Apart from granting land-titles to the long-standing possessions, the FRA also gives ownership rights over minor forest products, including bamboo, to the Gram Sabhas and also entrusts them with the authority and responsibility to manage and use the forests in a sustainable manner. This is very important for the tribals as well as for the forest growth, both being highly interlinked. The villagers have to delineate the area of the forests that they have been traditionally using and that they want to protect and manage under this Act. Since tribals of the neighboring villages also often use the same forest area, they have to hold joint meetings and discuss among themselves and divide the area for all the traditional users. We conducted several cluster meetings of such neighboring villages and helped them sort out their conflicting claims amicably and to demarcate the forest areas amongst themselves for sustainable use and management of forests. For this also we held meetings with clusters of villages, in which we worked out how to delineate and resolve boundary problems and how to claim for different community forest rights under the Act. (see the Guidelines – CFR) In February 2013, 34 villages got CFR rights in the area we work.
