Governing the Resource: A Study of the Institutions of Decentralized Forest Resource Management

DOI10.1177/2321023014526024
AuthorLavanya Suresh
Date01 June 2014
Published date01 June 2014
Subject MatterArticles
Military-Madrasa-Mullah Complex 21
India Quarterly, 66, 2 (2010): 133–149
A Global Threat 21
Article
Governing the Resource: A Study
of the Institutions of Decentralized
Forest Resource Management
Lavanya Suresh
Abstract
The Indian Forest Policy of 1988 and the subsequent government resolution on participatory forest
management emphasized the need for people’s participation in natural forest management. This article
lays out the institutions that emerge from this strategy and their involvement in decentralized Forest
Resource Management. It also traces the inter-linkages between them in the governance of the forest
resource in the Nilgiris district of Tamil Nadu.
Two levels of inquiry have been undertaken, one at the institutional level and the other at the
household level. Based on data collected, using quantitative and qualitative methods, it is found that the
presence of civil society organizations (CSOs) have an effect on the functioning of government institu-
tions. The article informs the assessment that decentralization has a two-pronged function of bringing
governance closer to the people and to also bring more political will to the people.
Keywords
Decentralization, forest resource management, participation, empowerment, deepening democracy
Introduction
Globally governments have decentralized for a variety of political, economic, social and ideological
reasons. A number of countries now claim to be decentralizing some aspect of natural resource manage-
ment. India has followed this trend and decentralization in Forest Resources has been at the forefront of
the government’s efforts in this direction. The Indian Forest Policy of 1988 and the subsequent govern-
ment resolution on participatory forest management emphasized the need for people’s participation in
natural forest management. It is this policy that legitimized participation of people in forest management.
This article lays out the institutions that emerge from this strategy, both state-initiated and community-
initiated and their involvement in decentralized Forest Resource Management (FRM).
In order to understand and analyze the institutions involved in decentralized Forest Resource
Management and the inter-linkages between them in the governance of the forest resource the research
questions asked are: What decentralized institutions are present in the villages?, What are their objec-
tives and functions?, How do they perform in terms of decentralization? And, what are the inter-linkages
between them in the governance of the forest resource? The study has been conducted in the Nilgiris
District of Tamil Nadu.
Lavanya Suresh is PhD Scholar, CPIGD, Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC), Dr. V K R V Road,
Nagarabhavi P.O., Bangalore – 560072. E-mail: lavanya@isec.ac.in or lavanya.suresh.la@gmail.com
Studies in Indian Politics
2(1) 21–41
© 2014 Lokniti, Centre for the
Study of Developing Societies
SAGE Publications
Los Angeles, London,
New Delhi, Singapore,
Washington DC
DOI: 10.1177/2321023014526024
http://inp.sagepub.com
22 Lavanya Suresh
Studies in Indian Politics, 2, 1 (2014): 21–41
India’s existing forests are primarily concentrated in three regions: the Himalayan region; the central
forest belt of Orissa, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh and the north–south belt of the Western Ghats. It is in
this third section, in the South of India, where the ranges converge that the hilly plateau called the
Nilgiris (Blue Mountains) or the Nilgiris Hills rises. The Nilgiris District of Tamil Nadu includes
the plateau, the jungle-clad slopes of the uplands and some adjoining lowland tracts. The peoples and the
terrain of the Nilgiri plateau have unusual characteristics due to the unique development in its history
(Mandelbaum, 1982) that makes the region a singularly instructive area to study.
Research Design
For analytical purposes, the research design for the case studies is as below:
Figure 1. Research Design
Variability between Case A and Case B is in terms of the institutional choice available within the
decentralization system.
Hypothesis
It is hypothesized that in villages that are characterized by a decentralized system which includes state-
initiated and community-initiated institutions there will be greater decentralization in the institutions and
greater participation, empowerment and downward accountability relative to the other two cases.
Methodology
To study the objectives, case studies were conducted using quantitative and qualitative methods. The
villages for the case studies were selected from the forest divisions. The two forest divisions are the north
and south, the south forest division is centralized and the north has implemented decentralization
policies and programmes, hence providing a natural setting for comparison. All villages in the south
were listed and a random selection of three villages was done. In the north, the presence or absence
of the two types of institutional setups, namely state-initiated decentralization institutions alone
and decentralized institutions with both state- and community-initiated institutions determined the crea-
tion of two lists. A random selection of three villages from each of these lists was done. This led to the

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