The tribal communities of Meghalaya in northeast India—Khasis, Garos, and Jaintias—have a tradition of environmental conservation based on various religious beliefs which have been passed on from one generation to the other. Based on these beliefs, certain patches of forests are designated as sacred groves under customary law and are protected from any product extraction by the community. Such forests are very rich in biological diversity and harbor many endangered plant species including rare herbs and medicinal plants. Seventy‐nine sacred groves were located, denoted on a geographical map of Meghalaya, and studied for their biodiversity value, status, and vegetation characteristics. A baseline floristic survey revealed that at least 514 species representing 340 genera and 131 families were present in these sacred groves. The status of sacred groves was ascertained through canopy cover estimate. A little over 1.3% of total sacred grove area was undisturbed, 42.1% had relatively dense forest, 26.3% had sparse canopy cover, and 30.3% had open forest. The vegetation characteristics and species diversity of an undisturbed sacred grove were compared with that of an unprotected disturbed forest. The species diversity indices were higher for the sacred grove than for the disturbed forest. The species composition and community characteristics differed significantly between the two forests. Sociocultural aspects of sacred grove conservation were analyzed, and views of the local people were enlisted. Based on the findings, conservation strategies for sacred groves were suggested.

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This study adopts Ostrom's Social-Ecological Systems (SES) framework in empirical fieldwork to explain how local forestry institutions affect forest ecosystems and social equity in the community of Mawlyngbna in North-East India. Data was collected through 26 semi-structured interviews, participatory timeline development, policy documents, direct observation, periodicals, transect walks, and a concurrent forest-ecological study in the village. Results show that Mawlyngbna's forests provide important sources of livelihood benefits for the villagers. However, ecological disturbance and diversity vary among the different forest property types and forest-based livelihood benefits are inequitably distributed. Based on a behavioural rational choice approach, our analysis proposes a set of causal mechanisms that trace these observed socialecological outcomes to the attributes of the resource system, resource units, actorsInstitutions for sustainable forest governance 671 and governance system. We analyse opportunities and constraints of interactions between the village, regional, and state levels. We discuss how Ostrom's design principles for community-based resource governance inform the explanation of robustness but have a blind spot in explaining social equity. We report experiences made using the SES framework in empirical fieldwork. We conclude that mapping cross-level interactions in the SES framework needs conceptual refinement and that explaining social equity of forest governance needs theoretical advances.

Non-timber forest products are important component of subsistence and livelihood of tribal communities living in and near forests. This is of particular significance in the state of Arunachal Pradesh having more than 80% of geographical area under forest cover and predominantly inhabited by tribal people. Purpose of this study was to document the status and utilization pattern and to assess the economic value of NTFPs of the state. Present study was carried out in eight districts of Arunachal Pradesh viz., Changlang, East Kameng, Lower Subansiri, Tawang, Tirap, Upper Siang, West Kameng and West Siang covering 34 villages and 350 households. Altogether, 135 plant based and 36 animal based non-timber forest products were recorded. Among plant based NTFPs, 54 species were collected for leaves, 30 for stem and 22 for fruits. Most of the animal based NTFPs (93%) were collected/hunted for food. Average 20∼40 kg of NTFPs was collected annually per household. Maximum plant based NTFP collection was recorded from West Siang followed by West Kameng and Tawang. Similarly, highest collection of animal based NTFPs was recorded from West Siang followed by Tirap and Lower Subansiri. NTFP contributed more than 50% of annual income of the people of East Kameng, Tirap, Lower Subansiri and Upper Siang districts. An illiterate and unemployed person with minimum agricultural land was more dependent on forests for his livelihood than a literate jobholder. The study concludes that a large section of people of Arunachal Pradesh are dependent on NTFPs for their livelihood however due to its unscientific harvesting, the availability of NTFPs is receding with time. There is an urgent need to promote cultivation and scientific harvesting of NTFPs in order to conserve the plant and animal diversity of this global biodiversity hotspot and for ensuring livelihood security of the people living in this area.

In south Meghalaya, farmers maintain a variety of economically important plant species in arecanut agroforestry systems.We investigated plant species composition of arecanut agroforests of south Meghalaya and encountered 160 plants, which included 83 tree species, 22 shrub species, 41 herb species and 14 climber species. The study reveals that arecanut agroforests provide cash income, medicine, timber, fuelwood and edibles for household consumption as well as for sale. We conclude that these agroforestry systems serve as home for many economically important plant species, harbour rich biodiversity and mimic the natural forests both in structural composition as well as ecological and economic functions.