Maharashtra NTFP Forum

Many organizations throughout Maharashtra have been working on NTFPs but there had been no collective effort regarding the rights of Tribals over natural resources and NTFPs. Tribals have consistently been victims of forest policies, forest officer’s interpretations of the legislations and are continuously exploited by traders. A platform to create a space for collaboration on these issues was needed and the NTFP forum was hence formed to deliberate on the social, economic & legal aspects of NTFPs.

The NTFP Forum was started in September 2004. The forum has 6 implementing partner organizations and three dialogue partners from different parts of Maharashtra. ECONET is the facilitating partner of the NTFP forum and since April 2006 has hosted the NTFP forum Secretariat. It strengthens & capacitates the activities & individuals of Partner organizations by dialogues, workshops, Trainings, advocacy & legal support.

Aims & objectives of NTFP Forum -

a)     To ensure the effective management, conservation & protection of NTFPs.

b)    To ensure forest dependant communities to get the social, economic & legal benefits of NTFP.

c)     To reduce exploitation of marginalized NTFP dependant communities.

d)     To generate awareness about tribal livelihood & NTFP.

Approaches

This forum has two main approaches –

a)     Multi site Approach – The initiatives / experiments on NTFP are carried out at different sites in about 4-5 Districts across the state for simultaneous replication of processes and to generate learning form different Socio-Geo–Political sites and to create a coherent collective of implementation. It also strengthens the conformity of addressing the issue.

b)    Collaborative work approach – NTFP work is been carried out with the collaboration of NGOs, which are working with Tribal and forest dwelling communities. The organisations also work in dyads and triads and support one another in their work in the Tribal Forest relationship scenario.

ECONET’s Contribution in the formation of the Maharashtra NTFP Forum

The understanding which we consolidated from our experiences of working with Adivasi communities was shared with a group of individuals and organisations in the State of Maharashtra. A small group of eight organisations was formed initially and the process of creating a collective expansive perspective on NTFPS in particular and Adivasi - Forest relationship in general was facilitated by ECONET. This collective is known as Maharashtra NTFP Forum.

Building the Knowledge base of the Forum

This process led to the need of grappling with the local situation with much more concrete data and hence a status survey about the real picture on the ground was undertaken. This was a status survey done in 14 Districts of Maharashtra covering 100 households/district and 70 villages. It also captured the perspective from other stakeholders like the Tribal Development Cooperative Corporation, Forest Department, NTFP Traders, Pastoral communities, Bamboo craftsmen, Collector. It can be comfortably said that this status survey is one of its kind in the State and maybe in India too!!

 Based on this Survey a plan of action was chalked out in a process facilitated by ECONET and this intervention plan is being executed by the partners of the NTFP Forum.

Role of ECONET in the Forum:

ECONET plays the role Providing Human & Institutional Development support to the Partner organizations in the Forum. We operate in a manner wherein the local leaderships are in the forefront and we are as backstop support also extending hand holding and accompaniment support functions. Active facilitation of learning of the partner organizations through dialogues, trainings & workshops, information sharing, perspective building & linkages to various government & non-government institutions is a continuous process.

 This includes

• Capacity Sharing with the partners

• Training

• Perspective development with expanding the canvas of work

• Sharpening of Skills and creating an environment for application of the skills

• Linkages with similar processes in other States and feeding those experiences into the State processes

 ECONET at the moment also anchors the Secretariat of the Forum.

Ecological Monitoring

We as the facilitating partner in the NTFP Forum process have brought in the critical dimension of Conservation and Regeneration of the forest wealth. This has a direct bearing on the availability and sustainability of the NTFPs which impacts the lives of the Adivasi communities.

The process of critically examining the role of Ecological Monitoring in the work which the forum has undertaken has been a critical contribution to the NTFP Forum’s work and we also look at it as a significant one in the larger debate on sustainability of NTFPs.

Legal Support and Advocacy

Provide legal support regarding various issues related to NTFP scenario by undertaking legal literacy workshops and creating spaces for applying law as a tool in the intervention plans.

Simultaneously also taking up the advocacy role on the issues emerging in the process. This is combined with the building of knowledge amongst the Forum members on the implementing advocacy processes. This role is also strengthened by regular feeding the Forum with different changing scenarios in the State and Country.

Coordination

As the secretariat of the Forum is hosted by ECONET we also play the role of coordinating the forum processes.