Common resource development: Community forestry in Maharashtra, India

Environmental problems generally involve the overuse or misuse of publicly owned resources to which access is open. The cooperative use of a common resource by a limited group of joint owners is one solution to such problems. An exploratory study of community forestry plantations in two villages in western India was carried out to investigate factors involved in the success of their implementation. Despite planned provisions for community participation, neither plantation was found to involve the community in its management and available benefits were not reaching poorer village groups. Since it is the poorer households who are most dependent on common and public resources for their fuel and fodder supplies, their lack of involvement in community plantations jeopardises the projects and has implications for reforestation projects on government land. Some conditions necessary for community cooperation in common resource management are outlined.