Incorporating Stakeholder Perceptions in Participatory Forest

eldf/camb Harda-framework/final-03-05
INCORPORATING STAKE HOLDER PERCEPTION S IN PARTICIPATORY
FOREST MANAGEMENT: THE LAW AND POLICY CONTEXT
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Introduction- Project context and objectives:
The mandate of the project on ‘Incorporating stake holder’s perception in participatory
forest management’ was to study and devise ways to incorporate the perceptions of
diverse stakeholders in the forest sector in Harda district, Madhya Pradesh, India. In the
present project a diverse and multi specialist group sought to analyze the sources of
conflicts, so that a clearer understanding of stakeholder interaction in the context of
participatory natural resource management can be developed. The analytical framework
for understanding perceptions in PFM stipulates that the stakeholders’ perceptions and
their consequent definition of the problem situation is a function of three components of
current knowledge: knowledge of change, knowledge of theory and knowledge of policy.
This report presents legal analysis in an attempt to validate perceptions from the legal
standpoint. The hypothesis of this analysis is that it is the stakeholders’ current
knowledge or the lack of it in terms of policy and knowledge of change in policy and law
that shapes perceptions. This report thus attempts to draw linkages between stakeholders’
perceptions and law and policy framework.
In order to understand and incorporate stakeholders’ perceptions in participatory forest
management, it was pertinent to assess the perceptions from the law and policy
standpoint both at the source as well as the impact level. Diverse perceptions both at the
source and the impact often result in conflicts. And it is our assessment (or assumption?)
that every conflict, whether manifest or latent definitely falls within a legal paradigm.
It is in the above background that the present study has been undertaken, where first it
comprehensively lays down the law and policy context, thereby setting the larger study
where perceptions emerge in participatory forest management. An attempt has been to
find out and highlight the compatibility or inconsistencies in the legal regime with the
concept of participatory forest management in Madhya Pradesh, India.
In the above context it then takes perceptions of various stakeholders and attempts to
analyze whether such perceptions have roots in diverse understanding of the law and
policy regime or have their source in the lack of knowledge of change of law and policy
framework or there are some conflicts in the legal arena which are shaping perceptions in
the context of participatory forest management.
Methodology and Scheme of the Report
The methodology adopted in the study included a desk based legal research & analysis of
the national and the state legal framework 1 on forestry, and a field based legal analysis of
1 The legal framework or regime here has to be understood in a broader sense, including laws, policies,
rules, regulations, government circulars, orders, notifications as well as the judicial pronouncements.
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