OUR FOREST OUR RIGHTS
Context:
The state of Chhattisgarh has become only the second in the country to recognize a village’s Community Forest Resource (CFR) rights within a national park. The CFR rights of tribals in Gudiyapadar, a hamlet inside the Kanger Ghati National Park in Bastar district, were recognized, granting the community the power to set forest use laws.
What is Community Forest Resource?
The community forest resource area is the common forest land that has been traditionally protected and conserved for sustainable use by a particular community or tribe.
The community uses it to access resources available within the traditional and customary boundary of the village, and for seasonal use of landscape in case of pastoralist communities.
(Pastoralism is a way of life of livestock-keeping communities who care, nurture and breed animals, mostly on common gauchars, grasslands, or pasture lands. Pastoralists are people who depend on livestock keeping and trade for their livelihood source and keep them on commonly owned grazing resources).
Each CFR area has a customary boundary with identifiable landmarks that may include a forest of any category – revenue forest, classified & unclassified forest, deemed forest, DLC land, reserve forest, protected forest, sanctuary and national parks etc.
Community Forest Resource Rights
- These rights are recognized under Section 3(1)(i) of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act (commonly referred to as the Forest Rights Act or the FRA)
- It provides for recognition of the right to “protect, regenerate or conserve or manage” the community forest resource.
- It allows the community to formulate rules for forest use by itself and others and thereby discharge its responsibilities.
- These rights give the authority to the Gram Sabha to adopt local traditional practices of forest conservation and management within the community forest resource boundary.
What is the significance of these Rights?
- To recognize the community’s right to use, manage and conserve forest resources
- To underline the integral role that forest dwellers play in the sustainability of forests and in the conservation of biodiversity
- To legally hold forest land that these communities have used for cultivation and residence
- To make forest dwellers a part of the management of the protected forests using their traditional wisdom
