An appraisal of people's participation in the joint forest management programme in the Kashmir Himalayas

People's participation in decision-making processes in the domain of forest management has been acknowledged as an effective mechanism for improving livelihoods and forest conditions. The present study makes an attempt to ascertain the participation levels and identify the factors influencing the people's participation in Joint Forest Management (JFM) programmes in the Kashmir Himalayas. The study is based on primary data, with a sample size of 434 households collected through a two-stage random sampling survey. The Participation Index (PI) was used to measure people's participation across different stages: planning, implementation, and monitoring. The determinants that influence the level of participation are then analyzed through the Binary Logistic Regression Model (BLRM). The findings indicate that the people's participation at the planning stage was 47.93%, at the implementation stage 54.38%, and at the monitoring stage 49.46%, indicating an overall moderate level of participation. The BLRM depicts that among the selected variables, gender, marital status, years of schooling, land holding size, income from forest, distance from the market, training, knowledge, and information have a significantly positive influence, while age, distance from the forest, restrictions on charcoal/timber harvesting, and a lack of incentives were found to have a significant negative influence on the people's participation in the JFM programme. Therefore, policy reforms should be reoriented to improve the organizational structure of forest management groups and implement fair benefit-sharing mechanisms, which are crucial for enhancing the participation of local communities in forest management initiatives.