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Journal of Academics Stand Against Poverty

Academics Stand Against Poverty

Journal of Academics Stand Against Poverty (Journal of ASAP) is an open access international multidisciplinary journal published under the ISSN 2690-3458 (electronic edition) and ISSN 2690-3431 (print edition) by Academics Stand Against Poverty, a non-profit organization based in United States (EIN # 32-0324998).  Its mission is to publish high-quality work that can make genuine contributions to understanding and eradicating poverty and its effects in the real world. Such work will address the structural causes of poverty with an eye to the special challenges poor people face in such areas as nutrition, water, shelter, health and health care, sanitation, clothing and personal care, energy, education, social and political participation and respect, physical safety, family planning, environmental degradations and hazards, working conditions in employment and at home, navigating governmental agencies and the legal system, banking and credit, travel and transportation, and communications.  Journal ASAP is committed to ensuring that perspectives of the poor are adequately represented on its pages, and that these pages are accessible to all. The journal makes substantial efforts to include voices from the global South as well as from non-elite educational institutions and from organizations, agencies and communities that are working toward poverty eradication. It also aims for the widest possible reach by being entirely open-access: its one/two issues each year are free for download anywhere in the world without any requirement to provide personal information. Journal ASAP invites submission of original work and maintains a rigorous double-blind peer review system that provides constructive feedback to assist authors in presenting their work in a way that is clear, broadly accessible and practically useful. Journal ASAP is a pure Open Access Journal and allows the author to retain the copyright in their articles. Articles are made available under a Creative Commons licence (CC-BY) to allow others to freely access, copy and use research provided the author is correctly attributed.

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Journal of Academics Stand Against Poverty

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Article recordVersion of recordOpen accessVol 7 No Special IssueAugust 17, 2026

Whose Justice? Forest Rights, Civil Society, and the Remaking of Environmental Governance in the Western Himalayas

In the Western Himalayas, the idea of justice in forests begins with the people who live alongside them. Here, forests are not just resources but part of everyday life, memory, and community rules. This paper follows th…

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Contributors

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  • Aanchal Seth

    Department of Political Science, Panjab University, Chandigarh, India

Abstract

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In the Western Himalayas, the idea of justice in forests begins with the people who live alongside them. Here, forests are not just resources but part of everyday life, memory, and community rules. This paper follows the journey of civil society organisations (CSOs) in Lahaul-Spiti and Kinnaur as they work to claim Community Forest Rights (CFRs) under the Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006. For twelve months, I travelled between villages, joined local meetings, spoke with elders and women leaders, and studied the records and campaigns of these groups. The aim was to see how CSOs come together, how they deal with traditional authorities, and why CFRs have not been implemented despite active mobilisation. The study finds that CSOs differ in form and approach but share the goal of keeping forests in community hands. They have slowed down some development projects and revived old conservation practices, yet face stalled claims due to unclear rules, official resistance, and competing economic plans. Customary systems in Lahaul-Spiti and Kinnaur remain essential, though not always open to all voices. Without changes to how claims are processed and without broader inclusion in decision-making, these rights are likely to remain on paper. Acknowledgements I am deeply grateful to all the regional civil society organisations for their insights and for participating in interviews for this study of Lahaul-Spiti and Kinnaur. Also thankful to all tribal members of both communities for their insights for the paper. Funding: This research received no external funding. Informed Consent Statement: Informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study. Data Availability Statement: The data presented in this study are available on request from the corresponding author. Conflicts of Interest: The author declares no conflicts of interest.

Keywords

Western HimalayasCivil SocietyCommunity Forest RightsHimachal PradeshEnvironmental Justice

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