Joint Forest Management

The food and agriculture organization of the United Nations (FAO) defines Joint Forest Management as “a forest management strategy under which the government (represented by the Forest Department) and the village community enter into an agreement to jointly protect and manage forestlands adjoining villages and to share responsibilities and benefits.”

Taking from the principle of the “Inhabited Forest,” Joint Forest Management (JFM) aims to promote a fair way to define and organize the relationships between four elements: the state, forests, forest exploiters, and the local population. Instead of conceiving the local communities as nonexperts or ignorant indigenous who can not exploit forest or take advantage of the woods or would spoil the resources, Joint Forest Management calls for local people's participation with the forest exploiters, keeping ...