Jharkhand govt partners with ISB to boost state’s forest economy

The Jharkhand government has partnered with the Indian School of Business to launch an initiative to empower the state’s forest economy and create jobs and wealth through a sustainable development model.

In an event to mark the second anniversary of the Hemant Soren-led government today, the Department of Scheduled Tribe, Scheduled Caste, Minority and Backward Class Welfare along with the Department of Forests, Jharkhand, signed an MoU with the Bharti Institute of Public Policy at Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad, to develop scalable and sustainable solutions focusing on forest-based industrial value chains.

“Our approach is to build and formalize linkages between major stakeholders in existing value chains for forest-based industrial raw material while creating incentives for sustainable forest management. We will facilitate institutional and technological capacity building of communities. This vision will contribute towards meeting India’s global commitments for sustainable development,” said Prof Ashwini Chhatre, Bharti Institute of Public Policy, ISB, while formalizing the collaboration with Naman Priyesh Lakra, Welfare Commissioner, Government of Jharkhand, in the presence of Governor Ramesh Bais and Chief Minister Hemant Soren in the state capital this morning.

In January 2020, the Chief Minister, less than a month into office, approached ISB to propose a cluster-based strategy for developing the state’s forest economy. Based on research into the current scale and future potential of existing value chains, the ISB team, led by Prof Chhatre, proposed an institutional design to facilitate sustainable forest management, value addition, and industrial procurement of seasonal forest products.

The ISB team plans to pilot this approach in Gumla district, before expanding to other districts with promising forest products. For this, the researchers have prepared an action plan, starting with creating incentives for local communities by establishing Community Forest Resource rights under the Forest Rights Act. The team is also working closely with Jharkhand State Livelihood Promotion Society (the nodal agency for the National Rural Livelihoods Mission in Jharkhand) to support this vision through women’s self-help groups (SHGs).

“We will prepare a business plan based on market demand for select forest products in Gumla and assess the need for capital investments in infrastructure for collection, storage, processing, and transportation of forest products through women-centric forest-based enterprises. We will build the capacity of SHG leaders for product aggregation and pre-processing through technological enhancements,” explains Shreya Jain, Research Associate, ISB.

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The lynchpin of the initiative is a partnership among local communities as custodians of forest resources, industry leaders who use the products of that forest, and government agencies that facilitate and regulate the creation of jobs and wealth. This unique project also represents a triple-win opportunity by reducing environmental threats, creating jobs at the bottom of the pyramid, and establishing sustainable forest management systems.

“We seek to establish active collaborations with government agencies, academic institutions, private companies, and civil society organizations in Jharkhand to address the tremendous potential of forests to create jobs and wealth while also mitigating adverse environmental impacts,” added Prof. Ashwini Chhatre.