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Institutions for Environmental Governance: Issues of Community Participation and Sustainable Development

by B.Sudhakara Reddy
Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research
Goregaon (East), Mumbai 400 065, India.
e-mail:sreddy@igidr.ac.in

During the past five decades various changes have taken place in political, economic and social institutions. Worldwide trends indicate that economic reforms, changes in national policies, and global concerns have contributed to redefine the roles of these institutions for Sustainable Development. In India, this paradigm shift helped to evolve an institutional mechanism from state controlled towards community participation in the area of natural resource management.

This paper examines the evidence from the activities of Tree Growers Cooperative Societies (TGCS) that were established to support economic, environmental and social upliftment of rural people. Fuelwood, fodder, pulp and timber wood species are planted in the TGCS site and the benefits are shared among the shareholders. Thus, the plantation activities brought prosperity to the stakeholders and equity among various strata of the society. These wood plantations not only provide fuelwood and fodder but also mitigate CO2 emissions by removing carbon from the atmosphere and sequestering it. The data, obtained from six TGCS in India suggest that this type of institutions can survive even in a market driven economy. The analysis also helps to appreciate the economic trade-offs involved in the monitoring the natural resources that helps in sustaining the community involvement. Results show that these types of institutions play an important role in environmental governance.