Joint forest management: factors influencing household participation

Abstract

Forest departments in various states have made efforts to manage forests jointly with the local community in selected areas in order to prevent current rate of degradationt of forests and ensure their regeneration. The theoretical framework used in this paper suggests that the extent of participation in JFM activities is dependent on the expected levels and variations in the marginal profit to labour from JFM and alternative enterprises, co-variance of their profit, expected share of households in the profit from JFM, risk awareness of the households, interest rate prevailing in the village and total labour available with the households. The two case studies provide empirical support to the conclusions drawn from the theoretical framework.