The argument for rights-based approaches to conservation arises from the understanding that the conservation of biodiversity and natural resources both impacts and is influenced by the realization of human rights. Globally, recognition of this linkage between enjoyment of human rights and environmental protection began with the 1972 Stockholm Declaration. Many national and international human rights instruments and environmental agreements, including that of conservation, recognize the rights to participation in environmental decision-making. In India, the enactment of The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, more popularly known as the Forest Rights Act (FRA) has provided the institutional support for addressing the rights of human forest inhabitants to protect, manage and govern their forests through the recognition of collective forest rights (CFRs) of concerned communities.

The Western Ghats of India, being one of the most populated biodiversity hotspots in the world, becomes an ideal site to study the influence of important factors in the implementation of the FRA, more specifically, that of CFRsOne might expect a high number of CFR claims from forest-dwelling communities in this region; however, the outcomes of FRA implementation in the Western Ghats of Karnataka reveal variations at two levels: first, in the nature of collective claims filed by communities in the northern and southern parts of the study area; and second, in the degree to which community claims were recognized within the southern region itself. FRA envisages that through the recognition of CFRs, participation of local communities in forest governance along with the state forest departments can be realized.

My PhD thesis explores the influences on FRA implementation in the study area through the lenses of power, community capacity and pre-existing tenures, drawn from existing literature that identifies these factors as significantly impacting the stability of participatory governance. I focus on two districts in the northern region of Karnataka’s Western Ghats – Uttara Kannada and Shivamogga and, two districts in the southern region of Karnataka’s Western Ghats – Mysuru and Chamarajanagara. I critically engage with the outcomes or rather absence of expected outcomes to probe into the reasons for the present outcomes of FRA implementation in the Western Ghats. of Karnataka. While existing scholarship on the FRA has identified key factors influencing its outcomes across various parts of India, there is still limited understanding of how pre-existing forest tenure regimes shape the nature of claims filed, how power inequalities within the implementing bureaucracy affect claim recognition, and how NGOs contribute to building community capacity to sustain struggles for forest rights. In my PhD research, I address these knowledge gaps by simultaneously comparing the outcomes of CFR implementation in the four districts. I used a combination of (a) detailed field-based studies on the processes followed in awareness generation, constitution of Forest Rights Committees (FRCs) and application and verification of claims at different levels, (b) semi-structured interviews to understand bureaucratic perceptions about the law with a special focus on CFRs, to understand the contextual histories of communities and their capacity building by NGOs, and (c) analysis of textual material – both oral and written – to identify the discourses and power politics employed during the implementation process by concerned actors.

First, I present a brief historical overview of the socio-economic and political contexts in which forests were governed in the Western Ghats of Karnataka, thus making it the first attempt at a comprehensive compilation of the forest governance history of the Western Ghats in Karnataka. This also helps in understanding the processes and outcomes of FRA implementation.

In my second chapter, I question the assumption underlying the FRA, which is that, forests are either under open-access or under state-controlled tenures where communities are waiting to claim forest rights. I simultaneously examine the degree to which forest dependence exists among targeted communities and the range of access mechanisms available to them through pre-existing forest tenures and show how this has impacted the incentive to claim CFRs. Here, I expand the concept of forest dependence to include affective subjectivities apart from economic dependence on forest resources for livelihood, thus contributing to an empirical understanding of affective subjectivities in forest dependence. I demonstrate how land and forest tenures are shaped by the region’s political ecology by comparing the experiences of socio-economically and politically dominant forest-dwelling communities in the northern region with those of highly marginalised communities in the south. I also highlight the growing marginalisation of landless groups in the north who, due to their association with dominant communities, have been overlooked by the implementing bureaucracy, which assumes they already have access to forest resources.

In my third chapter, I critically examine the power dynamics that is played out between key state agencies entrusted with the responsibility of verifying and officially recognising community claims of forest rights. Since power is drawn both from the structure as well as through one’s agency, I employed an actor-centred power theory approach to discern how each state department deployed pre-identified power elements to influence outcomes of CFR recognition in the southern region of Karnataka’s Western Ghats. I found that for effective policy implementation, appropriate structural changes within the bureaucracy responsible for implementation of the policy have to simultaneously accompany radical policy changes in governance. Due to the theoretical treatment adopted, I was also able to come up with recommendations for corrective actions that could ensure better implementation of CFR recognition.

My fourth chapter examined how tribal welfare non-governmental organizations (NGOs) played a role in building community capacity which in turn influenced outcomes of CFR implementation. I found that NGO interventions to influence CFR implementation outcomes occur indirectly by employing various strategies to mobilize communities. Outcomes of such community capacity building efforts depended on historical contexts of displacement and on how affected communities perceived the nature of injustice and its resolution. Through the case study presented in this chapter, I suggest that a better understanding of NGO driven outcomes can be achieved by investigating the initial goal posts set for building community capacity and, by examining whether the attainment of these goals have satisfied the community’s aspirations for a better future that motivated them to participate in the struggle initially. I argue that where democratic voices are aligned with the system and do not rock the ‘power boat’ too much, successful implementation of legally enforceable rights is seen. But, where these voices demand radical changes in power structures, successful outcomes are bound to take a much longer time.

Finally, I argue that participatory forest governance can be successful, not when reformatory laws are instituted, but when they are implemented with the right understanding of the reason for its institution by a bureaucratic structure that has simultaneously been restructured to align with the reform. My thesis research contributes to a nuanced understanding of the complex linkages between power, perceptions and rights recognition. I make original contributions to the study of political ecology by identifying power elements employed by state agencies within a multi-department setting. I also make empirical contributions to the integration of cultural and behavioural economics within commons literature and affective ecologies literature by addressing other kinds of resource dependence that goes beyond an economic lens of resource use.