The forests of the Western Ghats of India are critical for local, regional and global human well-being in a variety of ways. They provide timber, fuelwood, fodder, manure, medicines and a range of other products for subsistence and commercial use, as well as important soil and water conservation services to downstream communities. Simultaneously, they are considered one of the world's biodiversity “hotspots”. But forest loss and degradation continues at a significant if not alarming rate in this region. The forms, mechanisms and ultimate causes for this are complex, context-dependent and controversial. Typically, the debate is polarised into those who blame local use (driven by expanding populations) and those who blame rigid and excessive state control and absence of community control. Recent efforts to bridge this divide through the
conceptualisation and implementation of joint forest management programmes have not yielded significant results; the debate therefore continues unabated.