Imposing local resource management: Government-led development of community institutions for forest management, south India

The evolution of local institutions which manage environmental resources has successfully demonstrated the capabilities of local people and their potential to spearhead the struggle to preserve and enhance the resource base which they understand and which they are dependent upon. Governmental and non-governmental development agencies have increasingly sought to emulate and stimulate the kind of local institutional arrangements which facilitate successful self-management of resources. Such an approach to rural development offers the potential to satisfy criteria of efficiency and socio-environmental sustainability whilst also operating within the process-oriented participatory paradigm of self-development.

This paper investigates government-led initiatives to build forest management institutions (Village Forest Committees) in the Western Ghats of Karnataka, South India. This case study of the 'new institutionalism' is based on interviews carried out in six villages in the area and reveals that there is a tension between the top-down implementation structure and the 'grassroots' development which is the intended project outcome.