Redefining community–state partnership in natural resource management: a case from India

This article examines the role of the state in the Joint Forest Management (JFM) programme in the northern province of Haryana in India. In the past two decades, significant developments pertaining to institutional reforms in promoting community–state partnerships in protecting and managing forests have been undertaken in the province. By reviewing the experiences in management of water-harvesting structures and lease of forest area to local communities, the article demonstrates that the adoption of ‘joint management’ rhetoric does not guarantee successful partnerships at the field level. The implementation of the programme calls for a radical redefinition of the role of the state in order to establish credible commitments to the local communities in terms of both policy and practice.Umar Shankar Vashisht is a retired forest officer and consultant to TERI. Besides working in his capacity as government official, he has more than 20 years' experience of working with village communities on Joint Forest Management projects in Haryana. Chetan Kumar is a Research Associate with the Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), a non-profit organisation based in Delhi, and was at the time of writing on study leave at the University of Cambridge in the UK. He has worked extensively with village communities in India on various projects related to community-based natural resource management using participatory methods. E-mail: chetank@teri.res.in.