An Empirical Study on Elements of Forest Governance: A Study of JFM Implementation Models in Odisha

All over the world there is a raging debate on three languages of management, the pluralistic, the managerial and the communitarian for improving the governance of common resources like forests. Gradually, it is also being realized that none of these languages provide adequate vocabulary that can address the full range of involved issues by social regulations. However, there is a periodic swing of the pendulum from one extreme to another. Probably, the best can only be achieved by providing a platform for continuous dialogues among major stakeholders so that a consensus is built up. The major task of the forester lies in implementation for which they have been trained and have acquired a maturity which includes recognition of their limitation and the need to seek cooperation from others. In this context, a field research was conducted in four forest division of Odisha namely Angul, Deogarh, Koraput and Rayagada. The study covered VSS members, forest personals, PRI members and civil society (NGOs) to identify and established building blocks of forest governance. A comparative analysis among four different JFM implemented models (FDA, OFSDP, UJFM and RLTAP) was done based on the established parameters of governance. The study has identified 12 broad building blocks of forest governance out of which seven viz. Democratization, Efficiency, Transparency, Gender, Equity, Accountability and Sustainability (Ecological, Economical, Institutional, and Livelihood) are found essential and genuine. The achievement in totality accounts for 77 per cent with corresponding gap of 23 per cent in overall forest governance. Among the four JFM models under study OFSDP found to be the best available JFM model suiting to condition of the State of Odisha and fulfilling the requirements of forest dependents.