultural
expansion and economic growth which, arguably, has benefited billions of people. The
disappearance of natural forests in developing countries is a problem, among other reasons,
because it negatively affects the livelihoods of people dependent on forest products and
services4.
Forest conservation is defined as the successful protection, improvement or creation of
specific forests, and/or specific forest functions and services. But, in the context of
livelihood improvement, forest conservation becomes a conflicting term because the
interests of forest stakeholders are frequently at cross purposes. Most of the earth's land
area is not formally protected and consists of 'multi-layered' forested landscapes that support
people, biodiversity, agricultural activity and industry, making them highly productive.
Forests have a value for all these groups, locally and globally.
The forests of Assam contain a great diversity of flora and fauna and other natural
ecosystems. There are several forest types and subtypes occurring in the region, forming an
amalgam of Indian, Malayan and Tibetan elements. Five major groups of forests in Assam
have been identified viz. Tropical Wet Evergreen, Tropical Semi-evergreen, Tropical Moist
Deciduous, Tropical Dry Deciduous Forest and Littoral & Swamp Forest. Forest cover in
the state of Assam is 27,673 sq. km. which is 35.28% of the state's geographical area. In
terms of forest canopy density classes, Assam has 1,444 sq. km very dense forest, 11404
moderately dense forests and 14,825 sq. km. open forests. One of the reasons for positive
change in forest cover is natural regeneration and plantations5.
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It is vital that forest conservation understands the multiple perspectives and competing
demands on all levels and that certain trade-offs will have to be made. Working with
communities, government agencies, NGOs and businesses, the Forest Conservation
Programmes support the development of locally-driven, sustainable measures that will
improve forest management.
There is a two-way causal links between poverty alleviation and natural forests. Micro
impacts of rising poverty can increase or slow forest loss. At the macro level, poverty also
has an ambiguous effect, but it is probable that higher income stimulates forest loss by
raising demand for agricultural land. Natural forests lack comparative advantage for poverty
alleviation. There are few ―win–win‖ synergies between natural forests and national poverty
reduction, which may help to explain why the loss of tropical forests is ongoing. This may
have important implications for our understanding of ―sustainable forest development‖ and
for the design of both conservation and poverty-alleviation strategies6.
Among various theoretical preconditions for successful poverty alleviation through
community forestry, it is to be seen that the degree to which poverty alleviation is a guiding
force in the establishment and implementation of community forestry; and the compatibility
of government commitment to poverty alleviation through community forestry with other
goals being pursued by the government. The core policies to fully realize the potential of
poverty alleviation through community forestry are (1) control illegal logging and forest
sector corruption; (2) locate community forestry sites where there are abundant forests; and
(3) boost forest income through improved access rights, tenure, and benefit sharing, and
removal of anti-poor regulations7. Further, a research agenda is currently developing around
the linkages between ecosystem services and poverty alleviation. It is, therefore, required to
consider which conceptual frameworks can best support research at this nexus. It is
important to acknowledge the limits of ecosystem services for poverty alleviation, given
evidence that ecosystem services tend to be more associated with poverty prevention than
reduction8.
Poverty alleviation broadly speaking tends to be based on a wide variety of economic
activities including agriculture, pastoralism, and nonfarm employment, among others. This
article is about an effort to conserve the forest through protection and afforestation measures
involving forest fringe communities and through various poverty alleviation programmes
following a multi-sectoral approach. Government of Assam is implementing a World Bank
funded project called "Assam Agriculture Competitiveness Project (AACP)" with various
implementing departments like Agriculture, Fisheries, Public Works, Animal Husbandry &
4
Veterinary, Dairy, Forest and Assam Agricultural University, NGOs, Community groups,
Farmers Interest Groups (FIG), etc. The forestry component of AACP has been given a
separate sub-project title "Natural Resource Management and Integrated Livelihood
(NaRMIL) in the AACP9.
As the name suggests, its twin objectives are –
(i) Conservation of natural resources/forests
(ii) Upliftment of forest dependent communities through various forest and non-forest
based livelihood activities.
There are 1815 numbers of Joint Forest Management Committees (JFMCs) in Assam10
and
out of them 47 JFMCs have been covered under the NaRMIL project.
Materials and Methods
The study has been carried out in eight forest divisions of Assam viz. Nagaon, Nagaon
South (Hojai), Digboi, Lakhimpur, Kamrup West, Haltugaon (Kokrajhar), Parbatjhora and
Karimganj where NaRMIL, the forestry component of AACP, is under implementation. All
the 47 Joint Forest Management Committees (JFMCs), implementing NaRMIL, have been
covered. The data related to forest plantation have been collected from sampling plots of
size 0.1 ha area with 2% sampling of total area. The data related to area of plantations,
created by various JFMCs, has been correlated with maps made using GPS coordinates and
also have been monitored by the district NGOs. The data related to income of JFMC
members from forest and non-forest based livelihoods have been collected by the forestry
co-ordinators of district NGOs engaged in each forest divisions. The monitoring indicators
of the study are given below:
(i) Survival percentage of plantation after two years of creation
(ii) Percentage of seedlings of Firewood/Fuel wood plantation attaining minimum height
of 4 meter after 2 years of creation
(iii) Percentage of seedlings of teak & other timber species attaining minimum height of 2
meter after two years of creation
(iv) Percentage of households (JFMC members) whose income has increased 20 percent
in last two years
(v) Percentage of forest communities organised into JFMCs, Self Help Groups and
participating in IGA (Income Generator Activities) Programme
AACP is a multi-sectoral poverty alleviation programme covering a number of
implementing partners/departments like Agriculture, Fisheries, Public Works, Animal
5
Husbandry & Veterinary, and Dairy apart from Forest department. In terms of activities
being implemented, the project may be divided into following four phases:
Phase 1
Constitution of JFMCs and preparation of microplans.
Phase 2
Nursery raising by JFMCs for creation of plantation and simultaneous raising of
another people's nursery by each JFMC for income generation from sale of seedlings.
Entry Point Activities like repairing of village road, construction of community hall,
providing safe drinking water facility etc.
Training and capacity building of JFM communities as well as forest personnel.
Protection of natural forests by JFMCs.
Phase 3
Plantation over degraded forest by JFMCs.
Infrastructure Development of Forest Department for better service delivery.
Exposure visit to other states.
Phase 4
Alternate livelihood support to JFMCs/SHGs/CIGs like Fisheries, Animal Husbandry
(piggery and goatary), Bee keeping, Handloom, Incense Stick making, spice
(turmeric) processing and packaging etc.
Support to JFMCs for Medicinal and Aromatic Plantation on PPP mode.
Results and Discussion
Under the Assam Agricultural Competitiveness Project (AACP), a pilot forestry component
NaRMIL is being implemented to strengthen capacities and underlying forest management
systems in the Assam Forest Department (AFD) and participating communities for applying
new and innovative approaches for community forestry. The intention of the project is to link
the pilot forestry component with the other components in the AACP wherever possible. The
project is fully supportive of the AFD’s longer-term goal of improving rural development in
forest areas. NaRMIL, being a part of multi-sectoral AACP, has benefits related to provision
of non-forest based livelihood support to JFMC members from other sectors like Agriculture,
Fisheries, Animal Husbandry & Veterinary.
The forestry component was initiated in 2005 in two divisions (Kamrup West and Nagaon
South), and covering 10 forest communities on pilot basis. Later it added another 37
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communities, i.e., five in the original two divisions and 32 communities in six new forest
divisions viz. Digboi, Lakhimpur, Nagaon, Haltugaon (Kokrajhar), Parbatjhora and
Karimganj.
The component is characterized as a dichotomy; first with the 10 pilot communities in the
initial phase of development receiving ongoing, but limited handholding to move these
communities further down the path towards becoming fairly autonomous forest enterprises;
and second, the 37 new communities that are less advanced in this transitional process but
having benefited from the lessons learned in the earlier phase. Following lessons were learnt
from the implementation of programme in 1st phase of JFMCs:
Formation and capacity building of new Joint Forest Management Committee (JFMC)
takes sufficient time. Therefore, the plan for activities relating to plantation, which is
highly technical and season bound, should take into account the lead-time required for
formation and capacity building of JFMCs.
Poverty alleviation could not be merely achieved through employment generation but by
empowering communities as a whole.
Provide pace to all stakeholders in decision making, planning, implementation and
monitoring.
Involvement of JFMCs in forest management enhances forest protection.
More women members in JFMCs ensure proper accounting procedures and helps in
removing gender inequalities.
Demand-driven integrated micro-planning ensures participation and confidence,
protection of biodiversity in selected ecosystems, reforestation of degraded lands, soil
conservation, and reducing fuel wood demand from existing forests.
As a part of capacity building, trainings have been imparted to JFMC members on accounts
(170 people); nursery management (50 people); using hand-held GPS (160 people);
alternative livelihood and marketing (300 people); and exposure visits to Andhra Pradesh and
West Bengal. These trainings have helped communities in particular, to build a minimum
level of knowledge and skills regarding basic forest management and community forestry.
The exposure visits have opened up awareness in both communities and forest department
field staff of how communities can evolve into small-scale forest enterprises and the kinds of
revenues that are possible. Furthermore, tri-partite agreements were developed in 2008
7
between two private companies and the initial phase JFMCs in the Nagaon South and
Kamrup West to produce and market high value NTFPs. This has a great impact on the
income of participating communities; especially as forest wage labour declines (after
plantations are established) and communities must wait until plantations mature sufficiently
to generate revenues. Forest based and non-forest based livelihood support has been provided
by Forest department as well as other AACP implementing line departments to the SHGs of
JFMC village. The concept of providing livelihood support in JFM for poverty alleviation is
termed as ―JFM plus‖ approach.
Afforestation on Degraded Forest and Protection of Natural Forests
The JFMCs have taken up 6831 hectares of plantation (Table 1) over degraded forest land
under the project to improve the productivity and sustained yield of forests using appropriate
silvicultural and management practices with the aim to rehabilitate the degraded forests and
promote natural regeneration of forests. The plantation types raised by the JFMCs are
commercial (Teak and Gamari) as well as firewood, medicinal plants and bamboo. The
members of JFMC are also protecting the natural forest from grazing, trees cutters and
helping the department in detecting the offences and offenders. The overall survival rate of
plantations is 65 percent, measured across all the plantations done by participating JFMCs. A
detailed analysis of survival rates of seedling at all plantation sites showed that their survival
is indeed concentrated on higher rates, in particular between 60 and 80 percent (Fig. 1). At
the same time, additional statistics indicate that 30 percent of seedlings of fuel wood
plantations attained a minimum height of 4 meters, two years after establishment. Further, 42
percent of seedlings of teak and other timber species attained a minimum height of 2 meters,
two years after establishment (Table 2). These data suggest that while overall survival rate is
reasonably good, the growth of these seedlings for either fuel wood or timber objectives has
been less than expected across all sites.
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Table 1: Year-wise Plantation created by JFMCs
Name of Division Total
no. of
JFMCs
2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 Total area
(ha)
Kamrup West 10 105 652 0 280 168 200 1405
Nagaon South 9 0 471 250 264 194 161 1340
Nagaon 8 0 0 0 0 700 115 815
Digboi 4 0 0 0 0 280 405 685
Lakhimpur 4 0 0 0 360 90 25 475
Haltugaon 4 0 0 0 55 272 314 641
Parbatjhora 4 0 0 0 100 90 555 745
Karimganj 4 0 0 0 150 575 0 725
Total 47 105 1123 250 1209 2369 1775 6831
Fig 1: Survival Percentage of Seedlings
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
0-20 20-40 40-60 60-80 80-100
% Survival Range
Fre
qu
en
cy o
f S
urv
ival
Ran
ge
Frequency
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Table 2: Monitoring of JFMCs
Column 1: Name of the Forest Division
Column 2: Name of JFMC
Column 3: Average survival percentage of plantation after two years of creation (%)
Column 4: Percentage of seedlings of Firewood / Fuel wood plantation attaining minimum height of 4 meter
after 2 years of creation (%)
Column 5: Percentage of seedlings of teak & other timber species attaining minimum height of 2 meter after
two years of creation (%)
Column 6: Percentage of households (JFMC members) whose income has increased 20 percent in last two
years (%)
Column 7: Percentage of forest communities organised into JFMCs, SHGs and participating in Income
Generating Activities (%)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Digboi Nazirating 90 40 80 40 75
Barophutia 80 30 70 30 60
Borbil No3 90 25 70 40 60
Bhitorpowai 70 25 65 25 50
Lakhimpur Joyhing 70 40 60 35 60
Rampur Deori 60 30 50 40 50
Kakoi Dhekaijuli 70 30 70 40 70
Golaijuli 70 40 70 50 60
Nagaon Hatigarh 80 40 50 70 90
Awlia Mazika 70 30 30 55 70
Seuj Pahar 50 40 20 20 65
Maisam 50 30 25 40 80
Borghat 60 40 20 30 75
Sivasthan 60 20 35 70 80
Udmari 60 30 50 60 80
Dhulpahar 70 20 40 60 70
Nagaon South
(Hojai)
Nahargaon 70 60 40 25 40
Lankajan 80 60 50 25 50
Kathaltoli 70 50 55 30 45
Akashiganga 85 60 45 25 50
Christianbasti 70 75 60 50 35
Nakhuti 75 60 50 35 35
Shyamjadu 80 50 40 25 50
Hatikhuli 70 70 45 25 40
Sadhukhuti 65 65 50 20 45
Kamrup West Samuka 25 25 20 30 35
Kalabakra 60 50 50 40 40
Alukhunda 65 50 40 35 35
Nalapara 65 50 40 30 40
10
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Kamrup West Dhupguri 70 50 40 30 45
Dekapara 60 50 40 30 30
Nowapara 65 50 40 30 45
Mirzaghat 60 70 40 35 40
Pokapum 70 50 40 40 50
Dewanbeel 70 50 40 40 50
Haltugaon
(Kokrajhar)
Amguri 80 20 60 70 100
Nijraguri 70 30 65 80 100
Swmkwr 70 25 70 70 100
West Bishmuri 60 20 65 60 100
Parbatjhaora Khoraghat 80 20 20 45 95
Panijani 75 15 60 40 66
Bannyaguri 80 20 60 40 100
Kharkhari 80 25 50 50 85
Karimganj Jugicherra - Sobri 70 30 40 40 50
Sakalpur 60 40 50 30 60
Srirampur 70 40 60 40 65
Tilbhum 60 50 50 30 60
Livelihood Support
Peoples' Nurseries
As part of both forestry and livelihoods, small nurseries have been established in all
47 participating communities, i.e., JFMCs. These nurseries were designed to provide
seedlings for the plantations and other forest works developed in each community, as well as
longer-term livelihoods support through commercial sales. The livelihood factor was
important as it could form a stop-gap while plantations matured over time to begin generating
major forest revenues. Some nurseries are operating very effectively as commercial
enterprises, securing contracts with major institutional buyers as well as supplying
neighbouring communities for smaller quantities of specialized seedlings, for example fruit
trees. These nurseries tended to be in communities with good road access to major highways
and larger urban centres, and have a community team that was well-trained in nursery
management with support from forest department field staff. There is a good income for
community members from sale of seedlings from the People's nurseries and there are
instances of generating more than Rs. 5 lakh in some JFMCs from sale of seedlings only.
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Medicinal and Aromatic Plants
Apart from peoples’ nurseries, as a part of forest based livelihood support to
participating JFMC members, the supplementary plantations (intercropping) of high value
indigenous medicinal and aromatic plants (MAPs) have been done in PPP mode under
tripartite agreement between concerned DFO, JFMC & private entrepreneurs. These aromatic
and medicinal plants have been planted in the interspaces of plantations already created by
the JFMCs. Intercropping of MAPs like Homalomena aromatica (Gandhi Kochu), Curcuma
zedoaria, Acorus calamus etc. has been done in 500 ha area by JFMCs. In order to
understand JFMC performance, and by implication the success of the component in building
strong local institutions and durable forest assets, a grading system was developed. The
JFMCs were rated based on five key indicators; percentage of plantation target achieved;
seedling survival; attendance of committee members at community meetings; total revenue
generated by the JFMS since inception; and submission of accounts. Results from the first
assessment indicated that of the 47 JFMCs rated, 15 were Very Good (32 percent); 16 were
Good (34 percent); 15 were Average (32 percent); and 1 was Poor (2 percent). Only those
JFMCs whose grade is ―Very Good‖ & ―Good‖ have been targeted for undertaking
intercropping of MAPs.
Non-Forest Based Livelihood Support
Improving livelihoods in participating communities is critical to broaden the
economic base and increase household incomes. The approach being used is to strengthen
Self-Help Groups (SHGs) of the JFMC village as sub set of JFMCs. These groups have
activity-based around non-forest livelihood opportunities, along the lines of Common Interest
Groups (CIGs). SHGs have been formed and strengthened; training has taken place,
including exposure visits. Over the past two years, 200 community members have received
training in the state and 60 people have gone for specialized training outside the state. The
emphasis has been on acquiring skills and knowledge about non-forest livelihoods such as
poultry production, piggery, goatary, fisheries, weaving, bee keeping, turmeric processing
and packaging, vermi-compost, catering & tent house etc. Though 260 SHGs exist in the 47
JFMC villages, only 100 Self Help Groups have been covered under this activity. SHG
members are invariably a member of the JFMC of that village. Selection of SHGs has been
done on a set of criteria and by the district NGOs of the AACP and the respective JFMCs.
The livelihood activity has also been monitored and recent assessment indicated that the
average percentage of households (JFMC members) whose income has increased 20 percent
12
in last four years was 34 percent. A histogram (Fig. 2) shows that in majority of cases
households’ income has increased by more than 20% in last two years. The range across
JFMC was from 20 percent to 80 percent (Table 2) indicating that some communities are
more dependent on forests than others, and more importantly that some communities require
substantially more support.
Mapping
Mapping of forest cover and plantations for the JFMCs is an important pre-requisite for
effective community forestry management. Plantations and other activities of all 47
participating communities have been mapped using GPS and GIS. These maps support more
precise boundary demarcation of each community’s allocated forest, micro-planning and
monitoring changes in the forest cover over time.
Conclusion
Joint Forest Management through the Natural Resource Management and integrated
Livelihood, forestry component of Assam Agriculture Competitiveness Project, has been
successful in sensitizing the local forest dependent communities towards the importance and
need of forest conservation and their proper management. Apart from large scale
afforestation in degraded forest land the JFM Committees are able to check illegal tree
felling, illegal removal of minor forest produce, grazing, poaching etc. to a large extent and
considerably regulate its members in accessing and use of forest resources. Forest dependent
people are able to derive benefits in terms of Non Timber Forest Produce, medicinal herbs
13
and shrubs etc. for livelihood. Medicinal and Aromatic plantation has been done in PPP mode
do derive maximum benefit to the communities. In this project the JFM concept has gone to
higher platform ―JFM plus‖ where livelihood options, both forest based and non-forest based,
have been provided by the Forest Department as well as other line departments to
communities by forming Self Help Groups within the JFMCs. The increased income of forest
dependent communities has resulted in poverty alleviation as well as conservation of forests.
*******
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References
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