Odisha, India

Photo | Aishwarya Mohanty/Mongabay

Forest as a production commons is essential to socio-ecological systems in Indian villages. In the 1970s, Sulia forest was surrounded by 36 villages that depended on the forest as a common resource. By the 1980s, due to poor resource management between the villages, the forest was largely depleted of its resources. Now, with the common goal to restore the forest as a commons in mind, villagers invited NPOs as stakeholders to aid them in their initiative.

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Expanding Definition of Community

In the 1990s, the forest was revived due to the efforts of five small villages that came together. Because of the lack of commoning between the 36 villages, 31 villages exploited the forest for its resources. In order to prevent over-extraction of the forest, the five small villages collaborated with nature conservation NPOs to raise awareness for the protection of their common asset.

Establishing Village Association as Commoning Structure

The NPOs supported the villagers by organising and holding meetings with all of the villages together, and they collectively decided to form a committee comprised of representatives from each village that works collaboratively to protect the forest. To instill a sense of ownership in the community all of the villagers were inaugurated as stakeholders of the forest. Together they devised rules on how their shared resource would be managed: No one is allowed to enter the forest without prior permission from the committee, all forest resources are to be shared equally among villages, and all forest-related problems are to be handled by the committee.

As decided by the village cashew committee, one member from each household is involved in the collection of the cashews (Photo | Aishwarya Mohanty/Mongabay)
As decided by the village cashew committee, one member from each household is involved in the collection of the cashews (Photo | Aishwarya Mohanty/Mongabay)

As decided by the village cashew committee, one member from each household is involved in the collection of the cashews (Photo | Aishwarya Mohanty/Mongabay)

References

  • Jain, S., van der Meer, M., & van Woesik , F. (2022, December 8). Examples of management of the commons by communities in rural India. The Water Channel. https://thewaterchannel.tv/thewaterblog/examples-of-management-of-the-commons-by-communities-in-rural-india/
  • Pradhan, N., & Tripathy, S. (2022, August 3). How 36 villages in Odisha came together to protect their forest. India Development Review. https://idronline.org/ground-up-stories/how-36-villages-in-odisha-came-together-to-protect-their-forest/
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