20 Years of Disha
1995: JFM

To give to residents residing in and near forests rights over forest produce, the forest department started a joint forest management project and Disha became one of the partners in this endeavour. A spearhead team comprising of an official from the department and two motivators – one male and one female – was formed. Of the three kinds of forests in the district (reserve, civil and soyam) the organisation worked only in reserve forest area. The work began in villages of four forest ranges and later villages in two more forest ranges were included, covering a total of 19 villages.

Operational strategy included preparation of microplans, based on participatory rural appraisal (PRA). These microplans listed priorities of the villages. The activities included awareness generation, meetings, health camps and training.

Some construction activity was also undertaken. This included construction of a safety wall and check dam along a river to arrest soil erosion. In Siri village a mule path was also constructed to provide the villagers an easy link to the nearest motor road. A nursery was also raised to enable the residents to plant saplings and to increase forest cover.

To sustain joint management of forests, village forest committees (VFCs) were formed in each of the villages the activity was taken up at the very start of the activity. VFCs in all the villages made voluntary labour contribution to the tune of 10 to 20 per cent of the costs involved and deposited the same in village development funds (VDF). This amount would be used for maintenance of assets created during the implementation phase.

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