Participatory Forest Management and State Forestry Agencies: Modeling the Perceptions of Foresters

In transition to community-based forest management (CBFM) paradigm, transformation in the role of foresters from ‘controller’ to ‘facilitator ‘, is taken for granted. Given the militaristic culture of forestry agencies in most developing countries, this change is bound to face resistance. Using structural equation modeling technique, this paper examines two dimensions of resistance – disapproval of CBFM regime by the foresters at individual level and organizational level, and four categories of causal factors of resistance – personality traits, organizational factors, external environmental factors, and socialization factors. Study suggests that while members of four state forest departments of India, at an individual level have less resistance, but they show high resistance to implementation of CBFM by the organization. Results further suggest that fear of losing prestige and authority is major cause of resistance at personal level while hierarchical attitude is a primary causal factor of resistance to organizational level implementation.