Production analysis of collaborative forest management using an example of joint forest management from Gujarat, India

A framework for the production analysis of collaborative forest management (CFM) is proposed. The framework has four main features: (i) a social organization, not an industrial organization, responsible for the production process of CFM; (ii) conventional factors (land, labor, and capital) as well as non-conventional factors (social, cultural, and organizational factors) as inputs (iii) social, biological, and economic outputs; and (iv) a production model that includes transformation and transaction components. The framework is used for the production analysis of joint forest management (JFM) in the Gujarat state of India, by estimating the production functions of social, biological, and economic outputs on the basis of data from fifty villages having JFM. The outcomes indicate that the inclusion of non-conventional factors is critical for un-biased analysis, and the contributions of non-conventional factors dominate the contributions of conventional factors. The social output - social empowerment - and the biological output - forest canopy cover - are associate products, the social output and the economic output - supply of forest produce to meet local demand - are rival products, and the biological output and the economic output are associate products, but the degree of association and rivalry between the two outputs are not the same in different ranges. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.