Mamta Bogoyary
Transcript of video interview
I am a natural resource economist working with an NGO called Winrock
International India, which is working mainly in the policy and advocacy
in the area of energy, environment, climate change and natural resource
management (NRM) issues. We are working very effectively with policy-makers
in the forestry sector in India. In particular with have a resource
unit for participatory forestry which also acts as a secretariat
to the Ministry of Environment Policy on Joint Forest Management
(JFM). Besides organising network meetings for all kinds of stakeholders
who are involved in participatory forestry we also commission research,
the findings of which are then conveyed through workshops and seminars
to the policy-makers. We also help policy-makers to design schemes
when they want to. This is one active cell which is working in participatory
forestry.
Encroachment of forest land has been a major issue in India. We
have very restrictive policies and laws related to it in India.
We initially commissioned a study in some of the areas where the
forest department claimed that they had been able to evict voluntarily
some of the so-called encroachers on forest land and to provide
them with sustainable employment with the Joint Forest Management
scheme. Based on that research, we organised a meeting of all stakeholders,
particularly the NGO community who were actively opposed to government
policy in this area. We brought in the government, the NGOs, our
research and other research which had been done in this area and
had a brainstorming session with the policy-makers. It had some
impact in terms of amending their policy a little bit towards the
demands of the other stakeholders. Secondly, the 2002 Forest Guidelines
for India have also been influenced largely by the kind of research
and advocacy which we have been doing.
In terms of what researchers could do to improve the linkages between
research and policy, the first thing is that researchers need to
generate awareness of the kind of issues about which they are not
happy. It is not only the issue which is important but having a
solution. Whenever you raise an issue with policy-makers about something
which you think they are doing wrong, you need to have an alternative
solution to advocate. Secondly, if you are able to disseminate your
results in an active manner to the policy-makers at every stage
of the research, the chances of it being implemented and taken up
into policy is much higher. Thirdly, you have to make these policy-makers
part of your team, even if only at the advisory level. Their involvement
in the research often helps to translate it into policy.
Back to Talking Heads interview list
|
Watch a 1 minute video clip (
Listen to an