Sustainable development and community forest management in Bihar, India

Abstract

Deforestation has impoverished many rural communities in developing countries that depend on forests for their basic needs. Contemporary sustainable development (SD) theory focuses on how to meet the basic needs of the poor while conserving the resource base on which they depend. Thus, forest conservation is a major component of SD efforts. In the Indian state of Bihar, efforts to conserve forests through centralized tree plantation programs have not succeeded. High priority has since been accorded to community forest management on the assumption that sustainable resource use is most likely to occur if local communities participate in managing the resources on which they depend. However, externally initiated community forest management efforts in Bihar have not proved very effective in controlling deforestation. Consequently, local communities have started managing state‐owned forests on their own. These self‐initiated efforts have proved quite effective at regenerating forests. However, local initiatives can be sustained only if supported by external institutions.