| | The value of forests in the lives of local communities has been widely discussed in
academic literature, yet forest use is a domain of contestation. The new Scheduled Tribes
(Recognition of Forest Rights) Bill needs to be contextualised in the ground reality
of conflicting interests and claims. First, the category of scheduled tribes is contested
in social science discourse. Second, forest and tribal policy in India is not
adequately sensitive to value systems of local communities and this creates considerable
contestation between administration and the local people. This paper revisits these
contestations in the worldwide body of academic discourse. There has been fair consensus
in the literature that value systems and customary institutions of local communities have
well-developed mechanisms that regulate sustainable lifeways and conserve local
ecosystems, though unquestioning acceptance of these may also lead to errors. What is
required is for policy to effectively deliver benefits to people and conserve
biological diversity, and it is anthropologists who can mediate a dialogic space
between the people, their civil society institutions, networks of advocacy, public and
local intellectuals, the academia, policy and governance.
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