Historical Relevance of Joint Forest Management Proggramme and the Key Elements of its Sustainability: An Evidence from Western Midnapore Division in West Bengal

While investigating the historical perspective of joint forest management (JFM) programme, this paper observes that the resistance movement of forest communities in western Midnapore division in West Bengal, which acted as key precursor to JFM programme in India through a June 1990 Ministry of Environment and Forest (MOEF) circular based upon, to a large extent, the successful experience of joint management in Arabari hills, under this division, have been mobilized by the poor forest communities from long past for their community right on their forest resources in connection with the immediate survival needs. The study of existing four-forest protection committees (FPCs) of this area also confirms that this immediate survival needs generating mainly from non-timber forest products’ (NTFPs) income of FPC members are the key element for the sustainability of JFM.