| In developing nations, forests serve as important natural resource endowments for populations that inhabit the vicinity. However, these resources have diminished rapidly in recent decades, as a result of commercial extraction, and changes in regional economies. Their appropriate management becomes a crucial issue in terms of providing ecological stability, and ensuring local livelihoods.; This study examines degradation in forests controlled and managed by the state (state commons). Building on common-property theory and political ecology, the research presents a framework to examine forest-use in state managed regimes. Using the Western Ghats of India, it illustrates how macro forest policies, promoting state control and emphasizing commercial extraction, implicitly encourage local resource utilization strategies that discount the long-term sustainability of forest ecosystems, eventually resulting in degraded environmental landscapes.; Employing primary and secondary data from 23 villages in Raigad district (Western Ghats), the study documents land use change, identifies dominant patterns of forest-use, examines variations in resource dependency among the local populace, and appraises varying local and state perspectives on reasons behind forest decline. Findings suggest that forests fulfill a significant local demand for fuel wood, with dependency cutting across income categories. Closer examination reveal subtle differences, with aboriginal populations and the rural poor being particularly reliant on these resources to provide for daily requirements and supplementary incomes. Additionally, the research finds that forest decline occurs as a combination of several factors including, significant and sustained local demand, few successful afforestation efforts, and the resource base being used by multiple users fulfilling varying priorities. More importantly, however, the study finds that as the state controls resource access and use, there is little incentive for local populations to undertake sustainable extraction practices, or engage in afforestation projects. The tragedy in state commons, hence, is shaped by this interplay of state policies and local influences. The state is clearly incapable of policing these vast resources, and with local stake or involvement in forest management virtually absent, this study shows that local responses to state control manifest themselves in particularly unsustainable extraction practices which contribute to the development of a tragedy in state commons. |
