The roles played by NGOs for responsive governance of forests

~ by Mansi Monga 

The Forest Rights Act enacted by the Parliament in 2006 makes a provision for Community Forest Resource Rights (CFR rights) which are, rights to protect, regenerate, conserve, and manage community forest areas alongside space for three other kinds of rights: Individual Forest Rights (occupation & cultivation), Community Forest Rights (grazing, fuelwood, collection, fishing, ownership and disposal of non-timber forest produce or NTFP) and Development Rights. A recent paper titled - ‘Promoting a responsive state: The role of NGOs in decentralised forest governance in India’ addresses the post-rights scenarios in two cases – villages without active NGOs and villages with active NGOs in the realm of community rights and allowances. 

Regenerating CFR land in the village Nyaykheda (Dist. Amravati, Maharashtra); Source: Divya Gupta

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