Open AccessPeople’s participation in joint forest management in higher hills of Himachal Pradesh
Author(s) -
Chandresh Guleria,
Manoj Kumar Vaidya,
K. Kireeti,
Chaman Negi
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
journal of applied and natural science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2231-5209
pISSN - 0974-9411
DOI - 10.31018/jans.v9i2.1335
Subject(s) - joint forest management , livelihood , safeguarding , socioeconomics , agriculture , geography , caste , agroforestry , social engagement , forest management , business , forestry , political science , social science , sociology , medicine , nursing , archaeology , law , biology
Joint Forest Management (JFM) is an effort which involved people to participate for the protection, conservation and rehabilitation of forests whilst safeguarding the rights of forest dwellers. Women and other marginalized sections of the community need to be empowered to ensure their participation in JFM (Aggarwal and Chauhan, 2015). Such programmes while ensuring the conservation of flora and fauna, also provided stability for the agriculture, horticulture, animal husbandry, and local cottage industries and thus, help in all round economic development (Bhatia, 2000). The present study analysed the people’s participation in different stages of JFM programmes in the higher hills of Himachal Pradesh (Sundernagar and Kullu forest division). The results showed that people of age group 40-60 years participated most in the JFM programme. The participation of the general category people was found highest followed by scheduled caste, other backward class and scheduled tribe. The literacy rate of the respondents was found to be 98.51 percent while the literacy index was found to be 2.51 representing level of education in between middle class and higher secondary. In both the regions participation of people was found maximum during maintenance stage followed by planning stage and implementation stage. The overall participation index was found to be 61.91 per cent. The capacity building through training and awareness can help in safeguarding livelihood and conservation efforts of JFM.