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♤ JFM is an initiative to institutionalize participatory governance of country’s forest resources by involving the local communities living close to the forest.
♤ This is a co-management institution to develop partnerships between forest fringe communities and the Forest Department (FD) on the basis of mutual trust and jointly defined roles and responsibilities with regard to forest protection and regeneration.
♤ JFM started in consonance with the National Forest Policy 1988, which has recognized the importance of involving the local communities and the government has issued necessary resolutions and guidelines subsequently to initiate such institutions and strengthen it further.
♤ Most of the states in India have adopted JFM and issued resolutions permitting such partnership as per the prescribed guidelines though the institutional structure varies across the states.
♤ Under JFM, both forest departments and local communities come to an agreement to form the committee to manage and protect forests by sharing the costs and benefits.
♤ Forest departments take the initiative to form such committees directly by talking to the local community or through the help of NGOs working in specific areas.
♤ NGOs are also involved for capacity building, information dissemination, monitoring and evaluation and often act as the facilitators in constituting these participatory institutions.
♤ One of the key objectives of the JFM programme is the rehabilitation of degraded forestlands with people’s participation involving Forest Protection Committees.
♤ JFM brings a win-win situation for both forest departments as well as the local communities in terms of greater access to minor forest produces from these regenerated forests.