Forests Act in India
Description
David Bollier:
"The Forests Act is one of the more significant legislative acts authorizing commons-based management of forests. The 1997 Act explicitly empowers village panchayats to act as commons-based stewards of forests, an authority that has not been faithfully respected by the government’s Forest Department. Still, many panchayats have mobilized to assert their authority to manage village forests as a more effective traditional method of conservation and stewardship. This has often resulting in conflicts between conventional bureaucratic authority and expertise against village-based participatory governance and local knowledge."
More Information
- See Soma K P and Richa Audichya, “Our Ways of Knowing: Women Protect Common Forest Rights in Rajasthan,” in the forthcoming Patterns of Commoning (Off the Common Books, 2015).
Source
* Memorandum: Reinventing Law for the Commons. A Strategy Memo for the Heinrich Böll Foundation. By David Bollier. Commons Strategies Group, 2015