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Forests throughout India are under threat from modern enterprises such as logging, dams, mines and irrigation schemes and also from a breakdown in traditional forest-protection systems. Local communities, traditionally dependent on foretsts, find their livelihoods under chronic strain. This book is an analysis of the successes and weaknesses of the forestry protection movement, the Friends of Trees and Living Beings, in the state of Orissa, India. This movement has grown from spontaneous local action in the mid-1970s into a network of forest-management organizations with respected expertise and widespread influence. The authors set its achievements in the context of national, legal and policy frameworks and draw on candid interviews with villagers, activists, staff and forestry officials. They consider the cultural, ethical and political dimensions of the movement, the tensions inherent in its expansion and the lessons to be learned by policy makers and funders.
