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: satyendra96ifs@gmail.com)

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

2

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

6

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

1. The World Bank, World Development Report-Attacking Poverty (2001) , pp. 3.

2. Survey of India, India State of Forest Report (2011), pp. 102.

3. Planning Commission of India, Press Note on Poverty Estimates, 2009-10, (19th

March, 2012), pp. 6-7.

4. Sunderlin W. D., Angelsen A., Belcher B., Burgers P., Nasi R., Santoso L. and

Wunder S., (2005), World Development, 33(9), pp. 1383-1402.

5. Survey of India, India State of Forest Report (2011), pp. 103.

6. Wunder S., (2001), World Development, 29(11) pp. 1817-1833.

7. Sunderlin W. D., (2006), Forest Policy and Economics, 8(4), pp. 386-396.

8. Fisher J. A., Patenaude G., Meir P., Nightingale A. J., Rounsevell M. D. A., Williams

M. and Woodhouse I. H., Global Environmental Change, (In Press), corrected proof

available online on ScienceDirect database (2013).

9. Website http://www.arias.in of Assam Rural Infrastructure and Agricultural Services

Society.(Retrieved on 23rd

June, 2013).

10. Department of Environment & Forests, Assam Forest at a Glance (2013), pp. 17.