Indigenous Peoples and Forest Management: Comparative Analysis of Institutional Approaches in Australia and India

Abstract

This article examines recent institutional approaches that address questions of access to forest resources and issues of redistributive justice for indigenous peoples in Australia and India. For over two decades, both countries have seen the emergence of claims to forest access and ownership made by indigenous communities that have been historically disadvantaged and marginalized from the benefits of mainstream social and economic development. The analysis focuses on regional forest agreements (RFA) in Australia and joint forest management (JFM) experiments in India through a comparative analytical framework defined by three concepts access, control, and substantive democracy to assess the relative strengths and weaknesses of institutional processes that aim to engage in sustainable management of forest resources.