IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/jenpmg/v48y2005i4p475-490.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

From Forest Regulation to Participatory Facilitation: Forest Employee Perspectives on Organizational Change and Transformation in India

Author

Listed:
  • Jagannadha Rao Matta
  • John Kerr
  • Kimberly Chung

Abstract

Despite the critical role of government agencies in decentralizing natural resource governance, little work to date has focused on the organizational aspects of the responsible government bureaucracies. Based on a qualitative investigation of the perspectives of Forest Department employees involved in India's Joint Forest Management (JFM) program, this paper aims to provide an understanding of these internal dynamics. Elaborating on why bureaucracies with a learning orientation are essential if participatory natural resource management is to succeed, the paper underlines the constraints to transforming forest agencies' hierarchical work cultures. Foresters describe JFM as a radical departure from traditional forest governance, but suggest that corresponding transformation within the Forest Department has not occurred. Foresters cite as reasons: (1) a target-based incentive system that leaves little room for establishing the relationships with local people needed for collaborative management; (2) rigid rules and regulations that prevent the flexibility needed for adaptive, site-specific problem-solving; (3) a hierarchical, top-down style of communication that prevents the upper administration from learning what is happening on the ground and stifles initiative by field staff; (4) the need for a committed leadership to reverse this hierarchical culture. They point to the few such team-oriented leaders as the key to transforming the Forest Department and enabling participatory forest management to succeed. The authors also recommend accompanying changes in training and reward systems.

Suggested Citation

  • Jagannadha Rao Matta & John Kerr & Kimberly Chung, 2005. "From Forest Regulation to Participatory Facilitation: Forest Employee Perspectives on Organizational Change and Transformation in India," Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(4), pages 475-490.
  • Handle: RePEc:taf:jenpmg:v:48:y:2005:i:4:p:475-490
    DOI: 10.1080/09640560500128335
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09640560500128335
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/09640560500128335?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Stephen P. Gasteyer & Cameron (Khalfani) Herman, 2013. "Grassroots rural development: models of development, capacity and leadership," Chapters, in: Gary Paul Green (ed.), Handbook of Rural Development, chapter 4, pages i-ii, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    2. Fleischman, Forrest D., 2014. "Why do Foresters Plant Trees? Testing Theories of Bureaucratic Decision-Making in Central India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 62-74.
    3. John Kerr & Grant Milne & Vasudha Chhotray & Pari Baumann & A.J. James, 2007. "Managing Watershed Externalities in India: Theory and Practice," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 9(3), pages 263-281, August.
    4. Grabowski, Philip & Kerr, John & Donovan, Cynthia & Mouzinho, Bordalo, 2015. "A Prospective Analysis of Participatory Research on Conservation Agriculture in Mozambique," Food Security Collaborative Working Papers 198703, Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics.
    5. Jagannadha Matta & John Kerr, 2007. "Barriers Beyond the Partners: Bureaucratic and Political Constraints to Implementing Joint Forest Management in Tamil Nadu, India," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 9(4), pages 465-479, November.
    6. Sood, Kamal Kishor & Mitchell, C. Paul, 2009. "Role of foresters' perspectives in orienting agroforestry programmes," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 11(4), pages 213-220, July.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:jenpmg:v:48:y:2005:i:4:p:475-490. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/CJEP20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.