Decentralisation and democratic forest reforms in India: Moving to a rights-based approach

There is a consensus in the literature and widespread policymaker support on the desirability of democratic decentralisation of natural resources governance. However, few decentralisation initiatives in developing countries have led to more democratic governance of natural resources. India's Recognition of Forest Rights Act (RFRA), 2006, was enacted as a result of democratic processes driven by demand for recognition of forest rights by forest dwellers. RFRA represents a political, demand-based effort to reform forest governance through a provision of rights to forest-dependent people. India also continues to operate the joint forest management (JFM) programme, a more traditional state-initiated decentralisation effort. The two parallel forest reform programmes being carried out in the same landscapes provide a unique opportunity to study democratisation of forest governance in the country with the world's largest number of forest-dependent people. We examine JFM and RFRA on the criteria of delegation of power and authority, downward accountability and impact on forest-dependent poor to understand the substantively different spaces that they open for democratic forest governance. We find that the implementation of the RFRA has been strongly opposed by powerful interests, and its more radical provisions related to community rights over forests have largely remained unimplemented. However, our findings, drawing from both primary and secondary sources, also bring out the potential of the RFRA to hold the forest bureaucracy accountable to forest-dweller communities and its ability to shift tangible legal powers and authority to forest dwellers.