governments began implementing their own Joint Forest Management strategies. By 2001, some twenty-two states had adopted JFM (Agarwal 2001).

Under the terms of JFM, Village Forest Institutions (VFI)<sup>6</sup> are given conditional access to specified forest products in accordance with the guidelines laid by the forest department. The products usually include fuelwood, fodder, and non-timber forest products. Forest departments also provide VFI’s with information, training, and wage employment related to forest management. Initial community funds may also be provided. In many states, JFM resolutions mandate that villagers be solicited to make micro-plans for forests (Sundar 2000). Organizing into a VFI can result in access to wage employment and fuelwood through forest management activities such as lopping, clearing of debris, and cutting.

In return, VFIs agree to certain conditions such as collective protection of the forest against encroachment, poaching or timber smuggling, and, monitoring of restrictions on some types of use. After a period of protection ( 5 to 10 years or more), the VFI and its members are entitled to 25 to 100 percent of the net income from the sale of major forest produce, timber (Khare and others 2002). Commercially valuable non-timber forest products have in the past been nationalized and unavailable, but this is changing.

The organization structure and membership rules of VFIs differ in each state. For example, in Andhra Pradesh, all households living in a JFM village are eligible for JFM membership. While membership is optional for the general population of the village, it is automatic for ST and SC households (GOAP 1996). In Madhya Pradesh and Orissa, two persons (one of which must be a woman) from each household living in the JFM village are automatically considered members (GOO 1993 and GOMP 1996). In Uttar Pradesh, membership to JFM is either automatic to the village residents who are registered in the electoral rolls of the village or those who are existing members of the forest panchayat system (GOUP 1997). In West Bengal, only “economically backward people living in the vicinity of forests” are considered to be members. However, every family living in the vicinity of the forests has the option of becoming a member (GOWB 1990). In general, VFIs have an executive committee that makes major decisions. VFIs have no independent legal existence as they are usually registered with the forest department alone.<sup>7</sup> Authority to enforce protection varies.

In addition to state supported joint forest management, India has a history of community forest management undertaken either by self-initiated groups, with NGO support, or initiated in colonial times with British support (Ghate 2003, Khare and others 2000, Ballabh and others 2002, Agarwal 2001, Lise 2000). These ‘traditional’ groups are particularly evident in the states of Orissa, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand. For example, in Orissa, only 1,200 out of the approximately 5,000 community forest management groups are estimated to participate in JFM. (Singh 2002). It appears that

> 6 The Village forest Institutions are known by various names in the different states. For example in Andhra Pradesh, they are known as Vana Sanrakshana Samithi (VSS) and as Forest Protection Committees (FPC) in Orissa.

> 7 The exception is Gujarat, where committees are registered under the co-operative society act (Sundar 2000).

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