Community participation and women empowerment in the protected forests of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan
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Malakand civil division became a part of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa after the merger of the princely states of Swat, Dir and Chitral in 1969. In the princely state regime, the forests were completely belonging to the state, and local people were given some rights. The merger created a vacuum, which was exploited by the timber mafia and heavy cutting of forests took place. The main reason was the confused land tenure system, where the forest land belonged to the forest department, while the local communities were given the rights for timber, fuelwood, and grazing. Under an agreement the department also allowed to receive 60 percent of the net revenue from the commercial timber harvesting. However, the royalty payment was given only to the male members of the family, women were excluded. During this period, a number of donor funded projects started work in this area, and tried to address this key issue of land tenure, community participation, and the equitable distribution of benefits. These projects after a struggle of 20 years convinced the forest department to encourage community participation in the forest management and institutionalize the rules to address the issue of the land tenure. In this regard, legal cover was provided for community participation through the Forest Policy in 1999, the Forest ordinance in 2002, and the community participation rules in 2004. This resulted in getting the cooperation of the local communities, including a royalty share to women, and other disadvantaged groups. The communities organized themselves into forest protection committees with membership of both gender. The two decades struggle decreased the deforestation in the area, and brought an equitable distribution of benefits.
Keywords: Gender, Deforestation and forest degradation, Biodiversity conservation, Governance, Economic Development
ID: 3485860