Role of Joint Forest Management Committees jfmc Members in Sustainable Forest Management Sfm

Abstract

Joint Forest Management (JFM) is an approach and programme initiated in the context newlineof the National Forest Policy (1988), wherein the state forest department support local forest newlinedwellers to protect and manage forests and share the costs and benefits from the forests with newlinethem. The present study on Role of Joint Forest Management Committees (JFMC) Members newlinein Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) has been conducted in Uttara Kannada district. newlineThe descriptive and explorative research design was used for the study. The sample size newlinecomprised of 464 respondents who were selected by proportionate stratified random sampling newlinetechnique. Data was collected with structured interview schedule through personal interview newlineand focus group discussion. The collected data was subjected to appropriate statistical newlineanalysis. The findings revealed that a large majority (86.20 %) of the JFMC members had newlinehigh level of knowledge, whereas 77.58 per cent of non JFMC members had low level of newlineknowledge about SFM activities. Majority (66.38 %) of the JFMC members had medium newlinelevel of knowledge about forest conservation practices. The NTFPs collected by the JFMC newlinemembers were kokam, jamun, rampatre, cloves, cinnamom, uppage, monkey jack fruit, Indian newlinegooseberry, wild mango, tender bamboo shoots, honey, wild mushroom, soapnut and newlineshikakai. The holy trees listed by the respondents were Ficus religiosa, Ficus racemosa, Ficus newlinebenghalensis and Prosopia spicigera. Some trees are not cut down because they ooze out newlinelatex and it is believed that in such type of trees god is present i.e., Mammea suriga and Ficus newlinevirens. Constraints reported by the JFM members were overlapping of agricultural and JFM newlineactivities, non-uniformity in fixing the financial grants for different VFCs, lack of marketing newlinefacilities and absence of fixed price for NTFPs.