65 Sagari R Ramdas
programme known as Joint Forest Management (JFM), administered by India’s forest
department. The titles under-represented
the true extent of community forest tenure
traditionally enjoyed within customary
boundaries, the integrity of which was vital
for community survival and resilience. The
people unanimously passed gram sabha
resolutions refusing acceptance of these
‘jointly managed forest’ areas under the
JFM, and also rejected individual titles
which had been allocated, which were a
fraction of their original claims (Ramdas,
2009). They resolved to remap their
community forest resources according to
customary systems of forest governance.
They realised that it was imperative to
secure community forest tenure rights, and
that individual rights would follow. Sixtytwo villages were involved in generating
community maps based on customary
boundaries (see Box 2).
The village gram sabhas and AAV have
successfully used these maps to show
government authorities at local, State and
national levels how and why the JFM land
does not represent their customary boundaries, and thus constitutes a breach of the
law. The pressure finally resulted in the
Integrated Tribal Development Agency
deciding, in August 2011, to redo community forest maps according to communities’
traditional customary boundaries, as the
starting point for preparing community
forest titles.4
Traditional council asserts the right to deny
access
In 2010, the village of Dabbagudem had to
decide whether to give permission to an
outside trader from Tamil Nadu to access
and purchase valuable medicinal herbs
found in their forests. The village elders
decided to call a traditional village council
meeting (dakkojanguber), which is legally
equivalent to the village gram sabha under
PESA and hence its decisions are binding.
The council debated over three days. Most
4
Photo: Anthra, Yakshi and Adivasi Aikya Vedika
60
Healer with medicinal plants in Dabbagudem village.
of the women and elders spoke out strongly
against granting permission. The medicinal plants desired by the trader were an
intricate part of medicines used by the
villagers to keep them healthy and protect
them from endemic malaria. While some
youth were initially undecided about this
issue, believing it would fetch them money,
when they heard how critical these plants
are for the communities’ health and
survival, they too supported the elders and
women.
After listening to everyone’s opinions,
the council passed a resolution against
trading in these valuable medicinal plants,
and reaffirmed that they were to be exclusively used by the community, thus
forbidding any community member from
selling the herb. They feared that the herb
would disappear if they allowed it to be
commercialised. The community has
abided by this decision, as have other
villages, and the trader from Tamil Nadu
has not ventured into these villages subsequently. This is an example of a village
using its rights under national legislation
to deny consent to use of their biodiversity
The government agency responsible for tribal development at the district level.