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Do cooperative forests have a future?

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By Sudhirendar Sharma

Over the last 13 years, 143 primary farm forestry cooperatives have regenerated 27,000 hectares of wasteland in 13 districts of Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. The MoEF under the Green India Mission intends to increase India’s forest cover by 5 million hectares, but forest cooperatives don’t even get a mention

Amidst the dense canopy of teak trees, a beaming Dina Nath Singh lists the intangible gains from 265 hectares of forested area. Replanted and protected since 1997, the manmade forest in Jaitpur Kachhya village is an oasis amidst the surrounding denuded hill slopes. Situated about 50 km from the district town of Sagar, in Madhya Pradesh, the forest cooperative, with permission from the government, has effectively regenerated trees on revenue land.

While lopping and litter from the forested area translate to tangible gains for the villagers, Singh is more concerned about the intangible benefits the community draws from the greenery. “The fact that many like me lead a healthy life may have to do with the fresh air we receive in the bargain,” he says. As founding chairman of the Primary Farm Forestry Cooperative Society, Singh reflects a deep personal commitment towards forests and the environment.

Over the past 13 years, the Indian Farm Forestry Development Cooperative (IFFDC) has regenerated around 27,000 hectares of wasteland in as many as 13 districts of Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, through 143 Primary Farm Forestry Cooperative Societies (PFFCS). In Sagar district, 4,800 hectares have been brought under tree cover through 29 such cooperative societies. Located in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, the sloping terrain is ideally suited to farm forest regeneration.

The forested hilltop around 10 km from Jaitpur, towards Dungariya, can hardly be missed: an area of 212 hectares covered with a wide variety of trees. PFFCS secretary Rajneesh Mishra explains: “The area only needed protection for the root stock to regenerate. And that is what we have done.” As a consequence, all along the edges of the slopes, water levels in village wells have risen significantly. Mishra leads a group of young people who draw pride in greening up the area.

Table 1: Spread of farm forestry

Although the cooperative farm forestry model has been successfully employed in the last decade, it does not qualify either as a sacred grove or a typical joint forest management project. It’s actually a bit of both, given that local communities revere the forests as sacred groves and protect them for the ecological services they offer. Being a new institutional innovation, however, cooperative farm forestry has its own challenges.

Supplementing farm income

Farm forestry on degraded lands has been promoted as a strategy for supplementing limited incomes from subsistence agriculture by integrating it into existing farm practices. While tangible economic gains were the starting point, intangible gains through ecosystem services were only later realised. Using panchayat land in Rajasthan, individually owned plots in Uttar Pradesh, and revenue land in Madhya Pradesh, multipurpose tree species were planted on wastelands. From teak to eucalyptus and from neem to bamboo, the tree diversity has been able to support faunal biodiversity as well. Encouraged by the success of farm forestry, the focus is now shifting to fruit trees.

Farm forestry initiative

The Indian Farm Forestry Development Cooperative (IFFDC) was established by Indian Farm Fertiliser Cooperative (IFFCO), one of the largest fertiliser cooperatives in India. Since its inception, IFFDC has promoted farm forestry as a means of regenerating wasteland in various parts of the country.

Adoption of the cooperative model was the obvious choice, a salient feature of the model being the role of the community in managing and regenerating wasteland, as under:

• A cooperative has legal status but is not a subordinate of the government.
• Cooperative institutions are both economic and social entities, not mere charitable trusts or social clubs where members participate in social or recreational activities.
• Members are owners: they have rights and responsibilities associated with electing directors and giving general direction to the cooperative.
• The involvement of members is evident and determinative; membership is diverse and more than a simple relationship.
• The success of a cooperative depends on its members, their mutual solidarity, their trust in their leaders, and their ability and willingness to make sacrifices.

Table 2: Diversified income from woodlots*

*In Indian rupees (1 US$ = Rs 45), for the year 2010-11

There are 37 PFFCSs located in three districts of Madhya Pradesh -- one of the largest states in the country that was once blessed with massive forests used for gaming in the princely states of the past. In addition there are large tracts of revenue land lying waste in several parts of the state. With an estimated 23% of Madhya Pradesh’s 60.3 million population being forest-dwellers, 31% of forested landmass is inhabited by tribals. Records show that close to 45% of the state’s population exist below the poverty line.

In the three districts of Sagar, Tikamgarh and Chhattarpur, in Madhya Pradesh, forestry cooperatives have benefited the poor, as Table 2 above shows. But while there have been cumulative gains over a year, the net gain to individual members hasn’t been too promising. Consequently, there is brewing unrest amongst some members who were under the impression that once the woodlots were ready the timber would be theirs. Ironically, not only has the forest department been staking ownership at some locations, the prevailing Forest Act prevents cooperatives from selectively felling trees on non-forest lands. As a result, cooperative societies have to confront both internal as well as external challenges.

Internal problems are rife, for instance, in Jaswant Nagar in Tikamgarh district of MP, where a dense forest was developed over the last six years on a 70-hectare patch of government revenue land that used to be open grazing ground for cattle. One night, around 100 people axed several trees, and by dawn the wood had disappeared into cowsheds etc. Jaswant Nagar has a 92-member Primary Farm Forestry Cooperative Society that has been allotted, on lease, 314 hectares of revenue land. Over the years this land has been converted into dense forests consisting of around 204,000 different tree species. A power tussle between two factions of the village has triggered large-scale tree felling. And though everyone in the village knew who was behind the felling no one said a word for fear of retribution. It was left to 80 brave women members of the coop society to complain to the police.

Out of the woods

As the emphasis across the world is shifting towards enforcing new relationships with local populations by compensating people for the services provided for forests, the cooperative model of farm forestry is being stressed. But though the Ministry of Environment and Forests, under the Green India Mission, intends to increase India’s forest cover by 5 million hectares through gram sabhas (village councils) and joint forest management committees, nowhere does it acknowledge the role of forest cooperatives in increasing forest cover on non-forest lands.

Do cooperative forests have a future? While the forest department has legal cover for violations, communities managing forests on non-forest land are bereft of such powers. Shouldn’t state governments provide special provisions for the upkeep of such forests? Forest cooperatives are gearing up to collectively work at the district, state and national level to raise these issues. The challenge is not only to convince respective governments to accord recognition to community forestry but to provide legal and institutional sanctity for such efforts so that they may be replicated across the country.

(Sudhirendar Sharma researches and writes on environment and development issues, and is at The Ecological Foundation in New Delhi, India. He wishes to acknowledge inputs from Dr H C Gena, Project Manager, IFFDC, New Delhi, for writing this paper)

Infochange News & Features, June 2011