0458-A1
Rekha Singhaland Nidhi Sharma[1]
Forest management has three components: human, physical and temporal. The threats to conservation of forest come largely from the human element. Such threats include indiscriminate cutting and use of wood, unplanned urban growth, industrial and technological advancement, and other conflicts. It is essential to intervene in this destructive process and mobilize human resources towards forest conservation. An effective strategy for this purpose has to take several approaches and should involve government as well as people. In particular, as related experiments have revealed, the effort should be directed towards change in attitude, knowledge and attribution by people to enhance people's participation and to strengthen the total eco-social complex in an organic manner. The linkages between pro-environmental action and forest conservation through a case study from a developing country have been analyzed. To this end, management philosophy has to take a turn in the direction of maintaining a partnership between people and the environment. So far, the underlying model has been ethnocentric and had cherished the illusion that man is the centre of this universe. This view has to change.
Sustainable development in the context of developing countries to a very large extent depends on effective management of natural resources in general and forests, in particular. Forest management is a deliberate social intervention in ecology with the goal of maintaining and enhancing its quality and sustaining an optimal degree of human- forest interface. To this end, a number of techniques are used such as biological, microbiological, silvicultural and physical. However, the concept of forest and forestry is undergoing change. This is very well reflected in the changing themes of International conferences, conventions and publications. The concept of forest management is going beyond trees - its plantation, growth, harvesting to forces outside boundaries of forest like Institution, Market and People.
As the human population continues to expand, especially in Southeast Asian countries like Bangladesh. Indonesia, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Philippines. The role of forest management is becoming critical and has far reaching implications. Conservationists, usually trained in natural sciences have concentrated their efforts in technological and biological solutions to forest management. Gradually, it has been recognized and accepted that unless the people adopt the technology and interventions methods, advancement in clean and green environment will not provide results.
The depletion and destruction of forest resources constitute one of the gravest crises affecting the earth today. The threats to these resources largely come from human beings. Such threats include population pressure, unplanned urban growth and industrial and technological advancement. The paper explores the role of human factors in forest conservation through pro-environmental action model.
The issue of depletion of natural resources is often, thought of solely as a topic for "hard science" to be solved by scientist. The causes of most of these problems, however, are usually traceable to human behavior. As Maloney and Ward (1973) have reported, most of the ecological crises facing both our society and the world can be termed as "crises of maladaptive (human) behavior". It is now well appreciated that the nature as a system has enough to satisfy human needs but not human greed (Mahatma Gandhi,).
The conservation of forest has at least three components:
i. Human Element (needs, perception, motives, attitude, attribution, locus of control)
ii. Physical Element (type of forest, condition of forest, land and soil type,)
iii. Temporal Element (time and duration)
Conservation of forests has a heterogeneous character, accordingly it's nature and dimensions vary across different parts of the world. It is, therefore, necessary to take into consideration the context, specific cultural ethos, characteristics and concentration of population, and type and condition of forest while addressing forest management.
Thus, forest management requires knowledge and understanding not only of natural resource but also socio-cultural and psychological aspects of human environment of overall human environment to which humans are part as depicted in conceptual model given by Boyden, 1993.
Figure 1. Inter-relationship between physical, cultural and humans, after Boyden, 1993.
Following Clark (1988),three basic dimensions of the role of humans in ecological context can be differentiated:
01. The interactions between human and environmental systems (resources, the sources of change, the consequences of these changes).
02. The choices that individuals, communities, governments, and organizations make in order to manage the interaction (Peoples perception, attitude, awareness, motivation).
03. The underlying elements of social structure of culture that shape these interactions and choices.
Thus, Humans are social as well as ecological being. The social aspect of human existence is reflected inter alia, in the need for collective action. Collective action refers to those situations where certain objectives can not be achieved or can only be inefficiently be achieved by individual effort alone and the cooperation of other people required (Wade, 1987). Rational and self- interested humans can lead to processes and efficient, equitable and effective system of forest management. To facilitate collective action behavioral factors construct social system and governance structures so that group members can achieve a common goal (Ostrom 1990 Ostrom et.al 1993 North 1990)
In the contemporary world there are numerous cases particularly in the developing regions, which indicate that forests are being destroyed for immediate and short-term gains. The connections between people and destruction of forest are one of the obvious examples. Meaningful and effective assault on these factors require human interventions that may counter such effects and provide antidote and facilitate positive action. This demands promotion and encouragement of pro-environmental actions. The pro-environmental actions are products of interactive systems consisting of psychological variables and processes, such as attitudes, awareness, motivation, and the socio-cultural context.
What important variables involved in natural resource management with a socio-psychological perspective and how could these variables be placed in a unified theoretical framework are questions that need reflection and deliberation: what follows is a tentative outline of a conceptual framework which delineates some of the related components.
The framework that appears below is influenced by the recent work in the field of environment psychology and current practices and experiences from the field of forestry.
Kurt Lewin (1951) has given the very basic formula of action (behaviour). According to him:
B = f (PXE)
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Where |
B = Behavior |
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F= Function of |
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P = Person (individual) |
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E = Environment |
Based on this conceptualization, Lewin contented that person and environment are interdependent parts of the total field.
Extending the above conceptualization, Figure 2. Presents a conceptual structure of relationship between individuals, social-psychological, variables, cultural factors and human action.
Figure 2. Relationships between human action and individual and environment.
The above model of behavior considers that human actions are planned, intentional and rational steps and are based on evaluation of the probable consequences of actions in terms of their likelihood as well as their valence. The likelihood and valence of any action is solely determined by the meaning of actions held by the people. Meaning involves (a) knowledge of the domain, (b) goals involved and (c) understanding of pertinent skills.
The motivational forces behind human action involve two tendencies i.e., (I) positive action (approach) tendency and (ii) a negative tendency usually driving the person towards avoidance of some threatening consequence.
The socio-cultural network and web of relationships directly as well as indirectly influence the course of human action. It can support or disturb the pertinent action sequences depending upon their consequence with reference to social norms and expectations.
As human population continues to expand, the role of psychological factors will become more and more critical. To understand how to encourage environmentally responsible behaviour, one must identify at least some of the factors that influence such behaviour. The crucial factors involved include locus of control, sense of responsibility, knowledge and attitude.
Locus of control is an individual perception of his or her ability to bring about change through his or her behavior. People with an external locus control do not try to bring about change because they attribute change to chance or to controlled by powerful others such as, God, Government etc. Conversely, people with an internal locus of control believe that their activities are likely to precipitate change. Rotter's (1966) work has been most influential in this regard. He postulated internal and external locus of control - individuals with internal locus of control believes that, reinforcements/outcome are consequent of their own behavior and those with external locus of control belief that, their reinforcements are under the control of external agents. In a meta-analysis of research on environmentally responsible behavior, Hines et.al (1987) found that individuals with an internal locus of control were more likely to report having participated in environmentally responsible behavior than were individuals with a more external locus of control. In the West, most of the researcher considers locus of control as an individual phenomenon. However, in developing countries, with collectivist societies (contrasted with western individualistic societies) both individual and collective perspectives are significant and have implications for determining behavior (Pareek, 2000). This is particularly true in collaboration and collective offer for influencing events.
A related concept in relation to locus of control is causal attribution (Weiner, 1974). A person who attributes outcome to internal "causes" (knowledge, ability, effort, and commitment) is an internal, and one who attributes it to external causes (Luck, God, Difficult Situation, Government etc.) is an external. Causal dimensions are perhaps the most essential features of the attribution model for the established link between causal attribution and their consequences. Weiner (1979) suggested another dimension, i.e., stability of factors of causal attribution. Thus, with the combination of locus of control, we have four categories of factors to which outcome can be attributed: internal stable, internal unstable, external stable and external unstable. The researchers have confirmed that these perceived causes have different consequences. A recent study by Singhal and Sharma (2002) has reported that the forest protection committee (Bhawarpipaliya) of Jhabua in Madhya Pradesh, India which has received award by provincial (in the year 1999) and national government (in the year 2000) for their community - based forest management efforts attribute their success to internal and stable factors. This year also (2002) the entire Jhabua district has received Indira Priyadarshni Vriksha Mitra award (National Award) for their community- based forest management works.
Knowledge of a problem is clearly a prerequisite for an appropriate course of action. However, knowledge of the problem is only part of the catalyst required; a person must also know what he can do to help. Jordon et.al (1986) found that environmental knowledge had a strong positive effect on actual commitment but a relatively small effect on willingness to adopt responsible activities in future.
Attitude is considered one of the most important influences in determining environmentally responsible behavior. It is defined as an enduring positive or negative feeling about some person, object and issue. Attitude is readiness to act, it involves both thinking and action. It is a tendency to respond in a particular way to an object, a person, a group or an idea. Often it is assumed that knowledge will influence attitude, which in turn will determine behavior. However, research by Borden and Schettino (1979) has shown that affect and knowledge measures do not share any consistent and systematic relationship. They found that the effects of feelings toward the environment and environmental knowledge were completely additive in their influence on current behavior. Studies by Heberlein (1981; 1991) Manfredo and Fulton (1997) Stern and Dietz (1994) Vaske and Donnelly (1999) confirm positive relationship pro-environmental attitude and behavior. Further, It is believed that to address the problem of attitude behavior discrepancy a closer attention must be paid to the way attitudes and behaviors are measured.
Action differs at least in two important ways relation to natural resource management: no action or action. No action itself is related to natural resource management (e.g. when the society is entering in an age of scarcity), action (when the present state requires conscious effort).
Pro environmental action depends on an appropriate integration of affective and cognitive dimension can be presented in 2x2 matrix (Figure 3). When people are aware of the environmental issues, understand the importance of the natural resource, and are emotionally attached to them, their behavior will be directed towards pro- environmental action and will lead to sustainability management of particular natural resource, like forest, lake protected area etc.
Figure: 3 A Model of Pro-Environmental Action (after Singhal and Sharma, 2002)
At the heart of the pro-environmental action model there are basically two psychological concepts, cognition and affection.
Cognition- Cognition a critical dimension in determining pro-environmental action. Cognition can be defined as a mental concept, it includes awareness, motivation, information, knowledge and locus of control.
Affection -Affection is related to the emotional aspect of an individual. It includes person's feelings and values, towards general and specific issues and has a strong impact on a person's behavior/actions.
Figure 3 presents the basic model of pro-environmental action. As shown in the figure the four part indicate- passivity, activity, sensitivity and sustainability. Whereby each cell represents four major possible combinations and illustrates the outcome in terms of:
1. People and individuals are not aware of the environmental issues and there is no attachment for the natural resource. This situation leads to passivity.
2. People are emotionally attached to the natural resource but there is no information/awareness about their conservation/protection. This situation leads to sensitivity whereby people do not have idea about actionable steps.
3. People are only involved in activity for some motive/need but have absolutely no attachment to the natural resource. This situation leads to activity, which stops as soon as the need or motive is fulfilled.
4. People are attached to the natural resource as well as they have information and awareness regarding the importance and the ways to protect their natural resource. This in turn will facilitate sustainability of their pro-environmental actions.
The case illustrates importance of human factors in sustainable forest management.
Government of India issued a resolution on 1st June 1990 for the implementation of National Forest Policy (1988). The policy breaks new grounds as it, for the first time, specified the rights of communities over forest and it's produce. At present 63,618 Joint Forest management (JFM) committees are managing 14.00 million hectares of forest. (Bahuguna and Upadhyay, 2002). The government of Madhya Pradesh took the initiative in 1991 to introduce JFM as a strategy for rehabilitation of degraded forest and forest area sensitive to various kinds of pressure through the formation of local level committees. The concern of local participation in management of forest resources was further stressed with the World Bank assisted M.P. Forestry Project in 1995. By the end of the year 2001, 12,195 committees have been formed protecting 60.17-lakh hectare area. In Jhabua district of Madhya Pradesh, India, JFM committees were formed on 12th December 1995. At present there are 430 committees. The performance of most of the committees is quite satisfactory and evaluative studies have shown that people's participation has been instrumental in protection and conservation of forests.
Jhabua is a predominantly a tribal district located in the western part of Madhya Pradesh, India with the total geographical area of 6782 hectares. There are about 1313 inhabited villages. About 85% of population are tribal while 3% population belongs to Schedule Castes. Forty per cent people of Jhabua are below the poverty line. The literacy rate, according to 1991 census is 19.1%, with female literacy of only 4%. Thus, Jhabua is an overwhelmingly tribal and economically poor district. The Forest Department, Villagers and some local non-governmental organizations are the main stakeholders. Multi- method approach with a focus on participatory tools and techniques were adopted. In addition a combination of semi-structured Interview/Checklist, Focused Group Discussion, Observation and Key Informant Interview were conducted. Both primary as well as secondary data was used.
The project outcome can be categorized into three groups:
The Committees that achieved success and some reward and recognition were found significantly different in six criteria's. They were high on Sustainability dimension.
1. The committees that were able to maintain effective functioning over a period of time had internal and stable attribution.
2. Positive attitude towards all the stakeholders.
3. Knowledge about their roles and procedures.
4. Stakeholders role clarity.
5. Accommodated their clock, (daily and seasonal activities) to suit community based forest management
The committees got quick initial success but could not maintain all the members along. These were high on Sensitivity dimension.
1. High on effective.
2. External and unstable attribution.
3. Lack of goal and vision.
4. Lack of role clarity within members and between stakeholders.
The committees where few individuals are active and not all the members. These were high on Passivity dimension.
1. External and unstable attributions.
2. Consider it as a government programme.
3. Registered committees only for the sake of registering them.
4. Others members neither had knowledge (cognitive) nor were emotionally attached (affective)s to the natural resource.
In conclusion, the human and behavioral factors have profound implications for pro-environmental action. Ultimately, human action will be the basis for success or failure of sustaining the diversity of life. It is however, very difficult to change behaviour (short of coercion) without changing people's attitude, motivation and awareness. Therefore, in a collective society the intervention for mobilizing human factors and engaging them in pro-environmental action would demand interpersonal coordination. Interpersonal coordination for social and individual action necessitates bridging the gap between existing conditions and goals, redefinition of the boundaries of self, and society. An effective strategy in this regard would be promotion of common goals, interdependencies, joint activity, and linking life goals with natural resource management goals. It is hoped that this framework can help as a guide for future action-oriented forest conservation efforts.
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| [1] Associate Professor, Faculty
of Personnel Management and Organizational Behaviour, and Project Associate,
Indian Institute of Forest Management, Bhopal, 462003,M.P, India. Email:
[email protected]; Website: www.iifm.org |