Joint Forest Management Committee / Eco-Development Committee (JFMC/EDC)

Joint Forest Management Committee (JFMC) is an agency formed at a village level or a cluster of villages situated adjacent to Reserved Forests (RF) registered with the Territorial Divisional Forest Office.

JFMC is responsible for selecting the plant species to be planted in the forest, suggesting physical and financial targets, conducting awareness programs. The JFMC objectives are to ensure sustainable management of forest resources, to improve forest cover via afforestation, to restore degraded forest land, to promote conservation awareness through environmental education, restore watershed capability in catchment areas and to assure employment opportunities to the tribal communities.

FDA can be formed only in Territorial and Wildlife Divisions as per the Government of India norms. In Sikkim, there are 9 FDAs for 4 Territorial Divisions and 5 Wildlife Divisions including one for KNP. All of them are registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860.

Grow-Trees have successfully partnered with JFMC, East Sikkim, and look forward to planting many more trees in following years thus impacting the environment and enriching the livelihood of the local communities