Upscaling community forest resource rights (CFR) recognition and governance in India

Project Overview 

The project’s main objective is to upscale assertion and recognition of collective forest rights provided in India’s Forest Rights Act. Specifically, the project will:  

1. Empower village assemblies to secure their rights to customary forests under the Forest Rights Act. 

2. Build capacity to replicate and upscale recognition of community land and forest rights throughout India.

3. Establish robust systems for socio-ecological monitoring of community lands and forests. 

4. Build private sector support for implementing the Forest Rights Act.

The project will build awareness of community rights, train community leaders and volunteers, civil society organisations, and public officials at all levels to prepare and submit legal land claims. Additionally, through exposure programs, learning platforms and other resources the project will promote lessons learned and best practices to be shared nationally. The project will also create an open and transparent online data portal for sharing information about the FRA implementation, impacts, and insights for improving forest governance. Finally, the project will engage with and seek support from the private sector across its different actions.  

By its completion advances in the submission of project claims by 5,000 communities for 1 million hectares of forest, benefiting at least 1 million people will be made. The private sector will have a deeper understanding of the benefits of community forest rights and thus will grant more support for implementing the FRA. Finally, there will be an improved understanding of how implementing community forest rights contributes to social justice, poverty alleviation, economic development, biodiversity conservation, and carbon sequestration.