The Regulatory Community: Decentralization and the environment in the Van Panchayats (forest councils) of Kumaon, India

As a new strategy to conserve resources, decentralization of political auth ority has displaced earlier coercive conservation policies in many countrie s. More than 60 countries claim to have decentralized forest control. In th ese countries, communities are supposed to be involved in joint strategies to conserve forests. The story is similar for other resources such as wildl ife, water, and watersheds. Decentralization is becoming ubiquitous even fo r provision of services, development programs, health and education. This i s not surprising. Decentralization aims to achieve one of the central aspir ations of equitable political governance: humans should have a say in their own affairs. Given the ubiquity of decentralization Initiatives, 2 questio ns require critical attention: (1) What accounts for decentralization of po litical authority toward local decision makers? Voluntary relinquishing of power seems to fly in the face of expected state behavior. (2) Do the actua l effects of decentralization policies match claims that decentralization i s better on grounds of efficiency, equity, or political empowerment?.