Forest Livelihoods, Tribal Institutions & Market Access

Forest-dependent communities operate within layered governance systems that include customary institutions, rights-based legislation, market intermediaries, and environmental regulation. This program examines how forest rights, inclusion, gender dynamics, and market access shape sustainable livelihoods among tribal communities.

Students engage with non-timber forest produce (NTFP) value chains, women’s cooperatives, and forest governance institutions. The itinerary balances field immersion with institutional seminars and national policy framing.

Students will:

Analyze Forest Rights Act implementation and decentralized governance.
Conduct value chain mapping for forest-based products.
Evaluate inclusion, benefit-sharing, and elite-capture dynamics.
Map tribal institutional decision-making structures.
Assess ecological sustainability in livelihood diversification.
Produce a rights-based sustainable livelihoods proposal.

Political Science

Anthropology

Environmental Governance

Economics

Sustainability

Sociology

Indigenous Studies

Bhubaneswar

Tribal Forest Regions of Odisha

Delhi

Day	Location	Activities	Learning Emphasis
1	Bhubaneswar	Seminar: Forest Rights & Decentralization	Institutional framing
2	Bhubaneswar	Workshop: Institutional and equity analysis	Methods
3	Bhubaneswar	Guest lecture: Tribal governance & market integration	Contextual depth
4	Tribal Field	Forest produce value chain mapping	Market systems
5	Tribal Field	Benefit-sharing dialogue with cooperatives	Inclusion
6	Tribal Field	Women’s SHG engagement	Gender & agency
7	Tribal Field	Institutional meeting observation	Governance practice
8	Tribal Field	Ecological stewardship mapping	Sustainability
9	Bhubaneswar	Systems integration workshop	Reflection
10	Bhubaneswar	Rural enterprise development lab	Scaling
11	Delhi	National rural policy seminar	Macro-level framing
12	Delhi	Proposal drafting & peer review	Translation
13	Delhi	Final presentations & departure	Closure