Ashutosh Mishra

The traditional forest dweller has had very few entitlements down centuries. Guardian of the forest, he has been regarded as encroacher by the State. All that is changing now as the Forest Rights Act of 2006 is being implemented across the country since January this year. Down To Earth tracks the progress of the new law

With the growing potentialities and respect of traditional knowledge for sustainable
forest management, community-based forest management (CBFM) has been advocated
in the mainstream discussion of forest management and sustaining livelihood of local

Embracing the opportunities provided by democratization and decentralization, the
Wonosobo district of Central Java, Indonesia, enacted a local regulation for participa-tory
forestry. The regulation emphasized rights-based political participation and as such
entailed significant participation by civil society groups. However, this regulation faced
a backlash from the remaining representatives of the old authoritarian state. They
demanded a state-created utilitarian-based participatory forestry scheme, emphasizing