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This article attempts to assess whether the promises of the Joint Forest Planning and Management (JFPM) programme initiated in the Indian state of Karnataka in 1993 have materialised in terms of villagers managing their common lands sustainably, equitably and autonomously. It draws on findings from a 2003 study of JFPM in the eastern plains region; earlier studies for the Western Ghats region; and information gathered from regional consultations with representatives of village forest committees (VFCs) and the Karnataka Forest Department (KFD) in late 2001.The article identifies a number of problems with the implementation of the JFPM programme, including: it was limited to “degraded” areas (lands with less than 25 per cent canopy cover) so that denser forested areas were not brought under management the emphasis on planting up these lands often caused hardship to villagers who had been using them as grazing lands auctioning of valuable non-timber forest products (NTFPs) to outside contractors failed to benefit villagers or to enhance ecological sustainability of NTFP extraction VFCs were formed through top-down processes and lacked autonomy in many cases, plantations were made first and VFCs formed afterwards, rendering the joint planning rhetoric meaningless even where VFC formation preceded plantation activity, there was no serious process of participatory planning inadequate attention to community mobilisation and awareness building meant that VFCs could not generally free themselves from economic, caste and gender inequalities within villages in some cases JFPM has become a tool for completely shutting out subsistence use of the forest (rather than regulating it) in favour of growing cash crops JFPM is not seen by forestry officials as a core process for project implementation, but as a parallel activity; the role of the local community is seen as only co-operating in the protection of the plantations, not in determining the overall strategy for common land regeneration and use.The article concludes with recommendations for future joint management programmes:a more sophisticated concept of joint management should be developed, recognising the highly differentiated nature of rural society in Karnataka and involving all stakeholders in decision-making rather than attempting to change the whole state at once, participatory management could be implemented first in villages or areas with favourable characteristics, such as high forest dependence, relatively homogenous communities, and an absence of older systems of individual rights strong grassroots support is needed for JFPM to be implemented effectively.
