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ICFG

PROFILE : Institute of Community Forest Governance (ICFG)

1. Aims of the organization

The aim of the organization is to protect and regenerate forest for the people and the planet. This is possible by the promotion of the traditional symbiotic relationship between the forest dwelling Indigenous Peoples and other culturally similar communities with a view to ensure their livelihood and cultural resources, on the one hand, and protect the environment, on the other.

2. Immediate Objectives of the organization

The immediate objective of the organization is to bring in a radical change in the forest policy of the government and to evolve a strategy of community governed forest as opposed to that of the Joint forest Management of the Forest Department. It would promote the ownership and management rights of the forest dwellers over the forest. The strategy of the Community Forest Governance would be adopted to achieve this goal. The regeneration of the bio-diversity and the protection traditional knowledge of would be the important components of this endeavour. The organization would strive at the building up of environmental awareness among the common people.

The concept of the Community Forest Governance rests on the following four pillersl.

• The Gram Sabha: The organization will strengthen the village council (The Gram Sabha) as the supreme authority on the governance of the natural resources of the village.

• The Forest Protection Committee: The organization will strengthen the village forest protection committees to protect, regenerate and revitalize forests as the fundamental step to ensure food security of the village community.

• The women’s cooperative: The organization will promote forest dependent women’s cooperative to ensure better marketing of Non-Timber Forest Produces through collective efforts and thus to empower women against patriarchy.

• The Bal Akhra: The organization will promote right to the children of the forest dwelling communities in general. It will uphold the best interest of the child in the context of its aims and objectives. The emphasis will be especially on the child’s access to food, health and education, as well as traditional knowledge of nature and culture.

As the means to achieve the above objectives the organization conducts training and workshops, initiate dialogue with the government and the civil society organizations, run courses of capacity building and knowledge formation and above all mobilization of the people to demand their rights.

Peoples’ Centre of Learning
The ICFG is presently engaged in building a Peoples’ Centre of Learning in the Village Chatu Hasa in the Kuchai Block of the Kharswan-Saraikela district of Jharkhand. The structure is comprised of a 40’/30’ hall with office and guest rooms on two sides, a kitchen and bathrooms. The land with an area of 3 acres of forest has been donated by the village Mundas to the ICFG. The construction is being done by the villagers with their own resources and locally available materials.

The place will be used for training in forest governance, storing and trading of the NTFPs and conducting plantations in the area. A nursery will be ready soon for providing seedlings to plantation of fruit bearing trees alone in the forest.

3. Background of the Organization

The Institute of Community Forest Governance was formed as a trust by some eminent personalities of Jharkhand in 2006 in response to the demand of providing an alternative to the prevailing self-destructive forest policy of the government. These individuals were leading the forest rights movement in Jharkhand under the banner of the Jharkhand Jangal Bachao Andolan, which is a mass organization. The ICFG has emerged as a response to the realization that with the growth of the movement an institution would be required to support the movement ideologically, intellectually and technically, which would be focusing exclusively on the best interests of the forest dwelling peoples. ICFG has been formed on the basis of the collective decision of the JJBA members.

The ICFG was registered as a trust in 2006. The Settler Trustee is Samar Basu Mullick. The members of the trust are as follows.

Dr. Ram Dayal Munda
Ashok Ghose Chaudhury
Ms. Vasavi Kiro
Ms. Suryamani Bhagat