Details: As part of RUPFOR Need based study series, a study was undertaken on understanding the impact (social, economic, financial, institutional and ecological) of forest user groups/federations led NTFP enterprise development in India. Three initiatives were taken.

1.  Centre for Peoples Forestry led initiatives in Andhra Pradesh
2.  RCDC initiatives in Orissa
3.  Alternative technology initiatives in Uttarakhand

The objectives of this study were:

1. To understand the impact of forest user groups/federations on social and economic asset creation, and towards equitable distribution of costs and benefits. In particular to analyse specific issues such as:

Institutional sustainability

How are issues of equity in decision-making and benefit distribution addressed/maintained within forest users groups/federations?

What are the common conflicts and how successful have been the conflict resolution mechanisms that have been put in place- what works and what does not; how socio-political environment affects enterprise development?

Financial sustainability

What are the benefits of external support/funds?

What happens when external support provided to the forest user group/federation is withdrawn?

How are issues of financial sustainability tackled in the overall program design?

Economic sustainability

Can subsistence returns provide enough ‘incentive’ for communities to sustain interest in the initiative in the long run?

What is the stage of NTFP enterprises- Are they primarily focused around collection? Have they progressed to the stage of value addition?

What is the net gain from such initiatives?

What are the major constraints - market related issues, technology?

Ecological sustainability

How are issues of regeneration, overexploitation resolved; are they inbuilt in the model?

2. To understand the impact of such initiatives on maintaining the ecological services of the region

Has overall ecological services improved (e.g. watershed services) because of such initiatives?

How are issues of linking ecological services to resource enterprise tackled (issues of sustainable harvesting techniques, resource regeneration etc)?

3.Analyse the strengths and weaknesses of the federation with respect to sustainable resource management and wider replicability across states.