Community Forestry, Regulated Access to Forest Resources and Impact on Third Party Livelihoods : A Case of Fire-Wood Collectors from Kanagodu-Nadamanchale in Sagar Forest Division

Forest resources provide innumerable benefits to various elements and stakeholders who form part of the ‘nature’. The immediate and tangible benefits are those enjoyed by living creatures, particularly the human beings. Forest resources also benefit tens of millions of people living in and around forests by providing them livelihoods through various means, like gathering of food items, minor forest produces and many a time, illegal activities in terms of hunting and smuggling of timber products from the forests. This paper attempts to highlight a particular set of forest dependent people, who do not reside in the immediate neighbourhood of forest or on the fringes of forests. So they are referred to as the ‘third party’ The paper goes on to argue that there is a distinction in the definition of forest dependent community, depending on whether it is viewed from the geographical or economic perspective. The main focus of the study is understanding how recently introduced community forestry projects and the resultant regulated access to forest resources affects a certain category of people from distant geographical locations who depend on firewood collection from forests for their livelihoods. These activities are illegal, and controlling them would mean directly affecting the livelihoods of people who are involved in these activities. In conclusion, we discuss some possibilities, within the legal framework, which not only help retain the livelihoods of this particular category of people but also safeguard our forest resources