STUDY OF COMMUNICATION IN JOINT FOREST MANAGEMENT IN INDIA by AJITH CHANDRAN PGDFM (equivalent to MBA) from Indian Institute of Forest Management Bhopal, India, 1993 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES (Forestry) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) October, 2015 © Ajith Chandran, 2015 ABSTRACT Joint Forest Management (JFM) - i.e. forests jointly managed by the Forest Department and local community - has been operative across all States of India for more than two decades now. Despite its successes in expanding to over one third of the forest area, challenges in managing the forest jointly exist between these two unequal partners. Apart from issues of governance, the lack of communication between them has been reason for many of the on-going conflicts and issues. The present study explores the communication mechanisms in current practices in JFM, their effectiveness and challenges. The perception of community and the Forest Department about communication challenges, emerging technology, and possible solutions are also explored. A model is developed to help practitioners and planners to assess communication situation and to design appropriate mechanisms. To study the communication challenges and their relation to power and technology, I surveyed three village communities, and interviewed a range of Forest Department officers from Gujarat. I also surveyed senior Indian Forest Service officers from 19 States to understand their perception of the communication challenges. This data helped me to develop a model to understand communication in a culturally embedded governance situation. Results of the study indicate the lack of adequate mechanisms to understand the governance-communication linkages with consequential silhouetted approaches that fail to consider the impacts and linkages. The proposed model suggests that communication in governance should be planned taking into account ‘skillholders’ from ‘civil experts’ and ‘conventional experts’ across a variety of stages and dimensions. While community depends on the Forest Department for information and legitimacy for its various activities, the Department’s approach has been haphazard and ambiguous leaving much improvement to be desired. Senior forest officers acknowledge the situation and suggest a number of solutions for improving communication, which ranges from improved relationships to delivery mechanism. The research suggests that there is too much focus on certain areas for communication, such as policy implementation, without adequate emphasis on the process of policy making, leading to lack of clarity on a number of processes and procedures. ii PREFACE This dissertation is an original intellectual product of the author, Ajith Chandran. The initial exploratory field work for the research in India was conducted with support from the International Foundation for Sciences (IFS), Stockholm for an international collaboration with Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) for a Poverty and Environmental Network (PEN) research. Ajith Chandran identified the research problem, methodologies and research design (Chapters 1 and 2) with guidance from his University supervisory committee, Dr. John L Innes, Professor and Dean at the Faculty of Forestry, University of British Columbia, Dr. Ronald Trosper, Head of the American Indian Studies Program, University of Arizona and Dr. Michael Meitner, Associate Professor at the Faculty of Forestry, University of British Columbia. The questionnaire design for Chapters 3 and 4 was done primarily by Ajith Chandran with suggestions from his University supervisory committee. Questionnaire for Chapter 3 (Village community) also had inputs from Joint Forest Management Committee (JFMC) leaders of the three research villages adopted for community survey. Questionnaire on Chapter 4 (Forest Department) had extensive support from Dr. Innes for the content, and from Dr. Jorma Neuvonen, Director Special Projects, Faculty of Forestry, University of British Columbia, for administrating the survey to senior Indian Forest Service officers. Dr. Innes also reviewed and edited all my chapters. Dr. Ronald Trosper introduced me to authors Margaret Archer and Bruno Latour, whose theories form the basis for my Communication-Governance model detailed in Chapter 6. He also suggested the addition of a section on the cultural change in forestry in India. Dr. Meitner advised me on using the interviews with the local Forest Department officers and the community leaders to explore solutions to issues and presentation of data in Chapters 3 and 4. Drs. Trosper and Meitner also reviewed my thesis. Chapter 4 (Forest Department) was presented at the International Union of Forest Research Organisations (IUFRO) Conference held in October 2014 at Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. Chapter 6 (Communication-Governance Model) was presented at the Institute of Asian Research, University of British Columbia in February 2014 and at the Indian Institute of Forest Management, Bhopal, India in October 2015. This research was approved by the UBC’s Behavioural Research Ethics Board (Certificate Number H11-01764) iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................................................... ii PREFACE ...................................................................................................................................... iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................................................ iv LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................................... x LIST OF FIGURES ....................................................................................................................... xiii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS, LOCAL WORDS AND SPECIAL WORDS ................................. xiv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................... xvii DEDICATION ................................................................................................................................ xix CHAPTER 1: COMMUNICATION IN FOREST MANAGEMENT ............................................... 1 1.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 2 1.2 Communication challenges: Local, national and international perspectives ................... 3 1.2.1 Issues arising due to lack of communication .............................................................. 4 1.2.2 Managing forests in harmony with traditional values ................................................. 4 1.2.3 Communication in development................................................................................... 6 1.2.4 International approaches to natural resource management ...................................... 8 1.2.5 Mechanisms for improving communication ............................................................... 10 1.3 Communication concepts: Power, technology and culture ............................................. 12 1.3.1 Theories of communication ........................................................................................ 13 1.3.2 Margaret Archer: Communication stages in forest management............................ 14 1.3.3 Bruno Latour: Communication content and stakeholders ........................................ 17 1.3.4 Individual and organisational communication ........................................................... 21 1.3.5 Inter and intra communication between the Forest Department and communities 22 1.4 Chapter outline ................................................................................................................... 23 CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODS ...................................................................................... 25 2.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 25 2.2 Objectives ........................................................................................................................... 25 2.3 Research areas .................................................................................................................. 26 2.4 Methods .............................................................................................................................. 28 2.4.1 Research method and design appropriateness ........................................................ 29 iv 2.4.2 Population .................................................................................................................... 33 2.4.3 Sampling frame ........................................................................................................... 35 2.4.4 Informed consent and confidentiality ......................................................................... 39 2.4.5 Data collection and coding ......................................................................................... 40 2.4.6 Analysis ........................................................................................................................ 41 2.5 Stakeholder involvement in the research ......................................................................... 43 2.5.1