Van Utthan Sansthan: Securing the Commons for the Common Good

Developing degraded forest lands through collective management by the tribals and in collaboration with the government, the vuS seeks shape democratic institutions, and conserve land rights and tenure of communities on these lands.

V an Utthan Sansthan, or VUS, (meaning Forest Promotion/Protection Society) was established by Seva Mandir in 1995 in Jhadol block of Udaipur District. VUS is a network of Village Forest Protection Committees (VFPCs) promoted by Seva Mandir and working in alignment with the Joint Forest Management (JFM) policy of the government. Since its inception, VUS has been actively involved in its mandate of collective management, and protection and management of degraded forest areas.

Seva Mandir has been actively involved in helping marginalized tribals through various natural resource management efforts such as agriculture, watershed development, afforestation on private and common lands, and JFM on forest lands. Seva Mandir’s work is based on the premise that improvement in the natural resource base leads to improvement in the livelihoods of tribals because they are predominantly dependent on land. A majority of its interventions have been routed through the formal and non-formal village institutions such as the Gram Vikas Committees and Forest Protection Committees (FPCs). The focus of such institutions has been on promoting collective action to bring about the development of common property resources (CPRs) such as forests, and pasture lands. Common properties that comprise revenue waste lands, grazing pastures and forests constitute about 70% of the total land whereas forest lands in themselves account for nearly 40% of the total area. Thus, most of Seva Mandir`s development interventions in the village are centred on CPRs.