Forests, Rights, and the Climate Paradox

Unraveling the Contradictions of India’s Forest Governance since 2006

Abstract

The paper focuses on the Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006, which was enacted in India to ensure the rights of Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers to use forest land and its resources. Twenty years after its introduction, there is a growing gap between the intent of this law and its actual operation, the most evident of which is the enactment of the Forest (Conservation) Amendment Act, 2023 (FCAA 2023). The paper maps India’s forest governance architecture and argues that it is structured around inherent contradictions that have cumulatively paralyzed tribal self-governance, disempowered the Gram Sabha, and catalyzed further diversion of forest land. Drawing on the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report and India’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), the article contends that undermining tribal forest rights is not only a failure of justice but also misguided climate policy. In 2020, India’s forests absorbed about 22 percent of the country’s domestic carbon dioxide emissions and are managed overwhelmingly by Adivasi communities, whose inability to secure formal governance rights poses a systemic risk to India’s pledge to maintain a carbon sink of 2.5 to 3 billion tons of CO2 equivalent by 2030. The article advocates strengthened, combined implementation of the FRA, PESA, and India’s climate obligations.