Reframing Joint Forest Management through Compensation for Environmental Services

The current JFM strategy is built primarily on the notion that local communities can manage forests if their costs involved in undertaking this task are compensated with resultant forest produce. Degraded forests under JFM in several places however virtually yield very little forest produce for local villagers to be enthusiastic about JFM. Although the program is recognized as potentially delivering off-site benefits, there is little discussion on compensating the JFM communities for the environmental services they render through improved forest protection and ecological restoration. The need for such compensation becomes particularly significant when these communities are helping to restore highly degraded forests that supply very little forest produce. This paper documents the limited scope for on-site benefits to support JFM and explores opportunities for revitalizing the program through a focus on compensating forest fringe communities for providing environmental services.