People's Participation in Forest Management

The management systems developed and followed over a hundred years were rendered ineffective in the post independence era due to various factors. The denudation of forests could not be prevented. Participatory management of forests is slowly emerging the only viable alternative in the national scenario. In this paper, an attempt has been made to focus on the different aspects of participatory management, e.g. policy changes, institutional arrangements, equity issues, input packages, micro-planning, research needs, etc. It has further been suggested that at the initial stages to ensure continuity, it is better to implement the programme through a project.