0511-B4

Indicators of participation in joint forest management - an empirical analysis

Rekha Singhal and Parul Rishi ¹

Abstract

Recognizing the central role of participation in joint forest management (JFM), indicators of participation in JFM as perceived by stakeholders, namely members of the local community, and personnel from non-government and government organizations involved in implementation of JFM, were identified. Content analysis of responses revealed that there are 40 indicators of participation in JFM. On the basis of expert ratings these indicators were categorized in 11 groups and arranged in terms of process of implementation of JFM. Classification of these 40 indicators in terms of individual, group and organization level evinced an equal number of indicators related to individual and organization level (11 indicators), while 24 indicators dealt with the group level. Further, based on quadrate analysis, low and high indicators of participation by different stakeholders were identified. The findings are discussed in the light of actual and ideal indicators of participation, and the implications for participatory forestry in general and forest policy and sustainable forest management in particular are highlighted.

Introduction

Participatory forestry has emerged as a worldwide practice for forestry developed in early 1990s. India belongs to select group of countries that have adopted participatory forest management at the national level. The shift in the orientation of forestry can be noticed from late 1970s in forestry conferences, policy and aid agencies. At present, following the Government of India guidelines (1990) 63,618 Joint Forest Management Committees (JFMC) are managing 14.00 million hectares of forest (Bahuguna & Upadhyay, 2002). JFM involves working together of government department, local communities and non-government organisations on the principle of care and share. Therefore, to achieve the objectives JFM, participation of partners is a crucial. This paper aims to uncover the meaning of participation in JFM as understood by different stakeholders i.e., personnel from the forest department, local community members/villagers and representatives of Non- Government Organisations (NGO's).

Participation in JFM

It is widely recognized and accepted that at the heart of JFM lies the emphasis on participation. It is also understood that participation varies in terms of degrees whereby more control in decision-making, indicates higher degree of participation. Therefore participation is not considered only as a means of effective implementation of JFM but also an end in itself (Lal, 1997). A critical look at the literature on this theme (refer Hobley, 1996, Kothari et.al.2000; Morrison, 2000, Myers and Ravindranath, et.al. 2000; and, Saxena, 1997 for reviews) makes is evident that although the past studies provide indirect evidence for indicators of participation in JFM, but limited effort has been made to operationalise. Against this background the study aims to identify indictors of participation in JFM from stakeholders' point of view.

Method

Study Area

The study was conducted in Madhya Pradesh and Chhatisgarh states of India covering all four zones. JFM committees constituted at least 4 years before the commencement of this study were considered for sample. The committees were balanced in terms of degree of success in JFM.

Sample

Data was collected from 159 participants representing villagers (n=96), forest officers/staff (n=38), and NGOs and academicians( n= 25).Out of this, 60.37% (96) were, male and 39.63 % ( 63) were females. The age of participants ranged from 22 to 59 years with an average age of 37 years.

Procedure

The data was collected in three phases. In the first phase, 55 items related to "what participation means?" were collected on the basis of meta-analysis, discussion with key informants of forest department and NGOs, members of the JFM committees and significant others. These items were then utilised to constitute an open- ended questionnaire which was subjected to expert rating from state Forest Department (FD) officers (08), villagers (17), NGOs (14), and FD field staff (10) for pre-testing of items. Item total test score correlation were calculated and 18 items were excluded at this stage having correlation > .42. In the final form, 40 items were retained which were used for individual level data collection from the participants (n=159) in a forced choice format on six point rating scale ranging from zero to 100 percent. The inter-coder reliability of the items was .92.

In the second phase, the experts were asked to classify and arrange these indicators in terms of process of JFM implementation.

Finally, following the expert rating method, the items were classified in individual level, group level/community level and organizational level indicators of participation.

Levels of Participation

Different levels of participation, like individual, group and organizational are operationally defined as under:

Individual Level: Activities and behaviour like income generation, positive attitude and development of trust, which has implications at individual level, are grouped in this category.

Group/Community level: Activities, which are performed inside village and have implications for all group/sub groups of village people who have formed the committees are categorised in this.

Organizational level: Activities that are performed outside village boundaries and have implications for both people and forest department are grouped as organizational level indicators of participation.

Results and Discussion

The study attempted to uncover meaning of participation in JFM in relation to stakeholders. The results are discussed below and are arranged according to the phases of study.

Indicators of Participation in JFM

The results demonstrate that a variety of indicators can show participation in JFM (see column 2 of Table1). These meanings can be classified in individual, group and organizational level indicators as presented in Table 1 column 3.

Table 1. Taxonomy and classification of indicators of participation

Sl. No.	Item	Level*	High/Low indicators**
1.	Before registration interaction of villagers with forest department	G/O	VH;NL
2.	Presence of most of the villagers at the time of registration	O	VH
3	Knowledge of rules and regulation of JFM	G	VL;FH
4	Information about role of members	I	VL;NH,FH
5	Perceived ownership of forest by villagers	I	VH;NH;FH
6	Regular meeting	G	FH
7	Regular attendance	G	-
8	Attendance of women member's during meeting	G	VL
9	Attendance of weaker section's during meeting	G	FH
10	Attendance of weaker in executive committee	G	-
11	Attendance of women's in executive committee meeting	G	VL
12	Proposal preparation and presentation by the member	G	VL;NH;FH
13.	Common opinion on the proposal	G	FH
14.	Regular visit by forest officer/ staff	G	FH
15.	Change in thinking and behaviour of forest officers towards people	I	NH;FH
16.	Trust of villagers in forest officer	I	VH;NH;FH
17	Capability of expressing thoughts in the committee meeting	I	NH;FH
18.	Discussion, participation and argument by women members	I/G	VL;NH
19	Maintenance of attendance register	G	NL;FH
20	Presence of all community groups during decision making	G	FH
21	Acknowledging women's views during decision taking	G	VL;NH
22	Dissemination of decision to the members	G	NH;FH
23	Implementation of decision	G/O	NH;FH
24	Presence of bank account of committee	O	NL;FH
25	Information about bank account to all committee members	G	NH;FH
26	Increased income generation activities after JFM committee	I	VL;NH;FH
27	Villagers taking benefits of income generation activities	I	NH;FH
28	Improved economic status of villagers after JFM committee	I	NH;FH
29	Participation of villagers in training programmes	I	VL
30	Resources created by JFM committee like temple, well etc.	G	NH;FH
31	Access of villagers to resources developed through JFM	G	VL;FL
32	Villagers interest and attachment with village development activities	I /G	NH;FH
33	Participation of all the villagers in watch and ward activities	G/O	VH;NH;FH
34	Maintenance and status of forest and trees	O	VH;NH;FH
35	Contribution of different sub -groups in species selection	G	VL;FL
36	Survival rate of plantation after committee formation	O	VL;NH;FH
37	Maintenance of fencing for protection of forest	0	NH
38	Reduced number of forest fire	0	VH;NH;FH
39	Villagers participation in extinguishing forest fire	G/0	FH
40	Reduced forest offences	0	VH;NH;FH

*I: Individual Level; G: Group Level; O: Organizational level
** VL-Villagers Low (Q > 4.11); VH-Villagers High (Q< 5.32);
NL- NGO Low (Q > 3.47); NH- NGO High (Q< 4.49)
FL- Forest Personnel Low (Q> 3.67); FH- Forest Personnel High (Q< 4.28)

The table shows that there are 40 indicators of participation in JFM dealing with individual, group and organizational level. It may be noted that at least two indicators, like discussion, participation and argument by women members and villager's interest and attachment with village development activities can be grouped under individual as well as group level indicator. Similarly, four indicators (e.g., before registration interaction of the villagers with forest department, implementation of decision, participation of all the villagers in watch and ward activities and villagers participation in extinguish forest fire) are grouped in both, group as well organizational level indicator.

Further, the table shows that more than 50 per cent of the indicators are group level indictors of participation in JFM while individual and organizational level indicators are equal in number with 25 per cent each.

Process of Participation in JFM

The outcome of phase one was further analysed in terms of process of participation with the help of a group of experts from all the three categories of stakeholders. The analysis shows that participation in JFM involves 11 steps starting from Interaction before registration of the committee to End products. The description of each category along with mean score is detailed below:

Interaction before registration: It refers to the interaction between villagers and forest department before the committee is actually registered. The scale average of this category was 4.80.
Presence during registration: This had only one item with the scale average of 4.80.
JFM awareness: It is refers to knowledge about various rules and regulations of JFM to the villagers and they have the information about their role as a member. The scale average of this category was found to be 4.1.
Perceived ownership: This is one of the group as well as individual level indicators of participation with the scale average 5.20.
Functionality in practice: This category had 9 items. It deals with how the committee is actually working in terms of regularity of meetings, attendance, maintenance of attendance, regular presence of women members and weaker section in general body and executive committee meeting etc. The scale average of this group of indicators was 4.1.
Expressiveness and decision making: Expressiveness refers to villagers including women and weaker section's people ability to share their thought, take part in decision making process and arguments during meetings. Decision-making includes, items dealing with presence of all community groups during decision making, acknowledging their views, and proper dissemination. The scale average for items in this group ranged from 3.39 to 5.0 with scale average of 4.30.
Financial system, transparency and judicious utilization: This category included five indicators with the scale average ranging from 3.70 to 4.60 and the overall scale average of 4.40.
Village resource development: This category included three items related to development of village resources and villager's access to them with a sense of belongingness. Scale averages of this category ranged from 3.46 to 4.70 with the overall scale average of 4.10.
Villagers in action: It refers to villagers active participation in training programmes, watch and ward activities, maintaining nearby forest and trees, contributing in species selection, maintaining the fencing and participating in extinguishing forest fires. The scale average ranged from 2.85 to 5.50 with the overall scale average of 4.40.
Forest personnel in action: It includes three items indicating regularity of forest personnel visits, change in their thinking and behavior towards people so that villager's trust them. Scale average of this group of item ranged from 4.48 to 5.10 with the overall scale average of 4.90.
The end product: The end product included three indicators viz, reduced number of forest fires, reduced forest offences and survival rate of plantation. The scale average ranged from 3.60 to 5.12 with the overall scale average of 4.60.

A close perusal of the above findings revealed that JFM is a multi-step process. The meanings of participation in various steps evinced variations in configuration of participation. Variations in number of indicators in each step ranged from one indicator in three categories i.e., Interaction before registration, Presence during registration and Perceived ownership of forest by villagers to nine indicators in Functionality in practice category. An inception of average scale value by category shows that Perceived ownership of forest by villagers got highest scale average of 5.2 while JFM awareness, Functionality in practice and Village resource development got the lowest scale value of 4.1. This illustrates that villagers gave more importance to initial process of JFM while personnel from forest department emphasized on implementation aspects.

Priorities of Indicators of participation in relation to stakeholders-

Two approaches were adopted to determine the importance of indicators in relation to stakeholders. Firstly, in terms of emphasis on individual, group and organizational level indicators and secondly, classification of indicators as low or high degree of participation.

Levels of participation. The data were analyzed in terms of emphasis on three levels of indicators of participation viz., individual, group and organization by community, NGOs and personnel from Forest Department. It was found that organization level indicators were most important for all the three stakeholders viz, community ( Mean = 5.14) , NGOs (Mean= 4.98) and Forest Department ( Mean= 4.64), followed by individual level indicators (Mean= 4.20,4.80 & 4.50 for community , NGOs and FD, respectively). Further, it was noted that individual and group level indicators were emphasized most by the representatives of NGOs while local community members considered organizational level indicators as most important. The people from FD demonstrated almost equal importance to all the three level of indicators of participation in JFM.

Degree of Participation Analysis of data in terms of low and high indicators of participation by different stakeholders is presented in Table 1 column 4. It can be noted that local community considers 12 indicators as low indicators of participation, while personnel from NGOs and FD consider three and two indicators in the low category. With regard to high indicators of participation, for the local community only 8 indicators evince high degree of participation whereas for personnel of Forest Department and NGO 28 and 22 indicators reveal high degree of participation in JFM.

An inspection of content of these categories shows that indicators like Information about role of members and proposal preparation and presentation by the members are considered as high indicators of participation by personnel from FD and NGOs but villagers perceive it as low indicator of participation. . It was found that villager view Discussion participation and argument by women members as low indicator, whereas NGO personnel view the same as high indicator. Similarly, Knowledge about rules and regulations is considered as high degree of participation by FD personnel but community members view it low.

In order to understand the reasons of such classification by stakeholders, focus group discussions were conducted. Personnel from FD and NGO consider rationally all these indicators as high indicators of participation. Villagers, however, have their experience with them. According to them although women have started attending JFM committee meetings physically but their participation in terms of discussions and decision making is yet to be realized. It may be due to differences between actual and ideal indicators of participation in JFM. A close look at the high indicators of participation shows that although the number of indicators identified by villagers are quite few in comparisons to government and NGO Personnel but villagers have emphasized quantifiable and action-oriented indicators, such as Reduced number of forest fire, Reduced rate of forest offences, and Maintenance of forest and trees. Yet another interesting feature of the result is that generally it is considered that JFM starts with registration of committee but interestingly, villagers have emphasized importance of Interaction of villagers with forest department before registration as well as Presence of most of the villagers at the time of registration.

Thus, it is evident that perceived indicators of participation in JFM are not only related to the stakeholders' background but also, and even more importantly, to the actual and rational approach held by the individual. Parul (2002) also confirmed perceptual differences among local community and Forest personnel in JFM in terms of role of women and freedom in decision-making. However, both the groups perceive that JFM has inculcated participatory approach in the functioning of the forest department and JFM committees to some extent along with improving the condition of forest contributing towards village development.

Conclusions-

In conclusion, it can be said that participation in JFM is 'many -splendored' thing involving cultural and sub-cultural variations. The results of the present study indicate that meaning of participation in participatory forestry evince differences rather than deprivations. The range of meanings of participation uncovered from this study suggests that understanding of participation necessitate a broader view as they are determined by the social cognition. The findings have implications for participatory forestry practices from local to global levels. The identified indicators have utility not only for encouraging participation but also provides criteria and indicators to develop participatory monitoring and evaluation, thereby stimulating move towards sustainable forest management. . The use of meanings in incorporating concerns of all the stakeholders in the forest policy will allow emergence of realistic participation and increased effectiveness of the programme. On the whole, with this approach all the stakeholders can work together to achieve the objectives of JFM.

References:

Bahuguna, V.K. and Upadhyay,A., 2002. Forest fires in India: Policy initiatives for community participation. International Forestry Review,4(2):122-127.

Hobley, M., 1996. Participatory Forestry: The process of change in India and Nepal. London: Rural development Forestry study Guide 3.

Kothari., A. Pathak, N, and Vania, F., 2000. Where Communities care: Community based wild life and ecosystem management in South Asia London: Kalpavriksh & IIED.

Lal, J.B., 1997. Community Forest management in southern Asia: A survival Issue .Journal of sustainable Forestry, 4 ( 3/4):73-88.

Mayers, J & Morrison, E., (Eds.) 2000. Joint Forest Management: policy, practice, and prospects. London: WWF India and IIED U.K.

Parul, R., 2002. What actors think of Joint Forest Management?: A Perceptual analysis. Unpublished manuscript, IIFM Bhopal, India.

Ravindranath, N.H., Murli, K.S., and Malhotra, K.C., 2000. Joint Forest management and community forestry in India: an ecological and institutional assessment. New Delhi: Oxford and IBH publishing Co.

Saxena, N.C.,1997.The Saga of Participatory Forest Management in India.Indonesia:CIFOR.

¹ Associate Professor, Faculty of Personnel Management & Organizational Behaviour, Indian Institute of Forest Management, Bhopal, 462003, M.P, India. [email protected]; Website: http:// www.iifm.org