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Visakhapatnam Forest Circle in Andhra Pradesh's North Coast is implementing Joint Forest Management (JFM), a community-based forest management model on reserved and protected areas, enhancing participatory rights for villages and committees. This approach has significant implications for tribal development.

India's JFM initiative began as a pilot in West Bengal and expanded to over 11 million hectares of public forests with more than 65,000 village forest committees (VSS). Andhra Pradesh notably extended this model to large forest areas, granting VSS rights and local control in both tribal and non-tribal regions.

The JFM model addresses past failures in reducing deforestation by shifting strategies towards people's participation. It integrates natural resource management with poverty alleviation, focusing on community involvement in planning and managing resources for ecological development.

Previously, uncontrolled cattle populations degraded forests, declining agriculture due to soil erosion led to reduced employment and crop yields, and community conflicts arose. The shift involved creating confidence among people, initiating participatory management, injecting financing, building self-help capacity, and providing information for resource planning.

Joint Forest Management started in 1993-94 in Andhra Pradesh, covering a total forest area of 6,56,943 hectares (28% of the region), with 2,93,422 hectares identified as degraded (40%). Under JFM, 1,93,590 hectares were managed by 1509 Forest Protection Committees involving 122,064 people, including 96,624 from scheduled tribes. The initiative generated 15 million mandays.

Main degradation causes include poor socio-economic conditions, population growth, high cattle populations, timber needs for domestic and agricultural purposes, shifting cultivation, anti-social elements, lack of alternative employment, and energy sources.