Protecting India's forests: The effectiveness of forest protection committees, the case of southern west Bengal

Forest protection committees (FPC.s) form the core of joint forest managememt in the open access forests of West Bengal, India, and proliferated enormously during the 1980s. However, their impact in terms of forest regeneration has been marginal. It thus appears necessary to take a good took at how FPCs function, how effective the are and how they can work better. With this objective in mind, we have collected data over a cross section of 20% of the FPCs in two districts of Southern West Bengal, representing different levels of functioning (good, moderate and bad). We have regressed forest status (Invasured with the help of ecological tools) against two sets of variables-socio-cconomicaspec is at lot operational features of the FPC. The results, among other things, indicate the significance of three factors - benefits from the sale or use of non-timber forest products, the frequency of and attendance at FPC meetings and finally, the capacity of the FPC to resolve internal conflicts. The regression exercise, other statistical exercises and a close look at other non-cardinal aspects of the way all FPC. functions lead its to a set of policy prescriptions.