Constructing a gender policy for joint forest management in India

Policy makers and advocates of joint forest management (JFM) agree that wom en should be full participants and that their involvement is especially imp ortant because of the nature of women's work. This article examines how JFM policy has addressed gender in India. It argues that policy has been infor med by instrumentalist positions in the debate over women's relationship to the environment. Consequently, gender planning in JFM has focused on two i ssues: formal representation for women in local institutions, and identifyi ng women's 'special' values, knowledge and uses of forest resources. The sc ant evidence suggests that the impact of JFM on women has generally been ne gative. Finally, the article suggests that gender policy in JFM needs to be based on a more sophisticated understanding of gender relations and a wide r examination of the gendered context of JFM processes.