Negotiations : a Challenging Task in Joint Forest Management

The negotiation skills with the foresters can playa positive role in shaping the institutionalization of Joint Forest Management (JFM) in India. The real challenge lies in the pace of transformation of organizational mandate into the institutionalized process of participatory management. The present day ecological conflicts have their ischolar_mains in economic compulsions, sociological stresses, technological intensification, changing consumption patterns, scarce land availability and contending resource users. Making trade-offs between competing goals is thus a necessary skill for the natural resource managers. The paper also discusses the quantity, quality and pace of negotiations in the process of JFM.