The Judicial Fix for Forest Loss: The Godavarman Case and the Financialization of India’s Forests

2021 ◽  
pp. 097317412110619
Author(s):  
Manju Menon ◽  
Kanchi Kohli
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
Political Ecology ◽  
Environmental Governance ◽  
Forest Conservation ◽  
The Political ◽  
Forest Loss ◽  
Approval Process ◽  
Supreme Court Of India ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
The Supreme Court

In India, the setting up of large projects in forest areas can be undertaken only after government permission is obtained under the Forest (Conservation) Act (FCA) of 1980. Today, this approval process includes the enumeration and valuation of forest loss, and the financing of compensatory afforestation schemes to offset the loss. These procedures were designed through the orders and judgements of the Supreme Court of India in a set of cases that started in 1995 and continue to this day. These procedures are purportedly aimed to protect and restore forest ecologies in India. In this article we analyse the Supreme Court’s processes and orders between 1996 and 2006 which transformed the political ecology of forests in India. The judicial and expert discourses treated forest regulation and conservation as a techno-managerial exercise, separating it from social-ecological concerns such as historical dispossession of Adivasis and other forest-dependent people, and violent state suppression of diverse forms of forest management. The judicial interventions are instructive to understand the policy processes of green neoliberalism and the implications of the financialization of forests on environmental governance in India.

Environmental Governance in Mexico: Two Case Studies of Oaxaca's Community Forest Sector

2006 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 519-548 ◽  
Author(s):  
ROSS E. MITCHELL
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Forest Management ◽  
Political Ecology ◽  
Environmental Governance ◽  
Local Governance ◽  
Relevant Literature ◽  
Forest Sector ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Ecological Democracy

This article recognises the paucity of scholarly work on environmental governance in Latin America. More specifically, it is hypothesised that community-based forest management in Mexico serves as an ideal case of ecologically beneficial and democratic decision-making, or ecological democracy. After introducing some of the relevant literature, this hypothesis is tested through a comparison of two indigenous forest-based communities in Oaxaca's Sierra Norte. Four key themes primarily emerged from semi-structured interviews, participant observation and other data collection techniques: local governance, equitable decision-making, forest management and environmental awareness. In comparing these two Mexican communities, this article aims to extend ideas of ecological democracy by linking empirical findings to political ecology theory and community forestry literature. While it is true that ecological democracy in Mexico has been facilitated under certain socio-cultural conditions, it is concluded that it can be simultaneously hindered. The empirical findings provide an analytical framework for subsequent research on ecological democracy in Latin America.

scholarly journals The political ecology of participatory conservation: institutions and discourse

2015 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 164 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Patrick Bixler ◽  
Jampel Dell'Angelo ◽  
Orleans Mfune ◽  
Hassan Roba
Keyword(s):  
Political Ecology ◽  
Community Involvement ◽  
Environmental Governance ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Local Level ◽  
The Political ◽  
Participatory Governance ◽  
Sustainable Resource Management ◽  
Adaptive Comanagement ◽  
Participatory Conservation

Increasingly, natural resource conservation programs refer to participation and local community involvement as one of the necessary prerequisites for sustainable resource management. In frameworks of adaptive comanagement, the theory of participatory conservation plays a central role in the democratization of decisionmaking authority and equitable distribution of benefits and burdens. We observe, however, that the institutions of state, society, and economy shape the implementation and application of participation in significant ways across contexts. This paper examines the political ecology of participation by comparing and contrasting discourse and practice in four developed and developing contexts. The cases drawn from Central Asia, Africa, and North America illustrate that institutional dynamics and discourse shape outcomes. While these results are not necessarily surprising, they raise questions about the linkages between participatory conservation theory, policy and programmatic efforts of implementation to achieve tangible local livelihood and conservation outcomes. Participation must be understood in the broader political economy of conservation in which local projects unfold, and we suggest that theories of participatory governance need to be less generalized and more situated within contours of place-based institutional and environmental histories. Through this analysis we illustrate the dialectical process of conservation in that the very institutions that participation is intended to build create resistance, as state control once did. Conservation theory and theories of participatory governance must consider these dynamics if we are to move conservation forward in a way that authentically incorporates local level livelihood concerns.Keywords: participatory governance, political ecology, community-based conservation, environmental governance, discourse

scholarly journals Impacts of Participatory Forest Management on Community Livelihood: Case study of Kereita forest Kenya

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Leah Gichuki
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
Political Ecology ◽  
Forest Conservation ◽  
Sustainable Use ◽  
Forest Products ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Participatory Forest Management ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Impact

<p>Since the 1990s there has been an increasing shift in the management of natural resources from state control to participatory approaches. Many developing countries, including Kenya, have promoted participatory forest management (PFM) as a strategy for enhancing forest conservation and the sustainable use of forest resources through community participation. Drawing on a case study of the Kereita forest, in the central highlands of Kenya, this research explores the impact of PFM on community livelihood. Using a post-structural political ecology approach and qualitative research methods, I conducted and analysed 18 semi-structured interviews.  Results indicate that the implementation of PFM has changed how the community access forest products. PFM, through processes of inclusion and exclusion, has had both positive and negative effects on community livelihoods. New opportunities were opened, for instance, increased awareness about forest conservation led to a women’s group developing alternative livelihood pathways. In contrast, the development of a new eco-lodge disrupted community plans to rehabilitate that area.   This case study also reflected other critiques of PFM in terms of who holds ultimate authority; ultimately, the government retained a lot of control in forest management, and PFM processes have concentrated power with the government and channelled certain livelihood outcomes that benefit the already wealthy. These uneven power relations between the community and the government produce and perpetuate conflicts in implementing PFM hence hampering livelihood improvement. Furthermore, I argue that PFM has created and embedded both visible and invisible boundaries – through fences and permits, for instance – that regulate what takes place where, and who accesses what. To sustain the development of good community livelihoods through PFM, this research calls for continued interrogations of power imbalances within current PFM structures.</p>

scholarly journals Impacts of Participatory Forest Management on Community Livelihood: Case study of Kereita forest Kenya

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Leah Gichuki
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
Political Ecology ◽  
Forest Conservation ◽  
Sustainable Use ◽  
Forest Products ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Participatory Forest Management ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Impact

<p>Since the 1990s there has been an increasing shift in the management of natural resources from state control to participatory approaches. Many developing countries, including Kenya, have promoted participatory forest management (PFM) as a strategy for enhancing forest conservation and the sustainable use of forest resources through community participation. Drawing on a case study of the Kereita forest, in the central highlands of Kenya, this research explores the impact of PFM on community livelihood. Using a post-structural political ecology approach and qualitative research methods, I conducted and analysed 18 semi-structured interviews.  Results indicate that the implementation of PFM has changed how the community access forest products. PFM, through processes of inclusion and exclusion, has had both positive and negative effects on community livelihoods. New opportunities were opened, for instance, increased awareness about forest conservation led to a women’s group developing alternative livelihood pathways. In contrast, the development of a new eco-lodge disrupted community plans to rehabilitate that area.   This case study also reflected other critiques of PFM in terms of who holds ultimate authority; ultimately, the government retained a lot of control in forest management, and PFM processes have concentrated power with the government and channelled certain livelihood outcomes that benefit the already wealthy. These uneven power relations between the community and the government produce and perpetuate conflicts in implementing PFM hence hampering livelihood improvement. Furthermore, I argue that PFM has created and embedded both visible and invisible boundaries – through fences and permits, for instance – that regulate what takes place where, and who accesses what. To sustain the development of good community livelihoods through PFM, this research calls for continued interrogations of power imbalances within current PFM structures.</p>

The Supreme Court

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Madhav Khosla ◽  
Ananth Padmanabhan
Keyword(s):  
Supreme Court ◽  
Public Institution ◽  
The Political ◽  
Judicial Process ◽  
Supreme Court Of India ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
Legitimate Expectations ◽  
Institutional Actor ◽  
Current Concerns ◽  
Over Time

Over time, the Supreme Court of India has evolved from being a court of law to a major institutional actor in the political arena. The present chapter analyses this transition by directing external and internal lenses on the court’s functioning. The external lens reveals engagement by the Court with legislative and executive domains of governance, and the current concerns of transparency and accountability that it faces. The internal lens scrutinizes the Court’s success as a court of law and its capability to streamline the judicial process such that the judicial system lives up to the legitimate expectations of the litigant public. Using the insights offered from these dual perspectives, the authors suggest important changes to the court’s functioning and a reorientation of its priorities that can render it a more effective public institution.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document