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2006

Differential Impacts of Commodification of Agriculture on People's Livelihoods and the Environment in the Western Ghats of India: An Extended Environmental Entitlement Analysis Shrinidhi Shivaram Ambinakudige

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THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

DIFFERENTIAL IMPACTS OF COMMODIFICATION OF AGRICULTURE ON PEOPLE’S LIVELIHOODS AND THE ENVIRONMENT IN THE WESTERN GHATS OF INDIA: AN EXTENDED ENVIRONMENTAL ENTITLEMENT ANALYSIS

By

SHRINIDHI AMBINAKUDIGE

A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Geography in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Degree Awarded: Spring Semester, 2006

The members of the Committee approve the dissertation of Shrinidhi Ambinakudige defended on 04/06/2006.

Daniel James Klooster Professor Directing Dissertation

Bruce Stiftel Outside Committee Member

Janet E. Kodras Committee Member

Xiaojun Yang Committee Member

Approved: ____________________________________ Barney Warf, Chair, Department of Geography ____________________________________ David Rasmussen, Dean, College of Social Sciences

The Office of Graduate Studies has verified and approved the above named committee members.

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To My Mother

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS During the evolution of this dissertation I have accumulated many debts, only a proportion of which I have space to acknowledge here. This work would never have become reality without the help and suggestions of many friends and colleagues. I do not have the words to express my gratitude to Dan Klooster my advisor. I thank him for his continuous support in the research. Dan was always there to listen and to give advice. Dan has been a friend and mentor. He taught me how to ask questions and express my ideas. Without his encouragement and constant guidance, I could not have finished this dissertation. I also thank Prof. Janet Kodras for all her help and suggestions in this endeavor. I would also like to thank Dr. Yang for all his suggestions and the help with the remote sensing part of my dissertation. I thank Dr. Bruce Stiftel for his valuable suggestions and keeping me out of trouble. I would like to thank all my committee members for giving insightful comments and reviewed my work on a very short notice. Tony Stallins even though is not my committee member has helped me several times in analyzing vegetation data. I am very thankful to Tony. I would like to thank FSU Graduate Studies for providing Dissertation Research Grant. I would also like to thank Center for Interdisciplinary Studies on Environment and Development, Bangalore for letting me use their resources. I am greatly thankful to Ramakrishna Hegde my schoolmate and a good friend for all the help during my fieldwork. Let me thank Dr. Kushalappa for all the valuable suggestions and assistance in Kodagu. Special thanks to Satish for helping me with vegetation sampling and sharing some of his data. Thanks also to Girish and his family for the great hospitality in Kodagu. I would also like to thank Rama from tribal settlement for guiding me through the jungles of Nagarahole and helping me to understand the livelihoods of the tribal people. I have no words to thank Andy and Jodi for all the help from the first day I entered the US to date. Andy is one of the greatest people I have ever met. Thank you Andy. Thanks to Barney and Jonathan for all the support. Special thanks to Mort Winsberg for always encouraging me.

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I am grateful to two very important persons who helped me during the last 4 years, Stephen Hodge of FREAC and Linc Clay of FDEP. I thank them for giving me an opportunity to work with them and to survive during the times of difficulties. There are several people I would like to thank in the department - Matt Lake, Jeff U. Jeff D, Carter, Chad, Shawn, Micheala, Kelly, Richie, and Gabriel. I am also grateful to Shea for all her help in this study from editing initial proposal to the final draft. I would like to thank my FREAC friends Georgianna, Buddy and Beverly for making me feel at home for the last 4 years. I would also like to thank Manjunath, Chandrika and their family for all the help and suggestions through out my stay in this country. I would also like to thank all my desi friends Harshal, Bala, Basant,Anand and Mahesh for standing by me during the times of both successes and failures. Thanks to my Bangalore friends Amar, Paramesha and Ganesh for readily helping with the all the information from home. I thank my great friends Muthatha, Mohan and Deb for brainwashing me to do PhD. I also like to thank my sister Vijayashri and Pandit for supporting and listening to my frustration and complaints and believing in me. There are no words or ways to thank my great mother for her all sacrifice for me. I also would like to thank my father and brother for all the support.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES ....................................................................................................................... ix LIST OF FIGURES ...................................................................................................................... x ABSTRACT.................................................................................................................................. xi 1. INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW ............................................................................... 1 Introduction..................................................................................................................................1 Contributions to scholarship ........................................................................................................2 Study area.....................................................................................................................................7 Goals of the dissertation...............................................................................................................8 2. EXTENDED ENVIRONMENTAL ENTITLEMENT FRAMEWORK TO STUDY PEOPLE’S LIVELIHOODS AND ENVIRONMENTAL TRANSFORMATIONS ............ 10 Livelihoods and environmental transformation in the literature................................................11 Livelihood concepts: Livelihoods, rural livelihoods, peasant livelihoods and sustainable livelihoods............................................................................................................................. 11 Peasant livelihoods and commodification of agriculture...........................................................13 Political ecology studies on environmental conservation and livelihood outcomes..................16 Structuration theory to understand the institutional factors of environmental transformation and the people’s livelihoods.......................................................................................................20 Environmental entitlement analysis to understand livelihoods and the environmental change 21 Sen’s entitlement approach to study poverty and famine ..........................................................22 Entitlement analysis in natural resources...................................................................................25 Extended Environmental Entitlement Analysis .........................................................................29 Application of EEE framework to the livelihood and land use and land cover change impacts of coffee in Kodagu ...................................................................................................................38 Summary ....................................................................................................................................39 3. STUDY AREA AND METHODOLOGY......................................................................... 41 Geography..................................................................................................................................41 Forests ........................................................................................................................................42 Land tenure system in Kodagu ..................................................................................................44 Agriculture .................................................................................................................................44 People and society......................................................................................................................45 Methodology ..............................................................................................................................46 Village ethnographies ........................................................................................................... 48 Archival study....................................................................................................................... 50 Studies on environmental transformations............................................................................ 50 4. IMPACTS OF COMMODIFICATION OF AGRICULTURE IN KODAGU ON THE LIVELIHOOD OUTCOMES OF THE FARMING COMMUNITIES ................................ 52 Introduction................................................................................................................................52 International Institutions in the coffee market ...........................................................................53 Coffee cultivation.......................................................................................................................54 Coffee economics: role of states in shaping livelihood outcomes of the coffee growers..........55 International coffee agreements and the development of coffee based livelihoods ..................57 Role of coffee boards in entitlement mapping of the coffee growers........................................58 History and development of coffee as a livelihood earner in India ...........................................59 Coffee as a new entitlement in Kodagu .....................................................................................61

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Role of land tenure system in growth of coffee and livelihood outcomes.................................62 Entitlement mapping for farmers in Kodagu after the introduction of coffee ...........................63 Coffee price fluctuations and its impact on the coffee e-mapping in Kodagu during the early history of coffee cultivation .......................................................................................................66 History of state and the planters associations’ intervention in the coffee market ................ 67 Change in the structure: From Coffee Board pooling system to open market and its impact on coffee growers’ entitlement .......................................................................................................69 Role of coffee growers’ associations in opening up of Indian coffee market ...........................69 Post 1997 coffee e-mapping for the growers in Kodagu ...........................................................73 Financial institutions as barriers as well as stimulants in coffee e-mapping .............................74 Role of the state during financial crisis......................................................................................77 Influence of alternative financial institutions on coffee e-mapping in Kodagu.........................78 Labor management as an institution in coffee e-mapping .........................................................79 Coffee Board of India as an institutional barrier .......................................................................80 Influence of local coffee market as a new institution on coffee e-mapping of growers ............82 Coffee price fluctuations and growers’ vulnerability ................................................................83 Liberalization policies of the government and its impact on coffee e-mapping........................85 Natural causes and its impacts on coffee e-mapping .................................................................86 Effect of drought on the coffee e-mapping ........................................................................... 86 Impact of coffee white stem borer on the coffee e-mapping ................................................ 87 Intercropping as secondary e-mapping for the coffee growers..................................................87 Rice e-mapping for peasant farmers ..........................................................................................89 Ginger e-mapping for peasant farmers ......................................................................................89 Other minor e-mappings for peasant farmers ............................................................................90 Vulnerability reduction measures by the growers during coffee crisis......................................90 Policy implications for the future of coffee ...............................................................................92 Conclusions................................................................................................................................93 5. INFLUENCE OF FOREST, COFFEE AND RELATED INSTITUTIONAL CHANGES ON THE LIVELIHOOD CAPABILITIES OF LANDLESS AND TRIBAL PEOPLE IN KODAGU .............................................................................................................. 94 Introduction................................................................................................................................94 E-mappings for the tribal people during the king’s and the British regime...............................96 E-mappings for the tribal people during the post colonial period ...........................................100 Change in the NTFP e-mapping of the tribal people ...............................................................102 NTFP marketing by LAMPS ...................................................................................................103 Coffee labor e-mapping for the tribal and landless people in Kodagu ....................................113 Role of Planter’s Association in shaping e mapping for labor in coffee .................................114 Contract laborers in the coffee plantations and their entitlement ............................................118 Effect of coffee crisis on the livelihoods of tribal people and landless laborers .....................119 Role of political power on tribal people’s e-mapping .............................................................123 Tribal people’s participation in the state political process.......................................................124 Tribal people’s participation in the local political process ......................................................125 Role of Social welfare department in creating entitlement for the tribal people .....................126 Vulnerability reducing measures by the landless and tribal people.........................................127 Summary: Environmental entitlement for tribal people ..........................................................128

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6. ENVIRONMENTAL TRANSFORMATIONS: LAND USE AND LAND COVER CHANGE, AND BIODIVERSITY CHANGE IN KODAGU............................................... 130 Land use and land cover change in Nokya village ..................................................................131 Data and Methodology.............................................................................................................132 Land use and land cover changes in the recent decade............................................................133 Geometric rectification of LANDSAT images ................................................................... 133 Principal Components Analysis (PCA) .............................................................................. 135 Tasseled cap transformation ............................................................................................... 135 Image classification ............................................................................................................ 136 Change detection................................................................................................................. 138 Biodiversity change accompanying land cover change ...........................................................142 Vegetation sampling in coffee plots and sacred groves...................................................... 144 Results of Shannon Weiner index....................................................................................... 146 Results of Simpson reciprocal index................................................................................... 147 Environmental transformations due to change in the e-mapping of the social actors in Nokya village ...................................................................................................................... 148 Conclusions......................................................................................................................... 151 7. CONCLUSIONS ............................................................................................................... 153 Environmental Transformations ..............................................................................................154 Livelihood implications of coffee E-mappings........................................................................156 Livelihood implications for farmers due to the introduction of coffee............................... 156 Livelihood implications for tribal people due to the introduction of coffee....................... 157 Livelihood implications of coffee market liberalization..........................................................158 Effect of global open market for coffee on the growers’ livelihood outcomes .................. 159 Effect of global open market for coffee on the tribal people’s livelihood outcomes ......... 160 NTFP entitlement mapping for tribal people contributing to their total well-beings ......... 160 Vulnerability reduction measures ............................................................................................161 Land use and land cover implications of people’s livelihood decisions............................. 163 Policy implications for the future of coffee ........................................................................ 163 EEEF an effective tool for analyzing human dimensions of environmental change...............166 REFERENCES.......................................................................................................................... 169 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH ................................................................................................... 181

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LIST OF TABLES Table 5-1 Distribution of tribal population across three talukas of Kodagu................................. 95 Table 5-2 Institutional changes in the Nagarahole forests in Kodagu ........................................ 100 Table 6-1 Results of accuracy assessment of 1991 land use and land cover map produced from Landsat + TM.............................................................................................................................. 137 Table 6-2 Results of accuracy assessment of 2002 land use and land cover map produced from Landsat + ETM ........................................................................................................................... 138 Table 6-3 Land cove change between 1991 and 2002................................................................ 139 Table 6-4 Expansion of agricultural in various land tenures over the last century..................... 141 Table 6-5 Alpha diversity indices ............................................................................................... 147 Table 6-6 Species count, importance, relative density and dominance in unredeemed coffee, redeemed coffee and sacred groves ............................................................................................ 149

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LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2-1: Entitlement mapping for the landless laborer (an example for exchange entitlement) ....................................................................................................................................................... 24 Figure 2-2 Environmental Entitlement Framework...................................................................... 27 Figure 2-3 Total well-being or capabilities of the social actor of interest .................................... 32 Figure 2-4 Environmental transformations due to total well beings of the social actors and the natural causes affecting further availability of goods and services .............................................. 33 Figure 3-1 Study area.................................................................................................................... 42 Figure 4-1 Farmer’s entitlement mapping before the introduction of Coffee in Kodagu............. 64 Figure 4-2 E-mapping for a farmer after the introduction of coffee in Kodagu ........................... 65 Figure 4-3 Production and export of coffee in India..................................................................... 69 Figure 4-4 Institutions influencing Coffee E-mapping soon after Indian coffee market opened up ....................................................................................................................................................... 72 Figure 4-5 Farm gate price paid to growers in India .................................................................... 74 Figure 4-6 Distribution of blossom and back up showers in Nokya village................................. 86 Figure 4-7 Coffee e-mapping for the grower after the Coffee open market ................................. 91 Figure 5-1 National Parks and Sanctuaries of Karnataka ............................................................. 97 Figure 5-2 Kuruba tribal woman with her grand children and her fuel wood stock for the day .. 98 Figure 5-3 E- mapping for the tribal people before the British regime in Kodagu ..................... 98 Figure 5-4 E-mapping for the tribal people during the colonial period ........................................ 99 Figure 5-5 E-mappings for the tribal people during the post colonial period............................. 102 Figure 5-6 NTFP e-mapping for the tribal people in Kodagu .................................................... 107 Figure 5-7 E-mapping for the tribal people in Nagapura ( tribal relocation center)................... 112 Figure 5-8 Coffee labor e-mapping for the landless people in Kodagu...................................... 121 Figure 6-1 Environmental transformations due to the process of various e-mappings .............. 130 Figure 6-2 Land tenure classification in Nokya village.............................................................. 134 Figure 6-3 Land cover in 1991 and 2002 in Nokya village in Kodagu ...................................... 140 Figure 6-4 Change in the area under different land cover classes in Nokya between 1991 and 2002............................................................................................................................................. 141 Figure 6-5 Quadrate layouts for vegetation sampling in sacred groves and coffee plots ........... 145 Figure 6-6 Distribution of total 108 species in three land tenures .............................................. 146

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ABSTRACT This study analyzed the differential impacts of commodification of agriculture on people’s livelihoods and the environment in the Western Ghats of India. This study was conducted in Kodagu region of Western Ghats: a major coffee growing area in India. In this study, an extended environmental entitlement framework was developed and used to understand the institutional influence in livelihood outcomes of the social actors and the environmental transformations of the region. Tribal people and the coffee growers are the two socially differentiated actors considered in this study. This political ecology study used multiple methods including ethnography, vegetation study and remote sensing and GIS methods. The study found that peasants and tribal people became more vulnerable to market volatility after the global and national coffee institutional measures to regulate the market were removed. Furthermore, the creation of protected area reduced tribal people’s access to forest products and increased their dependence on coffee labor market. This makes their livelihoods especially vulnerable to global coffee price fluctuations. Commodification of agriculture also changed the land use and land cover patterns in Kodagu. While introduction of coffee led to conversion of large tracts of forests, price fluctuations after the introduction of open market for coffee forced the conversion of land under subsistence agriculture to commercial agriculture. Introduction of coffee entitlement mapping also resulted in tree density and species diversity change. Exotic tree species are becoming more common in coffee plots because there were fewer restrictions on cutting and marketing of these species compared to native tree species. The extended environmental entitlement framework helps to analyze the complex relation between livelihoods and environmental changes without prioritizing either environmental or social factors in analysis. The framework also incorporates the spatial and temporal dynamic influence of institutions that act as “stimulants” or “barriers” in the process of entitlement mapping. The framework also helps to integrate social and environmental data collected from different methods. The dynamic nature of the framework allows political ecologists to adapt it to study issues relating to the livelihood dimensions of global environmental changes.

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1. INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW Introduction In this study, I will develop and use “extended environmental entitlement analysis framework” to examine the differential livelihood impacts and environmental changes resulting from the expansion of coffee into forest and from forest conservation policies in the Kodagu region of the Western Ghats of India. Seeds of a major land use and land cover change were sown in the Kodagu region of Western Ghats of India in 1854 when the first commercial coffee plantation was established. Since the introduction of coffee, thousands of acres of forests have been converted to coffee in the Western Ghats. Today coffee provides livelihoods for coffee plantation owners, millions of peasant coffee growers, landless laborers and tribal people. Since coffee is a heavily traded commodity in the world (next only to oil), and heavily depend on the export market, the global coffee market fluctuations have significant influence on the livelihoods of millions of coffee growers and laborers, and the environment in the tropics. Coffee in the Western Ghats is considered as one of the major causes of deforestation (Menon and Bawa 1998). Over the years, environmental degradation in terms of deforestation and biodiversity loss became a subject of concern that led to creation of national parks and wildlife sanctuaries and restriction of the spread of coffee cultivation in the forest areas in Western Ghats. Creation of the protected areas also led the tribal people depending on the forest resources to shift their livelihood dependence from forest products to coffee labor market exposing them to higher vulnerability due to global market change. How these vulnerabilities induced due to global nature of coffee market on tribal people and the coffee growers in Kodagu intensified after the liberalization of Indian economy and after the collapse of International Coffee Agreement is a topic that has to be explored. This is a complex situation where development through market economy of commodity agriculture that replaces the forest, and the conservation of forest by creating protected areas, are acting simultaneously and shaping the livelihoods and the environmental transformation in one of the biodiversity hotspots of the world.

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The situation in Kodagu is a clear example of a significant and frequently occurring dilemma of environment and development in the developing world. Like many other regions in the developing countries, in Kodagu region also the process of development focused on extension of commodity agriculture at the expense of natural vegetation, and the typical response was the creation of parks and forest-use restrictions to counter-act that expansion. Like elsewhere in the world, thus the human dimensions of environmental change in Kodagu include the livelihood implications of both deforestation and forest protection. Several formal and informal institutions play a vital role in the process of these conflicts that lead to environmental transformation and the livelihood outcomes. This study tries to uncover the different institutional dynamics that filter through the various spatial and temporal scales in shaping the resource use decisions in terms of gaining endowment and entitlement over the resources and thereby gaining livelihood outcomes by social actors. Study also examines how these livelihood outcomes further shape the environmental transformation and thereby the availability of resources that affect the future livelihood outcomes. In particular, this study uses entitlement analysis to examine how global, regional and local institutions play roles in coffee cultivation and market, and forest protection influence the land use and land cover change in the Kodagu region, and how these changes shape the livelihood outcomes of the peasant coffee growers, tribal people and landless laborers of the region.

Contributions to scholarship Impacts of expansion of commercial agriculture on the global environmental changes and the livelihood changes are complex, and poorly understood. Commercial agriculture brings more monetary benefits and job opportunities; however, they also introduce high levels of global market volatility. Expansion of commercial agriculture also converts forests to agricultural lands, and reduces the subsistence agriculture. States practice an exclusionary conservation strategy to stop deforestation due to increased demand for land and the resources. This strategy also leads to the diminishing livelihood opportunities for the forest dependents. In addition to these traditional complexities to the environmental and development relations, the liberalization policies of the states change the economic and the environmental outcomes of the regions. States that are members of WTO and other trade agreements will face challenge to provide subsidies and support prices to the agricultural sector. The open market policies with restrictions on

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agricultural subsides will have significant influence on the livelihood outcomes of the social actors.Understanding these complex relationships among the commercial agriculture, global market volatility, environmental transformation, conservation policies and the livelihood changes and vulnerabilities require a framework. This framework should encompass both environmental changes of deforestation and the changes to the social structures. So, understanding the political ecologies of environmental change requires theory that links livelihood to both nature (environmental change) and society (social change), through the lens of institutions. Due to the complex nature of human-environmental relations, this study utilizes insights from peasant studies, land use and land cover change studies, political ecology and entitlement studies to understand the livelihoods and the environmental transformations that are shaped by the multi level institutional influences. Political ecology, peasant studies, livelihood studies and land use and land cover studies have argued that the explanations of the relationships between people, environment and landscape have to operate at multiple scales. With colonization, invasions, changes in technologies and markets, the rural areas have long been part of global systems of flows, exchanges and extractions. The political ecology studies drew attention to the ways in which marginality, environmental degradation, poverty, and hunger have been produced in the process of the progressive incorporation of peasantries into capitalist systems of production and exchange (Watts1983, Wisner 1978, Blaikie 1985). Studies on livelihoods and environmental interactions in political ecology have identified that the rural livelihoods and environments in the developing countries are being deeply reworked due the global flows related to international policies and agreements, development policies, trade networks and the circulation of ideas, and local institutional dynamics. While it is clear that the rural livelihoods could not be thought of independently of contemporary and historical process of institutional development, it is also the case that the degree, nature, and forces of livelihood outcomes varies significantly among socially differentiated actors. The peasant studies and political ecology studies have also argued that the market intervention through the introduction of commercial crops and trade, colonialism (Watt 1983) has profound implications for complex forms of household differentiation, accumulation, and proletarianization. As Rocheleau et al (1996) have suggested, diversified livelihood opportunities due to globalization and capitalistic development continues to structure peasant land use choices,

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and at the same time insist that land use changes also structure livelihood possibilities and other social practices. Political ecology takes the stand that the explanations of the relationships between people, environment and landscape have to operate at multiple scales. Blaikie and Brookfield (1987) argued for chain of explanation stretching from the local and regional production choices to global political economic processes, Vayda (1983) called for progressive contextualization, Watt (1983) critiqued the theory that works across that scales and the world system theorist Wallerstein (1974) explained why modernization have wide-ranging and different effects on different parts of the world. Livelihood studies focus the importance of institutions and organizations in mediating access to resources and the overall quality of livelihoods. The studies suggest that the rural livelihoods cannot be understood independently of these networks and organizations at multiple scales. Therefore, the challenge is to explain the livelihoods in terms of their relationships with these institutions. The land use and land cover change studies point out that deforestation is quite frequently accompanied by processes of expanding agricultural commodity production (Geist and Lambin 2001). A common conservation policy against the loss of biodiversity accompanying the expansion of agriculture is the declaration of parks and protected areas. These conservation policies are often the subject of political ecological scrutiny (Peluso 1992, Bryant 1997, Klooster 2000, Robbins 2004). Informed by an appreciation of local knowledge and a reasoned rejection of simplistic Malthusian narratives of environmental change, political ecologists frequently examine the livelihood and social justice implications of conservation policies, including the possibilities for political alliances that would permit biodiversity conservation with rural development. The question, however, is with livelihoods of the peasants and the tribal people increasingly included in the global economy, how these alliances of environmental transformations and the livelihood outcomes could be achieved? Just as livelihoods become increasingly global, so too are local ecologies. Land use and land cover change and the biodiversity changes are the two important ecological aspects studied by the political ecologists. There is a debate on how much ecological analysis is involved in the studies in political ecology. As Bebbington and Batterburry (2001) suggested, the degree of ecological analysis or intensity of political economic and discursive analysis in the study should be dependent on the question being asked and the proclivities of the researcher. This study

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examines the land use and land cover change and the biodiversity change over the years that resulted due to global coffee market change, regional forest policies and change in livelihood outcomes of the socially differentiated actors in the region. The Institutional dimensions of global environmental change (IDGEC) recognized the role of institutions in the process of land use and land cover change. Institutions as defined by the Science plan for IDGEC, are systems of rules, decision making procedures, and programs that give rise to social practices, assign roles to participants in these practices, and guide interactions among the occupants of the relevant roles. The deforestation studies (Lambin et al 2001, Geist and Lambin 2002) stress the complexity of land use and land cover change that involves the connectedness of people and places through globalization, formal trade agreements, environmental laws, state welfare policies, local customs and livelihoods. Understanding land use and land cover change, therefore, requires research that recognize the role of global factors, captures the generic qualities of socioeconomic and biophysical drivers, and situates such factors in the context of place based human environmental research. However, integration land use land cover change and the ethnographic and socialeconomic data is still a major challenge to the researchers. A framework that can accommodate the integration of these two data to understand the human-environment interaction is required. This study contributes to this research agenda by developing a theory of how the multilevel institutional factors influence the local land use and land cover change. The study contributes to the institutional dimensions in the science plan, which calls for research in clarifying roles that social institutions play in causing and conflicting global environmental changes (Young, Agarwal et al 1999). The political ecology approach requires a more balanced approach to understand the interrelationship between human agency and the institutional structure. Even though political economic structure influence local social actor’s land use decisions, the social actors constantly resist, contest, and recreate those structures (Giddens 1984, Leach et al 1999). Through these processes, the social actors are capable of modifying not only natural environment but also the larger political, economic and social structure, which in turn promote or limit the livelihood outcomes of the social actors. Even though the political ecology, peasant studies, livelihood studies and the land use and land cover studies have acknowledged the influence of the institutional factors on the

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environmental transformations and the livelihoods outcomes, the relationships between environmental change and institutional change are not clearly understood. The effect of market liberalization on environment and livelihood, an issue of relevance in the world of increasing free trade, is an important topic that urgently requires an integrated, institutionalist perspective such as this study adopts. Leach et al (1997, 1999) in their entitlement approach to study the environment and livelihood relationships adopted an institutionalist approach. The entitlement approach was originally developed by Sen (1981) to analyze famine. Leach et al’s approach did tried to bring some nuances of environmental and livelihood relations and institutional factors affecting them. However, this framework could better recognize the livelihood diversity of the local actors and it could better specify the environmental transformations involved. So in this study an extended environmental entitlement framework will be developed which provides a useful analytic tool for the continued development of political ecology, land use and land cover change, livelihood studies and peasant studies. To understand how these local, regional and international institutional dynamics play role in social actor’s gaining access and control of the resources and shaping livelihoods, using the environmental entitlement approach will enrich political ecology. This study contributes to scholarship through the development and application of an extended environmental entitlement approach that will enrich political ecological understanding of the institutional dynamics of the human dimensions of global change. Furthermore, this study contributes to scholarship because it develops understanding about a specific region where land cover change dynamics have biodiversity implications of global significance. Because the region is experiencing the effects of the liberalization of the global and national coffee markets, a better understanding of land use and livelihood changes here will be of value for comparative regional studies. My dissertation examines the differential impacts of expansion coffee in the forest areas and together with the policies on forest use on the livelihoods of tribal people, landless laborers and the agriculturists and how these activities dynamically shape the changes in resource availability and environment in the Kodagu region of the Western Ghats of Karnataka state in India.

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Study area To find answer to these questions, a study was conducted using multi-methodology including ethnography, remote sensing and GIS, and archival studies in the Kodagu region of Western Ghats of India –one of the biodiversity hotspots of the world, inhabited by relatively wealthy coffee planters, peasants, and tribal peoples. In Kodagu region like many other regions in the developing countries, the process of development focused on the extension of commodity agriculture, and like many regions, the national parks were created to counter the development and the conserve the environment. In the Kodagu district of Western Ghats of Karnataka state, forest and coffee are the two main sources of livelihood for the people. Today, forests cover about 36 percent of the land, which is a drastic reduction from 88 percent in 1920. About 71 percent of forest loss is due to coffee cultivation (Menon and Bawa 1998). Europeans introduced coffee in a plantation scale to Kodagu after 1854. Initially, large tracts of forested areas were thrown open for coffee cultivation. The region witnessed increased capital investment by the European planters, and the increased labor migration. Over the years even the local agriculturists who traditionally cultivated rice also introduced coffee in areas of forest they controlled. With little demand in the domestic market, coffee was depending on the European market. Even today, these shade grown coffees depend on the global market. Because of this dependence on global market, and to help the grower to withstand the global coffee market fluctuations, the Indian Coffee Board was established in 1942. The Board, which represents the coffee growers, traders, curing works, and exporters until recently had complete control over the coffee marketing, coffee market promotion, research and extension, and finance. The Board and the state encouraged coffee cultivation by providing land, subsidies, loans, research and technology. Coffee became a major proximate cause of deforestation and also an employment generator of the region. When coffee was introduced to the region, the colonial government had already established the centralized control over the forestland. State allotted forestlands for coffee and cardamom cultivation and at the same time restricted access to remaining forest areas where it continued production forestry. Postcolonial state also continued fundamentally the same forest policy. As more and more forests were converted to coffee, global and the national conservationists, environmentalists and the wildlife activists, pressured the government to

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declare several forest areas as national parks and wildlife sanctuaries. These policies of the successive governments further restricted the access and control of forest resources by the local tribal and the non-tribal populations. At the same time, in order to protect the livelihoods, the state gave exclusive privileges to collect non timber forest products to tribal people in certain types of forests. Furthermore, formal and informal social, cultural, economic and political institutions that operate in the various temporal and spatial levels of the process of commodification of forest resources in also affect the livelihood outcomes of the tribal people, landless laborers, and agriculturists.

Goals of the dissertation In this dissertation, I develop and use the Extended Environmental Entitlement Framework (EEEF) to understand the institutional barriers and stimulants operating on various spatial and temporal scales and its impacts on the coffee and forest resources based livelihood outcomes of the tribal people (Kurubas and Yaravas) and the farming communities. This study also examines the dynamics of environmental changes amidst the differential livelihood outcomes of the actors. The central objectives of this research project are to examine first, how land use land cover change combines with related institutional changes to affect livelihoods amidst the commodification of agriculture. Second, it examines how change in livelihood opportunities leads to subsequent environmental change in terms of biodiversity, and land use and land cover change. Here, commodification of agriculture is defined as cultivating commercial crops for market rather than growing food crops primarily for household consumption and only secondarily for the market in this case it is Coffee. Third, it examines the impact of the liberalization of the international and Indian coffee markets on land use and livelihood in a specific region of India. The dissertation is organized in to six chapters. In the first chapter, I introduce the study question and explain the importance of the study in the context of human dimensions of global change and political ecology. In the second chapter, I will review the literature from political ecology studies, peasant studies, livelihood studies; land use and land cover studies and the entitlement studies to understand the approaches used by the scholars to study the impact of commodification of agriculture and livelihood change and the environmental transformations. In

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this chapter, I will also develop “extended environmental entitlement analysis” framework to study the human-environment interactions. Chapter 3 will discuss the study area and methodology. In chapter 4, I discuss the research results that deal with the introduction of coffee to Kodagu, global coffee market, and its impact on the local peasant growers’ livelihoods. In the chapter 5, I discuss the role of forest policies and coffee on tribal livelihoods. Chapter 6 will be on the environmental transformation in the study area that is due to the global coffee market change, local forest policies, and the local land tenure regimes, and also due to the change in the livelihood outcomes. In Chapter 7, I will conclude the results of this study.

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2. EXTENDED ENVIRONMENTAL ENTITLEMENT FRAMEWORK TO STUDY PEOPLE’S LIVELIHOODS AND ENVIRONMENTAL TRANSFORMATIONS Agriculture is the major livelihood option for millions of people in developing countries. Forest resource extraction is another livelihood option that, together with agriculture activities, supports the livelihoods of the poor. Agricultural laborers, peasant farmers, large farmers and the capitalists are the different social classes that depend on agriculture for their livelihood. While agriculture provides livelihoods for millions of people, it is also one of the causes for environmental degradation especially for deforestation and land use change. Reviewing 16 years of research on land cover change, researchers point out that deforestation is quite frequently accompanied by processes of expanding agricultural commodity production (Geist and Lambin 2001). A common response to the loss of biodiversity accompanying the expansion of agriculture is the declaration of parks and protected areas. The human dimensions of the environmental changes accompanying the expansion of commercial agriculture are complex, and poorly understood. On one hand, commodity agriculture creates opportunities for wages and profits. Global markets, however, often inject considerable volatility into those opportunities. Furthermore, the decline of subsistence agriculture, together with deforestation, diminishes other livelihood opportunities. Exclusionary conservation strategies further reduce forest-dependent livelihoods. Understanding the ways these geographies of global environmental change affect the livelihood of the poor requires a framework that encompasses both environmental changes of deforestation and the changes to the social structures that accompany first, the expansion of commodity agriculture and second, the conservation strategies that ostensibly ameliorate deforestation. So, understanding the political ecologies of environmental change requires theory that links livelihood to both nature (environmental change) and society (social change), especially through the lens of institutions. In this chapter, I will discuss the theoretical frameworks that deal with peasants, commercialization of agriculture, tribal and forest relations and the environmental / land use change that influence the people livelihoods and the environments, and how these studies approach the livelihood outcomes and the institutional dynamics. These reviews will help to

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develop the Extended Environmental Entitlement Framework. Since this study is interested in the peasant and tribal people livelihoods and the land use and land cover change due to commodification of agriculture, the ideas from peasant studies, tribal studies, political ecology, land use and land cover change and environmental entitlement are essential to successfully integrate consideration of both livelihoods and environmental transformation. The extended environmental entitlement approach then will be used to analyze the livelihood outcomes and the environmental transformations in the midst of micro, meso and macro level institutional dynamics at various temporal scales in the Kodagu region of southern India.

Livelihoods and environmental transformation in the literature Livelihood concepts: Livelihoods, rural livelihoods, peasant livelihoods and sustainable livelihoods Before developing extended environmental entitlement framework to study the livelihoods and the environment, we need to look back and see various approaches and concepts used in the livelihood studies and peasant studies. Peasant studies have contributed significantly to the understanding of the peasant livelihood options and the commodification of agriculture. Livelihood concept often defined for an individual or a family or a social group. Even though the livelihoods are defined for an individual person, it is linked to the livelihoods of the related social actors like family members, and other social groups. Blaikie et al (1994) define livelihood as, the command an individual, family or other social group has over an income and/ or other bundles of resources that can be used or exchanged to satisfy its needs. In the context of sustainable livelihood Ellis (1998) defines livelihood as ‘the activities, the assets, and the access that jointly determine the living gained by an individual or household’. Chambers and Conway (1992) say that a livelihood is sustainable when it can cope with and recover from stresses and shocks, maintain or enhance its capabilities and assets, while not undermining the resource base. The central concept in the definition of livelihood is ‘resources and the command over those resources’. As for the livelihood framework suggested by Neefjes (2000), resources are capitals like natural, human, physical, social and financial capitals, which affect the livelihood outcomes. Human capital includes labor, skills, experience, knowledge, creativity and inventiveness; Natural capital includes land, water, forests, pastures and minerals; Physical capital consists

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infrastructure, water and sanitation, transport, shelter; Financial capital includes cash, access to credit or liquid assets; social capital includes social groups and networks. These concepts of livelihoods however are static; they fail to acknowledge the process of gaining command over the resources and the creation of new resources. Ellis (1998) however, defines the rural livelihood diversification as ‘the process by which households construct a diverse portfolio of activities and social support capabilities for survival and in order to improve their standard of living’. When it comes to the rural livelihoods and the environmental relations, Chambers (1986) has developed the concept of sustainable development that establishes causal relationships between development and livelihoods, and environment and livelihoods. In the rural areas of developing world, livelihood strategies tend to be very diverse (Ellis, 1998). People apart from subsistence farming, often grow commercial crops, also rely on farm work, non-farm waged work, remittances from urban areas and abroad by the working family members. The landless people in rural areas might rely just on the farm labor and or non-farm labor. Tribal and nontribal people living in the forest areas might depend on the extraction of forest products for selfconsumption and or for sale. The outcomes of these livelihood strategies results in livelihood outcomes that refer to the changes for the better and for the worse in terms of income generation, food security and social change. These livelihood strategies and outcomes are structured by the institutional factors and the vulnerability factors (Ruben 2003). Vulnerability factors include shocks and stresses people have to cope with in their livelihood struggles (De Haan 2000). Shocks are violent and come unexpectedly. Stresses are less violent but can last longer. Floods and earthquakes for example are environmental shocks. Drought is an example of environmental stress. Falling prices, exchange rates, inflation and interest are some of the economic stresses. In politics, war and violence are some of the stress and shocks that could affect the livelihood outcomes. Institutional factors include organizations, policies, legislation, customary laws, and social norms. These factors determine which livelihood strategies are open and attractive (Carney 1999). Transforming structures and processes operate at various levels of society, from village and family levels up to the international level of global political and market institutions (Ruben 2003).

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A framework to analyze livelihood, therefore, requires sensitivity to resources, the process of converting them to needed goods and services, and the dynamics of change and vulnerability to change. The concept of livelihood in the extended environmental entitlement framework will therefore be the process by which an individual or a family or other social group is empowered to acquire income and/ or other bundles of resources and cope with and recover from stresses and shocks, maintain or enhance its capabilities and assets.

Peasant livelihoods and commodification of agriculture A review of peasant studies will help to understand effect on peasant livelihoods due to the integration of peasant sector into the capitalist economy through wages and the sale of products. The tropical countries missed the agricultural revolution happened in the temperate countries in the west in 1700s which further led to the industrial revolution. The next agricultural revolution was in 1850s when the industrial revolution provided new technology, fertilizers and machinery and energy to agricultural sector. This second revolution came to the tropics through colonial governments especially through the plantation crops. Even though before colonization, commodification of agriculture in terms of growing crops for trade was prevalent, in terms of area and technology colonial influence in commodification through plantation crops was significant. In India, spices trade to Rome and the Middle East existed before British established its colony. The attraction of these cash crops especially the spices was one of the reasons for colonization of the countries by the Europeans. However, extent of commodification increased after colonial governments encouraged the crops like coffee, tea and rubber cultivation. Capitalism can penetrate agriculture and transform existing social relations in a variety of ways that results in different class and land tenure configuration. Peasant studies speak of how the market intervention through the introduction of commercial crops and trade has changed the mode of production, thereby the livelihoods of the peasants. The word “peasant” in western world means the ways of life and frame of mind counter to “modernization” - a member of an agricultural class dependent on subsistence farming (Bryceson 2000). Peasant politics during 1960s has given way to a reconceptualization of peasants as “smallholders”—rational economic agents seeking material betterment through participation in agricultural commodity production. Peasantries are best understood as the historical outcome of an agrarian labor process which is constantly adjusting to surrounding conditions including markets, state exactions, political

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regimes, as well as technological innovations, demographic trends, and environmental changes. Displacement of peasant agriculture with plantation agriculture is de-peasantization but not deagrarianization that is more generalized and applied to the world (Bryceson 2000). In the second world, Lenin, Kautsky, Preobrazhensky and Chayanov were the leading theorists on peasant society who have different opinions on peasants and their mode of production. Lenin (1961) observed that richest and the poorest had more contact with the market, rich to sell their product, poor in the labor market. The middle peasantry provided for the subsistence needs of their family and produced surplus in good years that could be converted to capital. Preobrazhensky (1965) saw peasantry as critical for the production of food for the expanding urban working class and for export crops to earn hard currency for importing foreign machinery. Chayanov (1966), on the basis of decades of detailed rural survey data, conceptualized the peasant economy as being made up of family labor farms operating based on the subsistence needs rather than profit. However, all these studies have acknowledge the pressure from the market economy and the pressure to maintain the subsistence farming to balance the peasant livelihood outcomes. These studies identify the frequent peasant strategy of trying to mediate interactions with the market and reduce excessive dependence on the market for livelihood needs. The peasant studies in African have shown the colonial influence in terms of commodification of agriculture on the peasant livelihoods. Hyden (1980) argued that African peasants were made in the colonial era in the sense that smallholders using family labor were inserted into a wider social economy. He says that the survival of household production if at all in the present represents an active and independent pre-capitalists’ peasant mode of production. Watts (1983) also observed that the colonialism in Africa transformed peasant households into commodity producers in highly heterogeneous ways. Watts argues that colonialism preserved the peasant form of production yet transformed the conditions of reproduction. Commodification of agriculture and thereby the market dependency has brought about a structural change in the peasant livelihood processes in the form of rising cost of production, increased in and out migration, and dependency on export crops. Bernstein (1994) argued that deterioration in market prices for peasant export commodities, rising costs of land or labor, and the effect of rural development schemes encouraging the use of more expensive inputs without guarantees of higher output, caused peasant producers either to intensify their commodity

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production to reduce their level of consumption, or both. Watts (1983) says that commoditization has profound implications for complex forms of household differentiation, accumulation, and proletarianization. In colonial Nigeria, European and local merchant capital and the indigenous ruling class played a central role in the commodity production. The rural producers were increasingly incorporated into the market economy and commoditization of labor. As Watts (1983) observed, during the process of commodification of agriculture, capital penetration expanded differentially. Not all households adopted export crops, not all males migrated to work in the plantations, but all the people who find livelihood in the region experience the effect of commodification. The scholars have argued that pre-capitalist societies were mainly subsistence societies. According to Scott (1976), pre-capitalist societies were to a large degree, organized around the dual foci of risk and subsistence security. Popkin (1979) sees the peasant world as not composed of risk-averse minimizers, but of gamblers, free riders, and investors. However, Watts (1983) argues that the peasants most certainly gamble but for example the most risk averse intercropping strategy cannot guarantee good rains. Studies show that in a volatile economic condition and famine prone areas like in some parts of Africa, lower-caste households as a risk aversion method, were willing to accept a fixed, minimal payment in grain regardless of services provided on the grounds that it granted them security even during a bad harvest (Watts 1983). Researchers have also argued that the commodification of agriculture and dependency on export crops have helped the traditional society improving the stagnant subsistence farming and bringing better living conditions. Popkin (1980) argued that commercialization of agriculture and the development of strong central authorities are not wholly deleterious to peasant society. This is not because capitalism and /or colonialism are necessarily more benevolent than moral economists assume, but because traditional institutions are harsher and work less well than often believed (Popkin 1980). According to Lewis (1978), with the substitution of imported food for locally grown staples, more smallholders grew more export crops and through competition with one another, drove exports in industrialized courtiers. He believed that despite this disadvantage world market afforded a means for smallholders to lift themselves put of stagnant subsistence production. Today, some suggest that there is no choice but to reconceptualize the peasantry in the light of globalization; they cobble together diverse livelihoods from the opportunities opened and

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closed by the commodification of agriculture and other aspects of globalization (Kearney, 1996; Klooster 2005). Others suggest that peasantries are simply disappearing under the influence of structural adjustment policies and market liberalization. There is an argument that peasant economy has merely diversified and is less tied to land-based resources. All these suggest that the peasantry is affected by the influence of technological changes, open market economy, globalization, and capitalist form of agriculture, but the implications of these changes on the environmental role of peasants are subject to debate. Peasants in developing countries are more vulnerable to effect of land use change. As Rocheleau et al (1996) have suggested, diversified livelihood opportunities due to globalization and capitalistic development continues to structure peasant land use choices, and at the same time insist that land use changes also structure livelihood possibilities and other social practices. Parallel to, and sometimes overlapping the peasant literature, political ecologists and others examined the environmental role of peasants, arguing that they should be seen not as destroyers of environment but as potential agents for managing natural resources sustainably by involving them in the resource management and developmental activities (Ostrom 1990; Agarwal and Ribot 1999; Klooster 2000; Agarwal and Ostrom 2001; Peet and Watt 1996; Cernea 1985; Friedman and Rangan 1993; Bryant and Bailey 1997). .

Political ecology studies on environmental conservation and livelihood outcomes Agriculture provides livelihoods for millions of people at the same time it is also one of the causes for environmental degradation especially for deforestation, land use change and biodiversity change. Reviewing 16 years of research on land cover change, researchers point out that deforestation is quite frequently accompanied by processes of expanding agricultural commodity production (Geist and Lambin 2001). Livelihoods conditions of the people are interlinked with the environmental change. One of the earliest arguments in the environmental debate is that population growth and poverty are the main causes of environmental degradation. However, over the years, studies by political ecologists have shown that in developing countries environment is a livelihood issue (Blaikie and Brookfield 1987). Peet and Watts (1996) observed that not only poverty but also affluence could cause environmental degradation. Fairhead and 16

Leach (1998) found more vegetation in the areas where people live than other places in West Africa. With the introduction of concepts of sustainable development and the common property resources management, the relation between people and environment has been seen as a complex network linked to various scales of political, social, economical, institutional and natural influences. Political ecology studies are often criticized for too quickly looking for political causes of environmental change while missing or scanting the complex and contingent interactions of factors whereby actual environmental changes often produced (Vayda and Walters 1999). Lately, political ecology studies have tried to reintegrate more and more ecological studies in their studies. One of the environmental transformations that political ecologists study is the land use and land cover change. Land use change, especially from forest to other uses, has been identified as a major contributing factor to climate change, accounting for 33 percent of the increase in atmospheric CO2 since 1850 (Turner 2001). Political ecologists often use remote sensing and GIS as tools for analyzing land use and land cover change. These studies have argued that forest fragmentation and land use change have crucial implications for biodiversity (Forman 1995, Parks and Harcourt 2002, Southworth et al 2004). Fraser (2003) and Vasquez-Leon and Liverman (2004) illustrated how social and economic forces can create vulnerability to environmental disturbance. Political ecology has an advantage for integrating environmental studies and the social studies. Apart from studying the land use and land cover change and forest fragmentation, political ecologists also study the biodiversity studies to link it to the social causes. VasquezLeon and Liverman (2004) in their study on the political ecology of land use change in the Mexico integrated both political-economic studies and the environmental studies. They found out that the environmental transformations were partly political-economic, partly climatic and partly biophysical. The studies on relationships between environmental transformation and livelihood outcomes have to integrate environmental studies and the livelihood studies. Political ecology approach helps to develop these linkages. Political ecologists often incorporate the multi-scale analysis of institutional influence on the nature society interactions. These scales include both temporal and spatial. Studies (Toledo 1996; Ezcurra et al. 2001) have observed that deforestation, overgrazing, and the tensions resulting from contradictory policy objectives constitute significant global-scale changes in rural

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life. Political ecology has made important contributions in this regard by examining local processes within the context of global environmental and socioeconomic change (Stonich 1995). The studies have also analyzed impacts of the historical process of soci-economic changes and the environmental changes on the livelihood outcomes (Watts 1983). Political ecologists have also noted the livelihood and land use change implications of the myriad institutional changes imposed on forest inhabitants in the name of biodiversity conservation and states’ multiple interests in rural governance. Review of these studies is relevant here as the coffee, one of the major crops in the study area is said to be one of the major reasons for the deforestation in the Western Ghats (Bawa and Dayanandan 1997). To avoid further conversion of forest to agriculture and to reduce the impact of human influence on the forest, government created the national parks and sanctuaries by restricting the access to the area in order to conserve the biodiversity and wildlife. However, the studies by the grass root level researchers advocated for a decentralized conservation strategy with interests in rural development issues. Ghimire and Pimbert (1997) argued that the establishment of protected areas, which reduces the access to resources, would have an adverse effect on the livelihoods and food security of the people. For Redclift (1987), biodiversity conservation and ‘sustainable development’ can only become a reality when the livelihoods of the poor are given priority. When it comes to forest and communities, community forest management researches have argued that forest and the land are often inseparable part of the identity of communities thus community management is required for biodiversity maintenance in the culture survival of these groups (Bailey 1996). It was also argued that the dependence on natural resources by the communities may reflect a lack of access to alternative resources for communities to make living (Horta 2000). Studies on protected areas and the peasant and tribal livelihoods (Peluso 1992, Bryant 1997, Klooster 2000) in developing countries have argued that state’s policy failed to address the structures of rural poverty that perpetuate “criminal” acts against the forest by villagers. Peluso (1992) argued that the state’s cultural control and peasant’s cultural resistance results in social tension and environmental degradation. Forest depletion or degradation is the culmination of complex interactions between shifting interests (Dove 1984; Blaikie 1985). Robbins (2000) in his analysis of the role corruption in the wildlife sanctuary in Rajasthan, India, observed that the

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corruption is an institutionalized system of nature/society interaction influencing the social capital formation and also the environmental outcomes. Political ecologists, therefore, are extremely interested in the question of what social actors and institutional arrangements can best encourage conservation (Klooster and Ambinakudige 2005). Guha (1989) suggested that Chipko movements in the Uttarakhand in India should be understood as peasant struggles that seek to oppose commercial forestry regimes in the name of a moral economy of provision. In Mexico, state’s restriction on local people to use the forest resources led to resistance in the form of tree theft (Klooster 2000). In Indonesia, forest service thinks that they are doing their duty for the greater national interest. Peasantry has historically understood land in terms of its use value, not the exchange value. These symbolic conflicts according to Peluso (1992) have profound consequences for environmental degradation and peasant livelihood. State’s restriction on local people to use the forest resources led to resistance in the form of tree theft. Peluso (1992) recommends for reorientations of state forest policies based on the origin of peasant resistance. More recently, political ecologists and others have begun to address the implications of current tendencies to decentralization and privatization in the management of biodiversity and other natural resources. Political ecologists analyze the political context on institutional change. Advocates of decentralization in natural resources management argue that if the power is transferred to the local people both environmental and livelihood outcome will improve. India’s large-scale multi-purpose cooperative societies (LAMPS) are expected to improve the livelihood possibilities of tribal peoples by improving collective access to credit, farm inputs, marketing of produce, and provision of essential consumption goods. The critical literature on LAMPS, however, suggest that LAMPS have failed in achieving their goals of tribal welfare due to the fact that heavy handedness of the government nominees in LAMPS, lack of accountability, corruption and lack of education for the tribal people (Rajgopalan 2003; Lele and Rao 1999). Similarly, community based natural resources management (CBNRM) literature in the political ecology of forest conservation, for example, many argue that community-based management arrangements such as Joint Forest Management in India (Agarwal 2001, Hildyard et al.1998, Martin 1999), community forestry in Mexico (Klooster and Ambinakudige 2005) will balance the conservation and development needs. Here too, however, critical analysis suggests the process of decentralization failed to empower communities or tribal groups.

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Decentralization is a process in which governments redistribute power away from the center in a territorial administrative hierarchy (Agarwal 2001). Decentralization requires both power transfer and accountable representation. Choosing representative and accountable local institution is key for equity, justice and efficiency (Ribot 2002). Scholars also argued that the level of decentralization, influence of local elites (Namara and Nsabagasani 2002), lack of education (Ribot 2001) and insufficient power transformation (Bazaara 2002, Ribot 1999) were some of the reasons found affecting the desired outcomes of the decentralized institutions. While political decentralization has resulted varied levels of outcomes in terms of equity, justice and efficiency, decentralization in the natural resources management also has varied outcomes (Klooster and Ambinakudige 2005). Political ecology approach helps to analyze the institutional impact on the people’s access and rights over the natural resources. It also helps to analyze the role of power in the form of political structure and the social structures in the livelihood and environmental transformation processes. Even though institutional approach is very well developed in the political ecology approaches, some of the aspects of structuration theory and the entitlement analysis will enhance the capabilities of the political ecology approaches to identify the combined contributions of environmental and institutional change on livelihood, and the way institutional-structured livelihood choices affect subsequent rounds of environmental change.

Structuration theory to understand the institutional factors of environmental transformation and the people’s livelihoods The structuration theory of Giddens will help us to understand the complex relationship between the environmental transformation and the people’s livelihoods. The human social activities are made up of social practices ordered across time and space. Giddens(1984) stresses that structure is not to be conceived of simply as a constraining barrier to action, but rather as an enabling involvement in that action. In this way he confirms that certain structural properties of social systems can be both a medium for and an outcome of social practices. This is called the duality of structure – i.e., the manner in which structure enables behavior, but behavior can potentially influence and reconstitute structure (Giddens 1984). For Giddens, structure can be best analyzed as sets of rules and resources. Rules imply methodological procedures of social interaction relating to the constitution of meaning on the one hand (significant) and the 20

sanctioning of social conduct on the other (legitimating) – any social practice involves an overlapping, loosely connected set of such rules. “Resources” refer to the facilities or bases of power to which an agent has access in the course of interaction with other. According to Cohen (1989), authoritative resources are capabilities that generate command over persons (spatiotemporal positioning, organization and relations between human beings). According to structuration theory, through their daily interactions people can reinterpret, redefine, modify and even reject the structures and processes that guide their behavior (Giddens 1984). In the case of environment and livelihood relations, while the existing institutional factors define the current environmental transformations, they also regulate the attempt to change regulating structures, such as national laws and policies, through democratic means through unions, political parties, lobbying etc and also by radical means through violence, war, etc. Neo-liberal development ideals have considered the capacity of humans to adapt to their natural conditions and to alter the social and political conditions under which they create their livelihoods. Then comes the question as to whether people’s adaptation is sustainable. Leach et al (1997) point out that the societies do not necessarily return to—if any ever existed—state of harmony between themselves and their natural environment. However, the livelihood frameworks including sustainable livelihood frameworks have to pay more attention to structural bottlenecks in development. The environmental entitlement framework, which shows much promising approach to understand the environmental issues and the livelihood opportunities, is discussed in the next section. An important epistemological message of this approach is that institutions are shaped in the social interactions. At the same time, within existing institutional constraints, people have agency to make choices about the livelihood possibilities open to them.

Environmental entitlement analysis to understand livelihoods and the environmental change The environmental entitlement approach is an extension of Nobel laureate Sen’s (1981) entitlement approach to the study of poverty and famine. Leach et al (1997; 1999) developed this approach and gave it a more comprehensive framework. Environmental entitlement approach helps us to ask questions like which social actors see what components of variable and dynamic ecologies as resources at different times, how different social actors gain access to and control

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over such resources, and how natural resource use by different social actors transform different components of the environment. Sen used entitlement approach to explain how it is that people can starve in the midst of food plenty owing to a collapse in their means of command over food (Sen 1981). He argued that there is undue emphasis in the policy and study of famine and hunger on aggregate food availability, and it diverts attention from the more fundamental issue of how particular individuals and groups of people gain access to and control over food. As in food and famine debate, in the environmental debate also once concentrated on the supply side of the resources, however in recent years we also see debates on access and control of natural resources. Hardin’s (1968) “tragedy of commons” is one of the important theses in natural resource management literature based on supply side argument; it influenced the researchers and policy makers over several decades. As noted by Sen, absolute lack of resources may be only one of the reasons for people not gaining access to the resources they need for sustaining livelihoods. However, the institutional analysis approach along with other approaches in political ecology studies power relations, access, control, and institutional influences at various scales in the study of natural resources. Environmental entitlement by Leach et al (1997) is an approach that includes the both entitlement approach and political ecology approach on institutional dynamics. In the next sections, I will discuss Sen’s entitlement analysis and Leach et al’s environmental entitlement analysis. Even though the environmental entitlement analysis helps the political ecology to understand the nature society interactions in a much sophisticated way by including the analysis of resources endowments and entitlement and the role of institutional factors at various levels in deciding the livelihood outcome and the environmental outcomes, this approach needs to be improved to understand the nuances nature society interactions. After reviewing Sen’s entitlement approach and Leach et al.’s Environmental Entitlement approach, this section will suggest several modifications necessary for a an Extended Environmental Entitlement Framework of greater utility for the political-ecological task of analyzing the interconnections between institutions, environmental change, and livelihood.

Sen’s entitlement approach to study poverty and famine Sen makes a basic observation regarding starvation. Starvation is the characteristic of some people not having enough food to eat. It is not the characteristic of there being not enough

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food to eat. While the latter can be a cause of the former, it is but one of many possible causes (Sen 1981). Sen’s entitlement approach is built upon three basic conceptual categories: the endowment, the entitlement set and the entitlement – mapping (E-mapping). According to Sen, entitlements are “the set of alternative commodity bundles that a person can command in a society using the totality of rights and opportunities that he or she faces'' (Sen, 1984, p. 497). These opportunities arise through a process of mapping, whereby endowments, defined as a person's “initial ownership”, such as land, labor power, skill, knowledge are transformed into a set of entitlements. Sen defines entitlement mapping as “the relation that specifies the set of exchange entitlements for each ownership bundle'' (Sen, 1981, p. 3).In Sen’s work, these entitlement relations may be based such process as (1) trade-based entitlement: one is entitled to own what one obtains by trading something one owns with a willing party; (2) production-based entitlement: one is entitled to own what one gets by arranging production using one's owned resources; (3) own-labor entitlement: one is entitled to one's own labor power, and thus to the trade-based and production-based entitlements related to one's labor power; and (4) inheritance and transfer entitlement: one is entitled to own what is willingly given to one by another who legitimately owns it (Sen, 1981, p. 2). Sen's concern was therefore to examine how different people gain entitlements from their endowments and improve their wellbeing or capabilities.1 Main drawback of Sen’s approach is that he was principally concerned with command over resources through market channels, backed up by formal legal property rights. Although he later created the idea of 'extended entitlements' it is unclear whether the concept is restricted only to mechanisms governing the intra household distribution of resources or whether it also includes other institutional mechanisms (Leach et al 1999). Sen (1981) uses a concept called e-mapping to explain how endowment and entitlements are linked through human agency structured by institutions. E-mapping or entitlement mapping, is simply the process of converting the endowment set, on one hand, into the entitlement set on the other (Sen 1981). The exchange entitlements depend on person’s position in the economic class structure as well as the modes of production in the economy and also depend on what economic prospects are open to him/her. For example, landless laborer and sharecropper all have 1

The use of the word legally created a debate in academics, it implied that only state sanctioned endowments are included in the analysis and all the customary rights are neglected. Later there was a concept introduced called “extended entitlement” in which as Osmani (1995) clarified that the word ‘legally’ includes not only what is sanctioned formally by the state but also the established social norms and practices.

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to use only one endowment i.e. labor. The landless laborer will be employed in exchange for a wage that is his entitlement. However, the sharecropper will do the cultivation and own a part of the product. If the output is food, e.g. rice, the sharecropper gets his return in the form of rice so he can directly eat it without going through the vagaries of the market. Landless laborer (Figure 2-1) however, will have to depend on the exchange entitlement of his money wage to improve his well-beings or capabilities. In e-mapping process, an individual can suffer from four sources of entitlement failures: endowment loss, in which access to land (for example) is lost. In the production failure, for example harvest is lost. In the exchange failure for example, wage is lost because labor can not be exchanged due to non demand for labor. In transfer failure, example daughter fails to inherit father’s property (Osmani 1995). Entitlement failure occurs because of an adverse change in either endowment or entitlement mappings; there can be natural causes or institutional causes or some combination. Labor

Wage Buy Food

Exchange entitlement

Endowment

Entitlement

Capabilities

Figure 2-1: Entitlement mapping for the landless laborer (an example for exchange entitlement)

Sen’s approach has been criticized for its micro approach to a multi-scale problem. According to Fine (1997), Sen’s approach is an indisputably micro-economic analysis. The basic unit of analysis is the individual person, and his or her endowment, and his or her entitlement arrangements. Watts (2000) argued that it is short of explaining the relations between the entitlements of the individual and the social group- and it is not clear that how are individual (micro) entitlements aggregated for example to account for (macro) class dynamics. Sen’s definition fails to give equal weight to - socially determined entitlements (a moral economy, indigenous security institution), non-legal entitlement (food riots, demonstration, theft) and nonentitlement transfer (charity) (Watts 2000). Sen in Dreze and Sen (1989) used extended entitlements approach to clarify role of institutions in the entitlement approach. However, it is unclear whether the concept is restricted only to mechanisms governing the intra-household distribution of resources or whether it also

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includes other institutional mechanisms. The institutional approach developed in political ecology and the structuration theory is useful in filling some of the gaps in the Sen’s entitlement analysis.

Entitlement analysis in natural resources Environmental entitlement approach initiated by the Institute of Development Studies is a very useful approach to look in to the nature –society relations. This approach starts with the politics of resource access and control among diverse social actors, and regards processes of environmental change as the outcome of negotiation or contestation between social actors who may have very different priorities in natural resource use and management. Leach et al (1997) modified basic entitlement analysis developed by Sen to address the environmental issues and named the new approach as “environmental entitlement” approach. The approach critically analyzed the concept of community – in community based natural resources management (CBNRM) literature. The community, in this literature generally assumed to be homogeneous; however, studies often identify the heterogeneity in the community, some of such studies identified gender, class, caste and other social categories influencing the access and control of natural resources. For example, in forested lands, though the local communities have rights to collect non-timber forest products, but if another politically and economically dominant local farmer encroaches the forestland, other members of the community fail to acquire entitlement over the forest resources. Social actors thus are socially, politically, economically and culturally differentiated. Similarly, environment also should be viewed as disaggregated and dynamic. The dynamic interactions of environments are due to combinations of contingent factors, conditioned by human intervention, sometimes the active outcome of management, often the result of unintended consequences and also the natural causes. Influenced by the structuration theory of Giddens (1984), Leach et al (1997) argued that the environment both provides a setting for social action and is a product of such action. People's actions and practices may serve to conserve or reproduce existing ecological features or processes (e.g. protect the existing forest). People may also transform environments (e.g. cut trees in the forest). Such transformations push ecological processes in new directions. These actions may be intentional or unintentional, yet still have significant ecological consequences.

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With this view point on environment and society interaction “environmental entitlement approach” helps to study environment change and the livelihood of the social actors. The environmental entitlement approach tried to include various factors, which were left out in the Sen’s approach and criticized by several scholars (Fine, 1997; Watts 2000). Sen’s initial work focused almost exclusively on entitlement mapping i.e. how endowments are transformed into entitlements, and paid limited attention to endowment mapping i.e. how people gain endowments. This was however later recognized by Dreze and Sen (1989). Sen’s approach also fails to recognize the various ways to gaining access to and control over resources beyond the market (Leach et al 1999). These ways include kin networks, and customary law, social conventions and norms. Leach et al (1997, 1999) adapted slightly different approach. In this approach, environmental entitlements refer to alternative sets of utilities (direct use of resources, market value, environmental utilities etc) derived from environmental goods and services over which social actors have legitimate effective command (customary law, social conventions and norms, formal legal institutional mechanisms) and which are instrumental in achieving well-being. Entitlements, in turn, enhance people's capabilities, which are what people can do or be with their entitlements (Leach et al 1999). The distinction between endowment and entitlement depends on empirical context. What are entitlements at one time may, in turn, represent endowments at another time period, from which a new set of entitlements may be derived. The environmental entitlement framework is applied to environmental goods and services. According to this framework, multi-level institutions mediate the conversion of endowments into entitlements. But since resource claims are often contested, and within existing power relations some actors' claims are likely to prevail over those of others. Also, certain social actors may not be able to acquire some endowments (e.g., capital, labor) that are necessary in order to make effective use of others (e.g., land) (Leach et al 1999).

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Figure 2-2 Environmental Entitlement Framework. Source: Leach et al (1999)

Figure 2-2 explains various elements of environmental entitlement framework and their relations. In this framework institutional factors play important roles. Institutions such as tenure regime, for example, shape land endowments. The ability of an actor to mobilize endowments in such a way as to improve their livelihood capabilities is also strongly mediated by institutions. Leach et al’s entitlement framework gives emphasis on the dynamic nature of entitlement mapping (E-mapping) processes whereby endowments will become entitlement and increase capabilities with the intervention of institutional dynamics. It consider entitlements as the outcome of negotiations among social actors, that involves power relationships and debates over meaning, rather than the result of fixed, moral rules encoded in law (Gore 1993; Leach et al 1997). The environmental entitlement approach, therefore, suggests that environmental change affects livelihood differentially, depending on an array of institutions that mediate social actor’s access to, and mobilization of endowments. Furthermore, it begins to show how entitlementmapping and endowment-mapping processes might be involved in subsequent rounds of environmental change. The main difference between Sen’s approach and Leach et al’s approach is that in Leach et al’s approach not only the emphasizes how social actors convert endowment to entitlement,

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but also give importance to how actor gets endowment. Leach et al brings in the role of environmental change on the endowment and role of capabilities on environmental change. However, the main difference between Leach et al and Sen’s approaches is the introduction of a dynamic, historical perspective, over different time scales in Leach et al’s approach which is missing in Sen’s analysis. Figure 2-2 links together in diagrammatic form those elements of environmental entitlements framework. Instead of using the concept of environment, the environmental entitlement framework disaggregates environment into particular environmental goods and services. Distribution, quality and quantity of these goods and services are influenced by ecological dynamics that are in part shaped by human action. The “community”, has been disintegrated into differentiated social actors, and analyzed in terms of the ways different social actors gain capabilities, or a sense of well-being, by acquiring legitimate, effective command over resources through processes of endowment and entitlement mapping. Endowments for particular social actors are distinct from environmental goods and services, and so lie outside the ellipse in Figure 2-2 that represents environmental goods and services. Capabilities are attributes of particular social actors, so are included within rather than lying outside the ellipse representing differentiated social actors. In this analysis, Leach et al argue that we should not focus just particular endowments, entitlements and capabilities of a given social actor at a given moment, since these represent only a snapshot in time. Instead, should focus principally on the dynamic mapping processes underling these static sets mediated by various forms of institutions (appearing to the right of Figure 2-2) operating at a range of scale levels from the macro to the micro. The relationships among these institutions and between scale levels are important in the entitlement mapping as they influence the capabilities of the social actors. In turn they influence the uses and management of the resources and thus progressively modify and shape the landscape over time. The environmental entitlements framework therefore links both macro and the micro levels of concern. It situates a disaggregated (or `micro') analysis of the distinctive positions and vulnerabilities of particular [social actors] in relation to the ‘macro’ structural conditions of the prevalent political economy'' (Jenkins, 1997, p. 2). At the international level, for example, the policies of donor agencies, global market fluctuations, at national or state level, government policies and legislation are of primary interest, and at the local levels intra-

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household dynamics, local customs, local market structures etc influence livelihood outcomes. Interrelationships between scale levels are far from deterministic. A major change in national policy might affect the local tradition and customs in using the natural resources.

Extended Environmental Entitlement Analysis Leach et al (1997; 1999) developed the environmental entitlement approach to analyze how ecological and social dynamics influence the natural resource management activities of diverse groups of people, and how these activities in turn help to produce and to shape particular kinds of environment. They contrast two main themes in natural resource management literature. One, the common property resource management literature often assumes the existence of a homogeneous community is appropriate to carry out environmental restoration and care because they act collectively towards common environmental interest. Second, the literature also assumes the existence of linear and stable equilibrium cycles or points in the environmental change. In contrast, Leach et al (1999) argue that communities can not be treated as static or undifferentiated, because they are active individuals and groups. And also the environment needs to be disintegrated into its constituent parts, and viewed dynamically as the environment affects endowments available to people, and as the environment is itself affected by people as they convert those endowments into entitlements. Otherwise a useful approach, the environmental entitlement framework has certain drawbacks that have to be addressed to analyze the nature society interactions. The concept of livelihood is relatively undeveloped in the framework. From its theoretical discussions and also from its various case studies it implies that the framework is more useful to study social actor’s dependence on one particular component of the environment, for example, collection of leaves by women (Leach et al 1997). In this particular example in Ghana, in forest zone, the leaves of Marantaceae plants are commonly collected by women and used and sold widely for wrapping food etc (Falconer, 1990; Agyemang, 1996). The leaves are available in particular sites and times in the dynamic forest ecology. The leaves become endowments when people gain rights over them - in different ways depending on whether they lie inside or outside government-reserved forest. For actor’s endowment of these leaves, various institutions come into play, such as village membership and a permit from the forest department. The entitlements received from collection of leaves are direct use of the leaves or cash income from their sale. In both cases, institutions at

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various scales also come into play. Women may have to negotiate with their husbands in relation to other farm work and domestic duties for labor time to collect the leaves. There is frequently competition between leaf collector’s groups for the best sites, as well as competition for leaves among group members. They even have a dispute resolution mechanism. The utilities derived from the cash sale of Marantaceae leaves contribute to a woman's capability to ensure that she and her children are well-fed and to satisfy other cash needs. It is a very good example of the environmental entitlement mapping for the women leaves collectors. It helped to understand how the institutional factors such as, forest deportment policies, and the local customs help the village women to have endowment of the leaves. This also clearly analyzed how the endowment became entitlement. However, it indicates that the change in the capabilities of the leaf collector women then affect the further availability of the leaf. This is an oversimplified analysis of the environmental transformation. As environmental transformation is not result of one particular livelihood activity but is a result of livelihood activities of differentiated actors in the society and also the natural environmental changes. This oversimplification of the environmental transformations makes the framework less useful in analyzing the complex relationships between environment and the livelihoods. However, in analyzing the livelihood outcomes of the social actor, this framework falls somewhat short. This framework completely neglects the multiple roles of a social actor in the society and its influence on entitlement mapping. A person in the a rural household, acts at different point of time or at the same time as “a farmer”, “a political leader” or “a tribal leader”, apart from these multiple roles there are multiple sources of support for existence of household. These multiple sources include non- environmental goods and services (for example, petty shop business, coolie, etc). At the same time, the framework is silent about the influence of other livelihood options that the actor depends up on. For example, same actor who depends on collecting leaves also might be depend on working in a farm or sales from her petty shop. There are four major analytical problems in the framework. One, while analyzing the entitlement mapping of the women leaf collectors, the framework left out the contributions to the well being by the different roles those women played. Second, contribution to the well being by the other entitlement acquiring activities such as farm labor by the social actors are not involved in the framework. This will not able to give the entire picture of livelihood conditions of the social actor in interest.

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The third problem with the Leach et al’s framework is about the environmental outcomes. Leach et al vaguely recognize in their example that vegetation changes are function of various institutional factors and the ecological legacies left by actions under each set of institutional arrangements for people's subsequent resource use and management (Leach et al 1999). However, their framework obscures the importance of external environmental change and external anthropogenic influences on the environment. In the same example of the women leaves collector’s entitlement mapping, the further availability of leaves depends on the action of not just the women leaves collectors but the fuel wood collectors, fruit collectors and or any other actors who depend on that forest. However, the environmental entitlement framework helps only to analyze the effect of the well beings of the women leaves collectors on the further availability of the leaves. The framework also fails to notice the environmental conditions or natural causes such as drought, disease break out, etc on the resources (Fraser 2003). The backward arrow in the framework that connects the well being and the goods and service is misleading. This suggest that the contribution to the well being of the women actors by the leaves collecting activity is the only human activity that is influencing the further availability of goods and services i.e. in this case the further availability of leaves. As a matter of fact, the further availability of leaves might be influenced by the entitlement mapping of other actors who depend on different resources on the same forest patch. The natural causes like failure of rains, or drought, flooding etc might also affect the resource availability. The fourth problem is about the concept of capabilities. Leach et al shows that entitlement mapping for the leaf collectors contributes to their well beings. However, the fact that wellbeing of a social actor also depends on the wellbeing of the other related social actors, such as sons, daughters, or husband etc in the family is completely ignored. Therefore, concept of total wellbeing has to be developed. Total well being is the result of the entitlement mappings of all the entitlement activities of the actor and the contribution of well being of the related social actors which are based on the entitlement mapping of the resources available for these social actors (Figure 2-3). In addition, the framework could benefit from more explicit consideration of the way specific institutions can be classified as barriers or stimulants to the process of mapping endowments into entitlements. Similarly, it could more explicitly consider the way actors

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influence the institutions that affect them by choosing livelihoods that reduce exposure to institutions over which they have little control.

Contribution to well being by E-mapping of the resource-1 for the actor Contribution to well being by E-mapping of the resource-n for the actor

Total wellbeing of the social actor

Contribution to well being by E-mapping of resource n for the related actor

Figure 2-3 Total well-being or capabilities of the social actor of interest

Three things have to be included to the environmental aspect of the framework. One, the concept of environmental transformation has to be added which is much broader environmental change than just the availability of the particular goods and services. Leach et al (1999) argue that ecological uncertainties compound the problems already inherent in defining desirable courses of environmental change. But the analyzing the environmental change will help to identify the differentiated actors’ resource needs. In the leaves collectors example, the action of the social actor due to change in the wellbeing may lead to change in how she uses the forest. She or the forest service might decide to cut timber as it is more profitable. This decision will change the forest ecology, and then affect the goods and resources availabilities for all the other social actors. Second, the environmental transformation is also influenced by the entitlement mapping of various goods and services and its impact on the total well being of the other actors in the locality. Third, the role of natural causes that influences the environmental transformations has to be included in the framework. Natural causes may include drought, heavy rainfall, disease break down, climate change etc. In the Figure 2-4, which is an extension of the Figure 2-3, the process of creation of total well beings of all the social actors along with the natural causes are shown influencing the

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environmental transformations.

Total wellbeing of the social actor - 1

Total wellbeing of the social actor - n

Natural causes such as drought, hurricane etc

Total wellbeing of the community Environmental transformations

E-mapping of actor- 1

Further availability of Goods and Services

E-mapping of actor - n

Figure 2-4 Environmental transformations due to total well beings of the social actors and the natural causes affecting further availability of goods and services

Disintegrating the components of the environment and the community in the environmental entitlement by Leach et al helps to understand the relation between the particular social actor, a given set of institutions, and the particular environmental goods and services, but some kind of aggregation is also required. Aggregation is required to understand the relations between people and the nature and the vulnerability of the people to the institutional impacts at the various spatial and temporal levels. The environmental entitlement analysis like the entitlement analysis is also to some extent a micro level analysis of a single actor or a homogenous group of similar social actors. Similar to Watts argument about Sen’s entitlement analysis that it is short of explaining the relations between the entitlements of the individual and the social group, environmental entitlement analysis is also short of explaining the relationship between individual and the social group, and also the individual environmental transformations and the aggregated environmental transformation. To study the differential impacts of commodification of agriculture on the people’s livelihoods and the environment in the Western Ghats of India, the framework proposed by Leach et al is not sufficient either. In order to study the impact of coffee cultivation on two 33

groups of social actors namely, tribal people and the peasant farmers, an extended environmental entitlement framework is developed. In this framework, the basic structure of the Leach et al framework is retained. However, the concepts of total well being (Figure2- 4), total wellbeing of the community (in this study it will be tribal people and the peasant farmers) and the environmental transformations (Figure 2-4) are included. Environmental transformations are the results of the process of creation of total well beings in the e-mapping. For example in a community, some actors depend on the sale of timber product and some on collection of Non Timber Forest Products (NTFPs) then during the process of e-mapping of timber products and the e-mapping of NTFPs the forests are altered in terms of tree density, species availability and also in terms of regeneration. This change in the environmental aspect of the forest due to e-mapping of the actors will affect the further availability of resources and the further e-mappings of the actors. In the analysis of nature society interaction using the extended environmental entitlement framework, institutional factors influencing the entitlement mapping of the social actors are studied using the theoretical inputs from the peasant studies, political ecology studies, decentralization, tribal studies and biogeography. The environmental transformation both in terms of the change in the land use and land cover and biodiversity change is proposed to study using remote sensing and vegetation sampling. However, there are several ways of including the ecological analysis in this kind of studies depending on the purpose of the study. The Figure 2-5 shows the diagrammatic representation of the extended environmental entitlement framework. The Figure 2-5 is an extension of the Leach et al’s environmental entitlement with addition of the Figure 2-3 and Figure 2-4 where the total well being and the environmental transformations are added. In the Extended environmental entitlement analysis (Figure 2-5), the rectangular box on the right hand side includes individual actor’s entitlement mapping of one particular environmental goods and service. The capabilities gained by this emapping are further contributing to the total well-being of the actor, which is further contributed by the e-mapping of other goods and services to the same actor and the contribution from the emapping of the related social actors. The concept of “total-well being” helps to explain the livelihood outcomes which depend not only on the resources and entitlement on them, but also on the risk and uncertainty aversion measures and impact of livelihood outcomes of the related actors. The “total well being of the community” is another concept which is introduced in this

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framework. The Leach et al’s framework disintegrates both the environment and the community into different resources and the actors, however, the extended environmental entitlement framework argues for the integration of the effect of livelihood outcomes of the community of interest. This kind of integration helps in policy making decisions relating to livelihoods and the environmental outcomes because policy decisions should consider the needs of the community by considering needs of differentiated social actors. Unlike the Leach et al’s approach, in this approach, the process of creation of total wellbeing (shown in dotted line) is linked to the environmental transformation. Leach et al’s framework connects capabilities to back to goods and services. This gives an impression that only the contribution of one e-mapping will determines the further availability of goods and services. Furthermore, the environmental transformation is the result of the processes of emapping of all the socially differentiated actors. Similarly, the environmental transformation is the summation of the processes of the livelihood outcomes of all social actors and the impacts of natural causes. This environmental transformation further influences the availability of the environmental goods and services. The extended environmental entitlement framework helps to analyze the environmental transformations as a product of both natural factors like drought and also the human impacts on the environment due to livelihood activities. The political ecologists commonly use land use and land cover change and biodiversity change studies to study the environmental transformation. However, various other ecological studies can be integrated here in this framework. Since this framework allows to include both natural and human causes of environmental transformation, it is very useful to the political ecology studies which often criticized for emphasizing too much of politics and too little of ecology in analyzing nature-society relations. It does not a priori privilege either politics or the environment. The lenses of endowments and institutions permit it to consider both equally. To summarize, key concepts under the extended environmental entitlement framework include endowments of skills, labor, land, capital etc. which actors are able to convert into entitlements of goods and services used for household reproduction and accumulation of wealth. In the first process, the framework draws attention to the process of creation of endowment. Endowments are then converted to entitlement.

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Natural causes

Environmental resource 1

Environmental Transformation

Total wellbeing of other actors

Endowment Total wellbeing of community Entitlement

E-mapping of resources n

Total wellbeing of the actor

for other actors

Macro institutions Meso institutions Micro institutions

Macro institutions Meso institutions Micro institutions

E-mapping of resource n of the same actors E-mapping of resource n of the related actors

Macro institutions Meso institutions Micro institutions

Capabilities Differentiated social actor

Figure 2-5 Extended Environmental Entitlement Framework

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In both these processes, framework signifies the role of the institutional factors at various scales. The result of the entitlement mapping of a particular goods or service contributes to the total well being of the social actor. The capabilities or the total well being of an actor is a function of e-mapping of the various goods and services that is influenced by actor’s multiple roles in the society, and well being of the related social actor. So the concept of total well being introduced in this framework helps to avoid oversimplified analysis of the process of livelihood outcomes due to one environmental goods or service and the further environmental transformation. Instead, it allows us to consider the complexities of livelihood creations that are influenced by the social and economic status, kin relationships, and alternative resources. The process of creation of well beings from goods and service to endowment to entitlement is named as e-mapping or the entitlement-mapping. The concept of total well being of the community which is the summation of total well being of all the actors in the community, is an important concept that helps to understand the livelihood outcomes for the community or the region of interest. The environmental transformation and the further resource availabilities are the function of the processes of creation of livelihood outcomes of the concerned actors. These processes are influenced by the institutional factors at various scales. So, the concept of total well being of the community is an important analytical output useful in policy making. Because, it helps to understand the community needs along with the needs of the differentiated actors. While creating the community total well being the differentiated actors manipulate the resources and the environments. These manipulations may be in the form of land use land cover change, or biodiversity change or soil nutrient change etc. These environmental transformations affect the further availability of goods and services for the social actors. However, environmental transformations are also influenced by the natural causes such as drought, floods, disease or pest outbreaks etc. So the environmental transformation in this framework has been show as the function processes of community total well being creation and the natural causes. Environmental transformations are then affect the further availability of goods and services for differentiated social actors. The cycle continues. The framework argues that this process of creation of total well being and the environmental transformation is a dynamic process that changes over time and space with the change in the institutional influence. Institutions influence the e-mapping process in the form of “barriers” or in the form of “stimulants”. However, the institution acting

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as barrier at one point of time might act like a stimulant in other point of time. Or institutions might act like barriers for one actor and stimulant for another actor. The dynamic nature of these institutional behaviors makes the e-mapping processes also dynamic. This dynamics are represented in dotted lines in the flow chart of the e-mapping (Figure 2-5).

Application of EEE framework to the livelihood and land use and land cover change impacts of coffee in Kodagu In this study on the “Differential impacts of commodification of agriculture on the people’s livelihoods and the environments in the Kodagu, India,” I will use the extended environmental entitlement analysis framework developed in this chapter. The framework is suited to this study as the social actors (tribal people/ landless laborers and coffee farmers) depend on various environmental goods and services (forest products, coffee agriculture). Outcomes of this dependency are influenced differentially by global to local institutional factors. In this study, environmental goods and services include coffee and the forest resources on which peasant farmers and tribal people depend on for their livelihoods. In this study for the two groups of social actors, the endowments are the skills in coffee cultivation, skills in forest resource extraction, land ownership, and rights and privileges in different land tenures. Entitlements are the direct use of resources, market value, and environmental utilities for the tribal people and the peasant farmers. Institutional factors at micro level include local tenure system, agricultural land tenure, traditional relationship between peasants and tribal people, local marketing structure for agricultural commodities and the forest products and decentralized administration. Meso level institutional factors include state’s forest policies, state’s agricultural policies, state’s tribal welfare programs, coffee growers associations etc. Macro level institutional factors include global coffee market agreements, global coffee market etc. Environmental transformations are land use and land cover change indicated by remote sensing analysis and by the biodiversity change indicated by vegetation sampling. For this analysis, I use multi-methodology to generate the data on endowments, institutions, livelihood, and environmental change suggested by the EEEF and political ecology. These methods include the archival study to understand the development of land tenure in forest and agricultural lands, introduction and growth of coffee in the area, and historical process of

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peasant and tribal relation amidst coffee introduction. I also use ethnographic study to understand the process of achieving total wellbeing by tribal and peasant farmers. I also use ethnographic study also to analyze the dynamic roles of institutions like forest polices, global coffee markets, change in coffee market structure, tribal dependency on forest products and their impacts in the e-mapping processes. I measure environmental transformations in terms of land use and land cover change indicated by remote sensing analysis and by the biodiversity change indicated by vegetation sampling.

Summary The goal of this dissertation is to clarify the differential impacts of commodification of agriculture on the people’s livelihoods and the environment in the Western Ghats of India, with specific reference to introduction of coffee in Kodagu region of Western Ghats and the recent changes to the global coffee market. This chapter fostered that goal by reviewing theories on livelihoods, peasant form of production, land use and land cover change and political ecology including environmental justice and decentralization in natural resources management, entitlement analysis and developing an Extended Environmental Entitlement Framework. Key concepts under this framework include endowments of skills, labor, land, capital etc. which actors are able to convert into entitlements of goods and services used for household reproduction and accumulation of wealth. This process of converting goods and services into endowment and then to entitlement through institutional influence and thereby contributing to the well being is called entitlement mapping or e-mapping. Contribution to the well being by different e-mappings for the actor and e-mappings of the related actors together constitutes total well beings of the actor. Community total well being is the summation of all the well beings in the community. These processes of creation of community total well being influence the environmental transformations. These transformations are also influenced by the natural causes. The dynamic process of this relationship between livelihoods and the environmental transformations influence the future resources use by differentiated social actors. EEEF provides a way of organizing observations of environmental transformation, institutions, and livelihood to more clearly understand the ways these affect livelihood, and the ways livelihood decisions affect subsequent environmental change. It suggests a series of more specific questions that can generate a fuller understanding of the central question behind this

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dissertation: how commodification of agriculture impacts the livelihood outcomes of differentiated social actors and brings about the environmental changes in the region? More specifically, 1. What are the environmental impacts of introduction of coffee in terms of land use and land cover change and biodiversity in the Kodagu region? How have these changes affected the endowments and entitlement-mapping possibilities of local inhabitants, for example, by opening up labor opportunities in coffee plantations and removing endowments based on the extraction of forest products. The framework suggests the dynamic institutional context of environmental change; a key institutional response to the conversion of forests to coffee has been the establishment of a protected area and a related series of restrictions on use of remaining forests. How have these institutional changes affected the process of establishing endowments and entitlement mapping? 2. The framework indicates the need to integrate observations on entitlement mapping possibilities in a broader social and institutional context. So what are the livelihood implications of the introduction of coffee for tribal people who depended on forest, and for farmers who depended on subsistence agriculture in Kodagu region? 3. How did the 1990 breakdown of the International Coffee Agreement and the liberalization of India’s market for coffee affected a) the tribal people’s and b) the farmer’s livelihood outcomes? This event constitutes a kind of shock to the existing institutional context of mapping endowments of coffee lands, labor, and skills into entitlements of wages and profits. 4. What are the impacts of global open market for coffee on the land use and land cover change in Kodagu? This is another shock where institutional change induces livelihood outcome and thereby environmental transformation. 5. How do different actors cope with the vulnerability created by the market liberalization and the collapse of international commodity agreement? Institutional change results in change in livelihood outcomes, that encourages creating new set of stimulant institutions. In the next chapter I will discuss the study area and the methodology followed in the study.

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3. STUDY AREA AND METHODOLOGY The study was conducted in the Kodagu district of Karnataka state in the Western Ghats of Southern Indian peninsula during February to July 2004 (Figure 3-1). Kodagu was selected for the reason that it is one of the major coffee growing regions in India. Based on the Indian Coffee Board’s statistics on coffee area and production in India, Karnataka state which is the largest coffee growing area (57.5 %) in India was selected. Karnataka produces about 69% of the total coffee production (about 0.28 million tons) in India. With in Karnataka state, Kodagu, Chickmagalur and Hassan are the three major coffee growing districts. In terms of production Kodagu district is on top. The Kodagu district is divided in to three talukas (sub-districts) – Madikeri, Virajpet and Somwarpet. Kodagu is located on the slopes of Western Ghats Mountains. The Western Ghats region of India is one of the 25 global biodiversity hotspots in the world due to its high levels of endemism and the necessity to conserve endangered flora and fauna (Myers et al. 2000). These Ghats are about 1600 km long and 5 – 150 km wide along the west coast of India between 8o 22’ – 20o 40’ N latitude and 73o – 77 o E longitude.

Geography Kodagu is situated on the eastern slopes of the Ghats, between 11o 56’ – 12o 52’ N and 75o 22’ – 76o 11’ E (Pascal and Meher-Homji 1986). The area of Kodagu district is around 4100 sq. km with population 545,322, (Census of India 2001). Altitude varies between 907 meters and 1270 meters from the mean sea level. The average annual rainfall is about 2725.5mm. Rice, coffee and forest products are the main livelihood resources for the people of Kodagu. The mean temperature of the coldest month in the study area ranges between 16 and 23 degrees centigrade; rainfall between 2000 and 5000 mm per year with four months dry (Pascal and Meher-Homji 1986).

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Figure 3-1 Study area

Forests The forests in Kodagu have rich varieties of flora and fauna. The forest in the wet evergreen areas in the western parts of Kodagu have trees belongs to Clusiaceae (Mesua, Calophyllum, Garcinia) family, Sapotaceae (Palaquium), Meliaceae (Aglaia) and Euphorbiaceae (Agrostistachys,Mallotus, Drypetes) families (Pascal and Meher-Homji 1986). Akbar Sha (1987) has listed economically important trees in the evergreen forests (medicinal properties),

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Mangifera indica (Mango), Mesua ferrea, Sterculia alata (soft wood used in packaging) (Forest Survey of India 1995). In the forest of the less thickly-wooded bamboo country in the west of Kodagu the most common trees are the Dalbergia latifolia (Black wood), Pterocarpus marsupium (Kino tree), Terminalia coriacea (Mutti), Lagerstroemia parvifiora (Benteak), Conocarpus latifolius (Dindul), Bassia latifolia, Butea frondosa, Nauclea parvifiora, and etc. In the eastern part of the district, teak and sandalwood also occur. The prominent animals found (Akbar Sha 1987) in the area include Asian elephants (Elephas maximus), Indian gaurs (Bos gaurus), deers (Cervus axis axis and other species), Indian wild boars (Sus scrofa), tigers (Panthera tigris), leopards (Panthera pardus), wild dogs (Cuon alpinus), Hanuman langurs (Semnopithecus entellus), Malabar giant squirrels (Ratufa indica centralis) and sloth bears (Melursus ursinus). Also found Nilgiri langurs (Trachypithecus johnii), brown palm civets (Paradoxurus jerdoni), lion-tailed macaques (Macaca silenus) and many more. (Akbar Sha 1987; Forest Survey of India 1995, Bhagwat 2000). After the annexation of Kodagu, the British started commercial timber harvesting from natural forests. They introduced coffee cultivation in 1854. This introduced more severe landscape transformations (Elouard 2000) or landscape modification (Bhagwat 2002).The study by the French Institute of Pondicherry showed that the increase in the area under coffee cultivation between 1977 and 1997 has resulted in a loss of forest habitat. However, due to the structural complexity and floristic diversity of trees, shaded coffee plantations are known to resemble the original forest and thereby have relatively high biodiversity (e.g. Perfecto et al. 1996; Moguel and Toledo 1999). Introduction of coffee induced change in the forest landscape. Today about 36 percent of the land is covered by forest in Kodagu, which is a drastic reduction from 88 percent in 1920. Some 71 percent of forest loss is due to coffee cultivation (Menon and Bawa 1998). However, tree-cover has not been altered much. According the Forest Survey of India (1999) the total tree-cover in Kodagu is 81 percent such as Acrocarpus fraxinifolius(shade tree in coffee plantations), Artocarpus hirsutus (Jack fruit), Calophyllum tomentosum, Canarium strictum (also yields Indian damar), Cedrela toona, Dipterocarpus indicus, Dysoxylum malabaricum, Hopea parviflora, Hydnocarpus wightiana

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Land tenure system in Kodagu The earlier research findings in Western Ghats identified several land tenure regimes, both formal and informal, with varying degrees of individual and communal rights. These regimes influence people’s access to and control over forest resources (Shrinidhi and Lele 1999). Within a village, the most general land use classifications are private agricultural lands, individual privileged forest lands, village common lands, grazing lands, sacred groves, and forest department land. Historically, forests were used largely by local communities which were regulated by the state, religious, and communal controls. A considerable area of the adjacent forest land was considered necessary for grazing, leaf manure, and was allotted by the Kings and the British administration for each paddy growing farmers. These allotments are called baanes. Where there are no baanes, the villagers are allowed to graze their cattle in and take firewood and timber for agricultural purposes from communal lands called urudves (Village Forests). There are sacred groves called devarakadu assigned to particular deity or temple. Urambalas and mandus are community lands reserved for panchayat meetings and for dancing on festival occasions, and villagers have grazing rights there. Within the individual privileged lands like baanes, holders can cultivate coffee (Shrinidhi and Lele 2001). Today, most of the lands under baane have been converted to coffee (Nadkarni et al 1999). As there are different types of baanes based on land ownership (Sagu and Jamma) and based on timber ownership (redeemed and unredeemed), the land use change decisions supposed to vary accordingly (Shrinidhi and Lele 2001; Lele 2001). Complex land tenure system has also witnessed changes in terms of rules and rights in the traditional institutions. Introduction of the uniform forest laws by the State government and new national forest policy in 1988, are in many cases conflicting with the local interests, and local institutional setup, in terms of land use decisions.

Agriculture Historically, Kodagu has witnessed several changes in agricultural technologies. Traditionally rice was grown for subsistence. Apart from coffee, black pepper, cardamom, coorg oranges and ginger are the other commercial crops of the region. Of all these crops, coffee played a major role in socio-economic domain of Kodagu. Coffee industry is supported and nourished by the State in terms of subsidies and extension activities. When the Indian Coffee

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Board allowed open market for coffee in early 1990s, growers started getting higher prices. This encouraged coffee growers to extend the area under coffee in privileged lands like baanes and also in the government controlled forestlands. However, the recent slump in the international coffee market is affecting the local economy of Kodagu. As is common worldwide, coffee workers and coffee growers in Kodagu struggle to survive under the current economic situation. This is one of the results of global market forces on the local economy.

People and society Kodagu is a land of many communities. Although Kodavas are the main ethnic group, Gowdas, Brahmins and Jains are other communities who live in Kodagu. There are also tribal communities such as Yeravas, Kurubas, Airies and Kudiyas, who are believed to be the original settlers of the area. Muslims from the Malabar coast, the Mapillas are also residing here for several years as traders and businessmen. There are 13 different communities within Kodavas (Richter 1870). They are generally agricultural dependents. A large number of Kodavas also join armed forces for both cultural and economic reasons. Kodavas also have migrated to nearby cities like Bangalore and Mysore for higher studies, business and for jobs. Studies show that the Jamma land tenure which is a hereditary land of the family and can not be alienated, keeps Kodava culture intact (Vijaya 1994). At the same time, the government faces pressure to change the historical law so that Jamma can be used efficiently for the economic benefits of the family. Kodagu is one of the districts in Karnataka state that have significant number of tribal population. Major tribal population in the district lives in the forested area. Even though traditionally tribal people depended on hunting and agriculture inside the forest areas, change in agricultural landscape and the forest policy of the government of India over the years have changed the livelihood strategies and outcomes of the tribal people. In terms of livelihood strategies and livelihood dependencies, with in the tribal population there is some diversity. Among all the tribal people in Karnataka, government has identified “Koraga” and “Jenu Kuruba” as primitive tribes. These two tribes are economically, educationally and socially backward than any other tribes. In Kodagu district, Jenu Kurubas are primarily hunter-gatherers people who are expert honey gatherers and also earn a living by casual labor in coffee estates and the agricultural farms.

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Betta Kurubas (hill dwellers) are food gathers and specialize in bamboo craft. Yeravas specialize in fishing and subsistence agriculture, and they are Pani Yeravas and the Panjeri Yeravas among Yaravas. These Kudiyas, who are also tribes but many of them are little better off than Kurubas and Yaravas. Apart from these tribes there are other poor and landless communities that are classified as tribes by the government for its welfare programs. In the study village Nokya and surrounding villages, among tribes, there are mainly Kurubas (both Jenukurubas and Betta Kurubas) and Yaravas (both Panjeri Yaravas and Pani Yaravas). In these villages, some Yaravas have small agricultural lands that they cultivate, but government record considers this as an encroachment. In the Madenadu village is the second sample village located in Madikeri taluka, Kudiyas and other tribes are majority among tribes. In the Gonimarur village of Somwarpet taluka, again Kurubas and Yarvas are the major tribal people. Apart from tribal people there is a significant non-tribal population in Kodagu. They are mostly landless laborers and depend on the wage earning by working in the coffee plantations. Today a significant area of the forested lands have been encroached for coffee cultivation and housing (Lele 2001). Together, the state’s coffee promotional activities, the globalization of coffee markets, and the traditional land tenure regimes shape environmental change and livelihood possibilities in the region. These factors helped economic progression of some people; however, the effect on a significant number of peasants and tribal people who depend on the forest resource extraction for their livelihood is not very clear. Some of the livelihood strategies in the region include agriculture, collecting minor forest products in common lands, and jobs in nearby towns. Rearing cattle is another important activity in the region, which it supplements agriculture for rice growers. Therefore, the availability of grazing lands for cattle improves livelihood capabilities. Both deforestation and the appropriation of common lands for private coffee plantations affect these livelihoods.

Methodology In Kodagu, tribal people and the coffee growers are the two major social actors. This study analyzed the process of creating total well beings of these actors. The study also analyzed the environmental transformations in terms of land use and land cover change and biodiversity change as a result of the process of creation of total well beings for these actors. In short, the

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study analyzed the entitlement mapping (e-mapping) for these two social actors and the resulting environmental transformations that decides the availability of resources for further e-mappings. Environmental resources that could become endowment for coffee growers are coffee, rice and trees in their coffee plantations. For tribal people, non timber forest products and the coffee wage labor are the two main resources that could decide their total well beings. With these livelihood opportunities and resource availabilities in the study area, following specific research questions are raised. 1. What are the environmental impacts of introduction of coffee in terms of land use and land cover change and biodiversity in the Kodagu region? How have these changes affected the endowments and entitlement-mapping possibilities of local inhabitants, for example, by opening up labor opportunities in coffee plantations and removing endowments based on the extraction of forest products. The following specific questions are answered in this study. 1. How have creation of protected areas affected the process of establishing endowments and entitlement mapping? 2. What are the livelihood implications of the introduction of coffee for tribal people who depended on forest, and for farmers who depended on subsistence agriculture in Kodagu region? 3. How did the 1990 breakdown of the International Coffee Agreement and the liberalization of India’s market for coffee affected a) the tribal people’s and b) the farmer’s livelihood outcomes? 4. What are the impacts of global open market for coffee on the land use and land cover change in Kodagu? 5. How do different actors cope with the vulnerability created by the market liberalization and the collapse of international commodity agreement? To answer these questions using the extended environmental entitlement framework following information are required. Social actors: Distribution of the social actors of interest i.e. tribal people and coffee growers Resources: Distribution of coffee, rice, forests and other land use information in the region to understand the resource availability. Information on alternate livelihood options for the social actors and their related actors also required.

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Institutional dynamics: Information on the formal and informal institutional set up such as LAMPS, Coffee Board, International coffee agreement, forest policy changes, national parks, tribal people and coffee grower’s relations. Entitlement-mapping processes: The specific ways in which the social actors convert their access to resources into needed components of their livelihood. Environmental transformations: Satellite imagery for the area for at least two time periods to study the land use and land cover change due to change in the total well beings of the actors. Also biodiversity in the different land tenure regimes is required. Capabilities: Fluctuations in the coffee prices over the time and fluctuations in the wages for tribal people. Gathering these disparate data require multiple methodologies including village ethnographies, archival studies of institutional change, remote sensing, and vegetation sample.

Village ethnographies Within Kodagu region, selection of sample villages was done through combination of demographic, land use statistics and reconnaissance visits. To begin with, 2001 census data on population distribution and composition for all the 296 villages in Kodagu in all three subdistricts (Talukas) were collected. Data on land use pattern in these villages were collected from the Department of Economic and Statistics. Initially all the coffee growing villages were grouped together. Then these villages were grouped according to their spatial proximity to the forest and the tribal settlement areas. Then did a reconnaissance visit to all these villages falling under this category. In the reconnaissance visit an exploration of the situation in these villages about the coffee and forest lands, livelihood opportunities etc was done by interacting with the village officials, forest officials, tribal people and the peasant farmers. Finally, Nokya village in the Virajpet taluka was selected for the case study (Figure 2-6). Even though Nokya village has no significant area under forest, it is adjacent to the Nagarahole national park. Coffee and rice are the two major agricultural crops grown in the Nokya. The tribal people who live in the national park are the major labor force for the coffee and rice farmers in Nokya and neighboring villages. Introduction of coffee to Kodagu and also to Nokya village in the mid 1800 was major change in the livelihood entitlement for the farmers and also to the tribal people. It is suitable village to study the impact of coffee on livelihoods of the farmers. The village also is an important site for

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studying the environmental conservation policies of the government and the livelihoods of the tribal people and the role played by coffee in tribal people’s livelihood outcomes. Forest dependency, global coffee markets and the local livelihoods can be studied in this particular village. Two sets of villages which had somewhat similar socio-economic conditions in other two talukas were also selected for a quick survey to triangulate the results from the study in Nokya village. Madenadu village in Madikeri taluka and a cluster of villages around Somwarpet in Somwarpet taluka were selected for the quick study (Figure 2-6). The village land tenure classification details and the cropping pattern statistics as recorded in the government documents were collected from the local village accountant’s office. Based on these data, the number of households and their landholdings and spatial distribution was analyzed to decide the respondents for the study. After getting permission from the Wildlife wing of the forest department, the tribal settlements in the national park were visited. Since tribal people work in the coffee plantations for their livelihood, they leave early in the morning. They generally take Sundays and Mondays off. These two days in the week were the best days for meeting tribal people. Since the labor demand in coffee had decreased, about one quarters of the tribal population were found in their settlement rest of the days in the week also. Seven different tribal settlements were visited inside the national park. The tribal people were asked about their daily activities, their dependence on forest, changes in forest policies and their impact, changes in coffee market and their impacts, access and rights to the forest products, the government welfare schemes, children education etc. The interviews were recorded on tape. Tribal people were educated about the research objectives and consent was taken before the interview. A tribal man who is well versed with the area was hired as a field assistant and guide for the project. Since I also speak same language of the local area, the field assistant was only helping to show me different settlements. His presence also helped tribal people to open up without any fear or the doubt about my intensions. The coffee growers in the village were also visited randomly and asked about their family structure, landholdings, cultivation practices, coffee market fluctuations and their financial conditions, shade tree management, alternate crops, coffee trading, financial institutions, labor management etc. At the village level, apart from tribal people and farmers, several local institutions were also visited. The Large Scale Adivasis Multipurpose Society (LAMPS), the local co-operative bank,

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the commercial bank, the village office, forest department officials and the local coffee trader were visited and interviewed. In all these cases, a set of questions were prepared for each type of the respondents and were delivered to them during the conversation. The power relations, class conflicts, resistance and all the stories of construction of endowment and entitlement can only be understood by using the narrative approach where in the actors will be observed and asked to narrate various incidents which are instrumental for acquiring entitlements (Glaser and Strauss, 1967). These conversations were some time up to 4 hours long. In the case of tribal people, some times conversations were with either individual member or with the group of the people. In both interviews with farmers and tribal people, both male and female members were interviewed and heard their side of the story. All the interviews were recorded and transcribed. Data were then coded and analyzed using QSR N6 qualitative data analysis software. Interviews with various officers in the Indian Coffee Board, and financial institutions were also conducted. The coffee traders and the other spices traders in the study village and the near by towns were also interviewed to understand the coffee trade and the livelihood impacts. Archival study An archival study was conducted to document the history and development of coffee and labor relations in the districts by referring the documents available in the Coorg Planters association and the district record room. All the meeting minutes of the Coorg Planters Association from 1870 to 2003 were analyzed for understanding different stages of growth and development of coffee in the region. Apart from the meeting minutes, various records in the Kodagu district room on land and forest were analyzed. Studies on environmental transformations To analyze the environmental transformations due to the cultivation of coffee, land cover change in the village was studied by using LANDSAT satellite images for the year 1990 and 2002 using remote sensing and GIS techniques. Erdas Imagine 8.7 and ArcGIS 9 software packages were used to analyze the images. Details of the remote sensing and GIS analysis are discussed in the chapter 6. Vegetation study was conducted to analyze the biodiversity change in the study area. Tree diversity was compared in sacred groves and two types of land tenures (redeemed lands and unredeemed lands) in shade grown coffee. Detail of the methods used in the vegetation sampling

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is discussed in the land use and land cover change chapter. Spices richness and diversity software was used to calculate various diversity indices in these three different land tenure classes. Together, these methods generate the data needed to understand the impact of the commodification and liberalization of coffee agriculture on environment and livelihood in the region of study. Processes of creation of total well beings of social actors are analyzed by the ethnographical and interview methods. Analysis of archival materials and interview of institutional representatives, growers and the tribal people critically examined the institutional dynamics in the entitlement mapping for the social actors. The land use and land cover change studies and the biodiversity studies analyzed the environmental transformation due to change as a result of e-mapping for the socially differentiated actors.

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4. IMPACTS OF COMMODIFICATION OF AGRICULTURE IN KODAGU ON THE LIVELIHOOD OUTCOMES OF THE FARMING COMMUNITIES

Introduction In this chapter, I will analyze how commodification of agriculture in terms of introduction of coffee to Kodagu changed the entitlement mapping and there by the livelihood outcomes of the farmers. I will analyze the changes in coffee entitlement mapping for the farmers due to the change in coffee marketing system in mid 1900s from open market to regulated market. I will also analyze the changes in coffee entitlement mapping after 1990s when market structure was changed from regulated market to open market system. The changes in the coffee entitlement mapping for the farmers will be discussed by analyzing the institutional factors acting as entitlement stimulants and or barriers. Global coffee agreements, Indian Coffee Board, development of coffee industry in Kodagu, and the global coffee market fluctuations and the land use policies are discussed in this chapter. These entitlement barriers and the stimulants shape the entitlement mapping and livelihood outcomes of the peasant farmers. In the extended environmental entitlement analysis framework terminologies, the coffee lands, coffee technology, labor skills are the endowment the coffee growers have, that they acquired over the period of a century. Various institutional factors at local, national and the international level intervene in the process of converting these endowments to entitlements and the livelihood outcomes. Apart from institutional factors, the natural factor such as rainfall, diseases and pests also affect the outcomes of growers’ coffee entitlement mapping. Environmental transformation in terms of land use change and also in terms of change in biodiversity also a result of the entitlement mapping of the coffee growers and the coffee laborers in the region. Coffee entitlement mapping for the peasant farmers in Kodagu developed over the years. The history of the creation and development of coffee entitlement mapping in Kodagu is relevant to the analysis of the current livelihood outcomes of the peasant farmers who depend on coffee 52

cultivation for their livelihood. I will discuss the history of coffee, development of global market institutions, and development of coffee industry in India and in Kodagu in brief, and I will discuss the entitlement mapping of the coffee farmers and laborers in the study area.

International Institutions in the coffee market The story of how coffee was domesticated is very interesting. The legend is that one-day a young Ethiopian goatherd named Kaldi watched in wonder as his goats began acting in a very strange and lively manner. Kaldi noticed that his goats are very active after eating a shrub with red cherry-like berries. After eating a few of the berries himself, Kaldi also felt full of energy. He then reported this experience to a Muslim monk at the nearby monastery. The monk tasted the berries did not like the taste. So, he roasted them and then he crushed them, boiled them in water to make a thick puree-like drink. He found out that the after drinking that drink; he was able to stay awake all night without feeling tired the next morning. The coffee was discovered. The succulent outer coffee cherry flesh was also eaten by slaves taken from present day Sudan into Yemen and Arabia through the port of Mocha. Mocha is now synonymous with coffee. These incidents helped to spread the world about this new drink. Mocha was also the main port for the one sea route to Mecca, and was the busiest place in the world at the time. The demand for this new seed was increasing, but the Arabs had a strict policy not to export any fertile coffee beans. Arab tried to control the spread of coffee. Arab’s monopoly was broken when according to a legend, in early 17th century seven germinable seeds were smuggled to India by a Muslim monk Baba Budan and planted in Chickmagalur in India. Although this story is probably a myth, Ethiopia is thought to be the center of coffee domestication (Coffee Board of India, 2003). Later in 1616, Dutch took a few seedlings from South India and planted in Java and few plants in Amsterdam where they were grown in greenhouses. Then Dutch sent some plants to their colony Surinam. From there some seeds were later sent to Brazil, where the coffee was planted in 1727. (Ukers 1935). Today Brazil is the major country in coffee production and export. Today, coffee industry provides livelihood for some 25,000,000 coffee farming families around the world. It is one of the world’s most heavily traded commodities, produced in more than 60 countries. For many countries, coffee exports account for more than 75 % of their total

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export earnings. Among consumers, coffee is a universally popular drink, with over US$70 billion in retail sales a year (Oxfam 2001).

Coffee cultivation Coffee is a tropical or a subtropical plant. Coffee belongs to the botanical family Rubiaceae, which has some 500 genera and over 6,000 species. The two economically most important species of coffee are Coffea arabica (Arabica coffee) - which accounts for over 70% of world production - and Coffea canephora (Robusta coffee). Two other species that are grown on a much smaller scale are Coffea liberica (Liberica coffee) and Coffea dewevrei (Excelsa coffee) (Coffee Board of India, 2003). While Arabica is a tropical montane plant, Robusta is a tropical lowland plant. Arabica requires an average annual temperature between 17 and 25 degrees Celsius with little variation through the day or the year. It requires a minimum of 1200-1500 mm of rainfall per year. These weather conditions are seen in Ethiopian highlands where arabica coffee is thought to have originated. Robusta coffee however is a lowland tropical plant, native to Central and West African rain forests. Its average annual temperature requirements are in the range of 20-26 degree Celsius. It requires somewhat higher rainfall than Arabica coffee and are generally grown under 3000 feet (Clifford and Willson 1985). The arabica plant is a large bush with dark-green oval leaves. It is genetically different from other coffee species with four sets of chromosomes unlike other species with two chromosomes. Arabica fruits are oval shaped and mature in 7 to 9 months. They usually contain two coffee beans. Arabica coffee is highly susceptible to attack by pests and diseases. Arabica coffee is grown throughout Latin America, in Central and East Africa, India and to some extent in Indonesia. The 'robusta' plant as name suggests is robust and resistance to diseases and pests. The robusta fruits are round and take up to 11 months to mature. Robusta coffee is grown in West and Central Africa, throughout South-East Asia and to some extent in Brazil, where it is known as Conillon (Clifford and Willson 1985; Talbot 2004). There are two methods for processing the cherries into parchment coffee- dry method and wet method. In the dry method, the whole cherry is dried in the sun, and the dried fruit is removed by threshing. This method produces an inferior quality coffee. In the wet method, the fresh cherry is removed by a pulping machine, which crushes the cherry and separates the lighter

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fruit from the heavier seeds. The parchment coffee with a thin mucilaginous layer surrounding it is soaked overnight and mucilage is allowed ferment slightly, and then is washed off. The parchment coffee is then dried. The wet method produces a better flavor. In the wet method, cherries must be de-pulped within 24 hours after picking. Wet method requires a large amount of water. Most robusta coffee is processed by the dry method as it quality improvement is not so significant in terms of taste and price. Arabicas are processed by both methods (Clifford and Willson 1985; Talbot 2004). The processed arabica coffee (also called milds) is further divided into three subtypes. Brazilian milds account for 40 percent of total arabica production and are generally dry processed. This mild includes coffee from Brazil, Paraguay, and Ethiopia. The Colombian milds, account for about 25 percent of total arabica production and are generally wet processed. Colombian milds are grown in Colombia, Kenya, and Tanzania. All other arabicas are included in “other mild” and accounts for about 1/3 of the arabica coffee. These are the wet processed coffees from Central America, Mexico, other Latin American countries, India and several African countries. Robusta coffees are grown mainly in western and southern African countries and Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, India as well in Brazil and Ecuador. Around 50 countries produce some coffee for export. Among all the four types, Colombian and other milds are considered best for fresh brewing and fetch highest prices. Brazilian milds are slightly low priced and used extensively in commercial blends. Robustas considered less suitable for fresh brewing and they fetch low price, but they produce a higher yield of instant coffee than arabica (Clifford and Willson 1985; Talbot 2004).

Coffee economics: role of states in shaping livelihood outcomes of the coffee growers Development of coffee as an international commodity has played a vital role in the entitlement mapping of the coffee growers in gaining entitlement from their coffee crop though out the coffee growing countries. The growth of coffee as an international commodity and its potential to increase the country’s foreign exchange encouraged the states to play an active role in manipulation of international and domestic coffee production and marketing. Since coffee is an agricultural crop, the natural disasters like frost, disease and pest epidemics have changed the dominance of coffee production from one region to another in the history. Complete destruction 55

of coffee plantations due to coffee rust in Sri Lanka the major coffee producer led the Latin America countries to become the major coffee growing area in the world. In the 20th century, about 90 percent of the world’s coffee was produced in Latin America. As production of coffee grew, the international coffee prices started plummeting. Since coffee was already a major export earner in these countries, the state intervention became necessary in the coffee market to protect the livelihoods of the coffee growers. Some kind of market control was found necessary in most of the coffee growing countries. The fact that coffee is a tree crop has significant economic implications. Since coffee trees begin to produce only three to five years after planting, supply response is very slow to price. In the absence of any intervention in the market, this tends to produce recurring tree crop price cycles (Talbot 2004). If coffee market prices are high, growers will plant more coffee, but the supply from the new plantings come to market only after three to five years. Growers will tend to over plant, as prices remain high, resulting a glut on the market three to five years later. If world market prices fall because of over supply, the coffee trees continue to produce, and the grower has sunk capital in these new trees, and so continues to harvest it. Over supply and low prices thus tend to persist for several years, until prices fall below the costs of production for growers in at least some countries. Growers stop maintaining their trees and production declines. As the low prices continue, growers may lose their land because they are not able to pay back loan. Growers begin to abandon their farms, or to pull up the coffee and plant something else and eventually lowers the supply and raises the price. But on the supply side, supply tends to overshoot, because these decisions are being made by thousands of small growers in many different countries. More trees are taken out of production than necessary balance supply and demand, and new shortage arise. This ushers in a new period of high prices and the cycle starts all over again (Edwardsa and Parikh 1976: Ford 1978). Brazil was the first country to introduce intervention of state in the coffee market. The coffee grower controlled Sao Paulo state government in Brazil purchased 8 million bags of coffee and kept away from the market, thus stabilizing the coffee price in 1906. This led to the creation of the powerful state coffee agency, Institute Brasileiro does café (IBC) in Brazil. Under Brazil’s umbrella, many Latin American countries started over producing coffee. However, in 1930s Brazil had to destroy a huge stockpile of coffee to reduce the oversupply of coffee in the market (Talbot 2004). Over the years, most of the coffee producing countries

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established some kind of state agency to control the coffee market. India established the Indian Coffee Board in the 1942. The states through their marketing agencies extracted revenue from the coffee sector. In Latin American countries, this percentage was usually very high, in Africa and Asian countries also the marketing boards extracted significant revenues from the coffee sector. However, the coffee boards used some amount of revenue from the coffee sector for the research and extension. They also extended low cost loans to coffee growers, and subsidized inputs like fertilizers and pesticides.

International coffee agreements and the development of coffee based livelihoods The World War II led to loss of market for Latin American Coffee, and when Brazil developed closer ties with Germany, the United States proposed an Inter- American Coffee Agreement, through which they set import quotas for the U.S. market. The post war period witnessed the coffee price decline and more production. Brazil and Colombia took initiative to form an international agreement. The United States even though opposed to state intervention in the market, concerned about the coffee price fall, sponsored a coffee study group under the auspices of the UN. The coffee study group also included the European countries and their African colonies. During 1961, the coffee study group produced a draft coffee agreement, and in 1962 the UN convened a negotiating conference in New York. An International Coffee Agreement (ICA) including both producing and consuming countries was signed in August 1962. For Bates (1997), the ICA was primarily an agreement between Brazil, Colombia, and the United States. However, this agreement provided an ideological rationale for collective action by commodity producers to organize against economic exploitation (Talbot 2004). After the first agreement, several agreements were negotiated. These include the International Coffee Agreement 1968 (and its two extensions), the International Coffee Agreement 1976, 1983 (and its four extensions), the 1994 Agreement (with one extension) approved by the Council for a period of five years beginning 1 October 1994 and the latest, the 2001 Agreement, entered into force provisionally on 1 October 2001. The International Coffee Organization (ICO) was set up in London in 1963 under the auspices of the United Nations. Its members include coffee exporting and importing countries, 57

and it functions through the International Coffee Council, the Executive Board, the Private Sector Consultative Board, the Executive Director and a small Secretariat. The United Nations (UN) remains the depository authority. Under the international coffee agreements a quota system was introduced whereby coffee supplies in excess of consumer requirements were withheld from the market. Under other provisions, production and diversification policies were initiated to limit supplies of coffee and promotion activities instituted to increase consumption. With the experience of frost in Brazil in 1975, the 1976 Agreement allowed for the suspension of quotas if prices were high and their reintroduction if prices became too low. Under this system, quotas were reintroduced in 1980 (Talbot 2004). In 1989 the ICA collapsed mainly because of the disagreement between the major group that included Brazil, Colombia and all African producers, and the “other milds” (Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Mexico, Nicaragua, Papua New Guinea and Peru and supported by the US) group about the quota system for the new ICA. The “other milds” group proposed an immediate increase to a 48 percent share for all milds arabicas (for both Columbian milds and other milds). Including Columbian milds was to split it from the majority group (Talbot 2004). Unfortunately there was no consensus and the proposal was put to vote and finally it ended the ICA quota system. After the collapse of the ICA in 1989, there was sudden increase in the coffee supply in the market and prices started declining. However, the consumer prices stayed as high as before as a few transnational companies controlled consumer market. When the world market was regulated by a series of international agreements, it dampened the swings of the tree crop price cycle. When one of these agreements was suspended, and the self regulating market was allowed to operate, the tree crop cycle returned, leading to prolonged period of low prices (Talbot 2004).

Role of coffee boards in entitlement mapping of the coffee growers After the world market price crashed in 1989, the prices remained historically low for several years. Coffee boards were forced to significantly lower the prices paid to growers. Many growers seized the fact that they had only been receiving a percentage of the world market price, and began to actively campaign for reducing the power of the coffee agencies and abolishing the marketing boards (Akiyama 2001). Some marketing boards took more than half of the world

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market price and some were just too corrupt. Typically growers would get a partial payment when they delivered their coffee to the board, and a additional payment after the coffee had been exported and the marketing board had take its share. Often the second payments were delayed by six months or more, leaving growers perennially short of cash. However, the growers also mistakenly believed they would receive much higher prices if the marketing boards are abolished. In 1994, as a result of multiple frosts in Brazil, the slump in wholesale coffee prices began to moderate as production fell. The resulting rise in prices brought newcomers like Vietnam and Laos into the arena. The World Bank has been accused of lending money to Vietnam for expansion of coffee. However, the bank argues that when it lent the money in 1994, the country’s coffee expansion was already under way. The new wave of coffee producing countries has forced the largest coffee producers, Brazil and Colombia, to focus more attention on the growing demand for their product in Europe, Japan, and China. The most consistent winners in the coffee commodity game are the big food conglomerates. The three largest are Nestlé, Proctor and Gamble, and Philip Morris. Nestlé sells Nescafé, the largest coffee brand in the world (Oxfam 2003).

History and development of coffee as a livelihood earner in India Coffee was introduced to India in 1600 AD by a Muslim pilgrim, Baba Budan. He planted seeds in his hermitage (Dattatreya Peeta) on the Chandradrona hills in Chickmagalur in Karnataka. Coffee seeds then were grown in the backyards of the neighboring villages. From these gardens coffee was introduced to the Nalknad areas in Kodagu. Only in 1820s the British entrepreneurs opened commercial plantations in South India. In Kodagu, Fowler established first commercial plantation near Madikeri and Fennel established estate in Uligolly in 1854. Later, several other Europeans opened coffee estates in Kodagu (Coffee Board of India, 2003). During the 1860s most of the planted coffees were arabica (old chick variety). This period also witnessed major outbreaks of pests and diseases. The white stem borer (Xylotrechus quadripes) posed major threat to Indian Coffee in 1863. Leaf rust (hemileia vastatrix) and green bug (Coccus viridis Green) also appeared during this period. As a result, there was a decline in the yield and production. This period also witnessed closure of coffee industry in Sri Lanka as a result of leaf rust. Silver oaks and dadap plants were planted extensively in India to protect from

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the attack from rust and borers. The Coorgs coffee variety developed by Stanley Jupp (1870) became susceptible to leaf disease. Then the robusta coffee was introduced from Indo-China at the close of the 19th century for planting in estates at lower elevations (Coffee Board of India 2003). During this period, the United Planter’s Association of South India (UPASI) and Mysore coffee experimental station carried out researches in various disciplines of coffee. The Mysore coffee experimental station started by the Mysore kingdom was took over by the Coffee board in 1946 and was renamed as the Central Coffee Research Institute, for carrying out extensive research on coffee. Coffee cultivation in India is mainly confined to southern states of Karnataka, Kerala, Tamilnadu and Andrapradesh. It is also grown to a small extent in Arunachal pradesh, Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Orissa, Sikkim, Tripura and West Bengal forming the non-traditional belt. Coffee cultivation is confined mostly to hilly tracts of Western Ghats and Eastern Ghats. The states of Karnataka, Kerala, whole of Sikkim and West Bengal experience South-west monsoon. Tamil Nadu, Andra Pradesh and Orissa, receive predominantly the North –East Monsoon. The southwest monsoon is normally active from June to September with heavy showers in July-August. The northwest monsoon caused by depression in the Bay of Bengal during October- December. Summer shower or blossom showers are important for coffee and are received during March April (Coffee Board of India, 2003). Both Arabica and Robusta coffees are cultivated in India. According to the Coffee Board of India, the area under coffee is around 355,102 ha of which arabica and robusta accounts for 48 and 52 percent each. About 77 percent of the growers have holdings less than 2 ha. About 98 percent of the growers have less than 10 ha of landholding covering 71 percent of total land under coffee and contributing 60 percent of production. Coffee was introduced to north eastern part of the country to stop shifting cultivation practices of the tribal people. Coffee as a rural based enterprise in India provides direct employment for about 0.5 million people everyday, about 0.2 million are in the Kodagu region alone. However, UPASI (United Planters Association of South India) estimates the total labor force at 1 million. India’s annual average coffee production is around 250,000 MT and about 75 percent of the same is exported annually. It contributes around 258 million dollars to foreign exchange. Coffee in India is produced in a social environment that is deeply divided along class lines. The working class

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constitutes the most numerous populations. The number of landless and poor peasantry is significant. The middle peasantry puts in its modest share of work. In India, coffee developed as an export crop. Until the Second World War, domestic demand was very small. During the depression, need for domestic market was felt. The Coffee Cess (tax) Committee in 1935, helped to create a small home market for coffee. For the next 1520 years the domestic market increased, by late 1940s the entire production was used up in the domestic market. The domestic demand was study up to 1970s and declined in 1980s. Indian coffee was exported mainly to Europe. France and UK were the major importers of Indian coffee. Fall of France in the World War II lost the big market for Indian coffee. As mentioned in the Annual Report of Indian Coffee board; “ The Indian Coffee Market Expansion Board is a product of the present war. The occupation by Germany of Holland, Belgium, Norway, and France in the first half of 1940 had disastrous consequences on the Indian coffee industry. It lost its important foreign markets and a great slump in the prices of coffee followed ….”

Even before the ICA came into effect in 1963, growers compulsorily pooled coffee with the Indian Coffee Board. The government intervention in coffee market was in the form of the Coffee Market Expansion Ordinance of 1940, the subsequent amendments in 1941 and the Coffee Act in 1942. The Board basically acted as an insurance against swings and manipulations in the global coffee market. For about 50 years the Board acted as an entitlement stimulant in the process of the gaining entitlement for coffee growers.

Coffee as a new entitlement in Kodagu Coffee is an important commodity grown in Kodagu region and it has a major influence on the local economy and the livelihoods of the peasants, big coffee growers, and in the livelihoods of the tribal people. The European planters introduced the coffee to Kodagu in a plantation scale after the British took over the Kodagu region from the local king Chikka Virarajendra in 1834. Coffee was cultivated in the neighboring kingdom of Mysore in a plantation scale. In the last two centuries after the introduction of coffee to the Kodagu, coffee has changed the local economy and became a major livelihood earner for the people.

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Coffee was introduced to Kodagu much before the British annexation of Kodagu. During the king’s regime, some Keralites (called Moplas2) to whom the kings had given land near Nalknad, first grew the coffee shrub from seed, but profitability and the cultivation techniques were first concealed from the local cultivators (Haller 1910). However, the local shrewd farmers Figured out the techniques and the advantages of coffee cultivation. A European planter established the first big coffee plantation near Madikeri the capital of Kodagu district in 1854. Cardamom on the other hand was being cultivated in the region during the kings’ period. Government had monopoly on cardamom. The British government also leased forestlands for the cardamom cultivation.

Role of land tenure system in growth of coffee and livelihood outcomes The land tenure system developed during the local king’s and British regimes shaped the expansion of coffee cultivation. Agricultural lands were divided into saagu lands and jamma lands. Saagu land is the private land. Jamma land is the privileged land given to people by the kings and the British in recognition of their service to the throne. In jamma lands, individual members cannot claim rights. Until 1997, jamma lands were not allowed to sell, but the jamma landholder can cultivate any crop like in saagu land. These jamma lands are the hereditary land and cannot be subdivided. Then there are baane lands. These are forestlands considered necessary for grazing, collecting leaf manure, and was allotted by kings and British administration to rice growing saagu or jamma. Baane allotted to saagu lands are called saagu baanes and land baanes allotted to jamma lands are called jamma baanes. Based on timber ownership rights, these baanes are classified by the state as redeemed or unredeemed. If the owner of the land had paid the value of the trees as fixed by the state then that land is called redeemed land, and the owner will have complete ownership on all the non reserved trees in that land. In Unredeemed lands, ownership of the tree rests with the state (Shrinidhi and Lele 2001). Before the introduction of coffee, the main cash crop grown in Kodagu Forest was cardamom. Both local kings and British regime leased large tracts of forest lands in the western parts on the Kodagu for cardamom cultivation to the local farmers. These lands are called jammamalais (land leased by the kings) and genimalais (land leased by the British). Forest lands in Kodagu were nationalized after British took over the administration in Kodagu. They 2

Muslim traders from the neighboring Kerala State

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classified the forest in to reserved forest and district forests. Reserved forests were set aside for production forestry and local people have very limited access and privileges in these forests. District forests (also called protected forest or minor forest) had more relaxed rules and were controlled by the land revenue department. Before the introduction of coffee, Kodagu farmers’ entitlement mapping included cultivation of rice and leguminous crops (Figure 4-1). Hunting was also one of the entitlement mappings for the farmers. Most of the crop produced was used for self consumption; however, a small portion was also sold in the market. Some of the rice grown was also sold in the market. Institutional factors influenced the resource mapping from endowment to entitlements were the land tenure system and the social hierarchy in the society. The entitlement mapping before the introduction of coffee was mainly influenced by the local institutions and to some extent the regional land policies. The thick arrow connecting environmental transformation and the land (resources) indicates that the process of e-mapping is influencing further availability of land for the social actors.

Entitlement mapping for farmers in Kodagu after the introduction of coffee After British took over Kodagu, many Europeans opened up coffee plantations in Kodagu. Europeans cultivated coffee mainly in the newly cleared forestlands. Native farmers started cultivating coffee mainly in baane lands that are under their control. With the increase in the number of baanes converting to coffee, the state changed the baane rules and allowed growers to grow coffee in baanes. The government started collecting extra tax for the baanes under coffee cultivation. Today almost all baane lands in the study village Nokya and also in most of the Kodagu have been converted to coffee. In this village, the majority of the coffee farmers grow Robusta coffee. The village climate is more suitable for robusta than for the Arabica coffee. The age of the coffee plants in the village vary from 5 to 60 years. However, some farmers are experimenting with new dwarf variety of Cauvery coffee, which is an Arabica variety. The coffee areas are generally intercropped with oranges, and pepper on the shade trees. In the Gonimarur area which is my second study village in the North Eastern part of Kodagu, climate is suitable for Arabica coffee. In Madenur village in North Western part of Kodagu,

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robusta coffee is grown. This area also has significant land under cardamom and areca nut.

Natural Causes Land

Total wellbeing of others

Environmental Transformation

Land tenure – Saagu and Jamma Rice production Labor availability, Baane, Grazing lands

Total wellbeing of community Emapp ing of others

Food

Social status

Total wellbeing of the Farmer Hunting Emapping of the farmer

Capabilities Farmer

Hunting Emapping the related actors

Figure 4-1 Farmer’s entitlement mapping before the introduction of Coffee in Kodagu

In the beginning, European planters purchased forested land from the government for coffee cultivation. Later on European planters also started buying baanes from the native farmers because permission from the government to buy forest lands was time consuming. In 1881, the chairman of Coorg Planter’s Association (CPA) submitted a memorandum to the Chief Commissioner of Coorg opposing to the Rs.20 fine for cultivation of coffee in baanes. He also asked the government to remove restriction to cultivate coffee in baanes. By considering the demand for land for coffee cultivation in the district, the government in 1891 threw open portion of the reserved forest for coffee cultivation from Devamachi reserve forest, Basavan halli block – (840ac), Abboor betta – (2040 ac), Bhadragola block (1240 ac). Some of the coffee growing areas in my study village Nokya were actually opened for coffee from Devamachi and Bhadragola forests in the late 19th Century. When allowed planters to cultivate in the new lands, the government asked the CPA to contribute to the survey expenses.

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The CPA declined to pay the expenses as the growers had to invest a lot of money to cultivate coffee. Initially, coffee plots were applied with the farm yard manure, so the growers kept a large herd of cattle. As a result, portion of land was set aside for cattle grazing in the villages. When the lands were given to the planters for coffee cultivation, the value of the trees in that land had to be paid to the government. If the grower fails to pay the value of the trees to the government, the land will be considered unredeemed land, and the ownership of the trees rests with the government. In the unredeemed lands, the planters had to face queries from the government when they prune or cut the trees in the plantations. CPA lobbied with the government to change the rules so that owner can redeem the land by paying 50 % of the value of the trees.

After the introduction coffee, local land tenure system changed to accommodate

the requirements of the new crop. Forests were converted to coffee plantations, baanes are also converted to coffee. The ownership of the trees in the coffee plants was defined based on whether or not the landholder paid the value of the tree to the government. These changes in the tenure laws improved the chances for increasing outcome of the coffee entitlement mapping. It also created a new entitlement by giving the rights over the trees in the coffee plantations. Coffee Emapping

Rice E-mapping

Tree E-mapping

Total well-being of a farmer

Figure 4-2 E-mapping for a farmer after the introduction of coffee in Kodagu

The e-mapping for the farmer (Figure 4-2) included coffee e-mapping, rice e-mapping and the tree e-mapping. At this stage in the history, even though the coffee was grown by Europeans for European market, the local land tenure systems and the British role in Kodagu had influenced significantly in increasing the land under coffee cultivation.

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Coffee price fluctuations and its impact on the coffee e-mapping in Kodagu during the early history of coffee cultivation Coffee cultivation in the region faced various natural and economic hardships. During 1865-1878, coffee industry suffered from the attack of borers and coffee bugs. As a result, area under coffee declined and public confidence on the coffee cultivation in Kodagu destroyed. In spite of all these, new lands were cleared for the coffee plantations. According to Haller (1910), even though this period experienced tough time by the coffee growers in terms of pests, credit was good, and, money was easily procured and indebtedness was practically unknown. During 1879-1898, the coffee industry grew well. Many growers opened new lands for coffee by borrowing money. The year 1883 marked the commencement of the decline of coffee and price fell by 40 percent due to over stocked market and the competition from Brazil. These low prices dealt the deathblow to the native farmers. Many native farmers borrowed money from rich farmers by paying high rates of interest. They were therefore unable to raise fund to meet their working expenses and estates rapidly deteriorated. The coffee plantations on the north western Kodagu that were opened without shades were begun to show sign of irretrievable decline. By 1898, all coffee on the north western Kodagu had practically disappeared (Haller 1910). In the administrative report of Coorg (1910), Sir Donald Robertson, Chief Commissioner of Coorg wrote, .. country has been pauperized by the introduction of such a ready means of becoming rich as presented itself some years ago in the cultivation of coffee, with the higher style of living which unfortunately resulted, and especially the facility for extensive borrowing which it afforded. It is now extremely difficult to obtain advances on coffee estates, and the Coorgs have nothing else to offer as security; if they mortgage their saagu rice lands they cannot live. Haller (1910) also observed that the failure of coffee combined with improvidence and extravagance are the chief causes for indebtedness in Coorg proper3, where coffee is grown by the small farmers. He also observed the general reduction in the living standard of the Kodavas who have higher living cost compared to non-Kodavas. Many Kodavas have mortgaged or sold their jewels, even the war medals. There were hardly any grains left after August and September. 3

The south Kodagu is also called Coorg Proper the most of the Kodavas in the district are from this part.

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During these months they borrowed money from Moplas, and paid interest as high as 250 percent. Moplas advanced Rs 4 in July and August on the condition of the payment of 3 battis of paddy in February, a batti being roughly worth Rs 3. Coffee e-mapping during this period, was affected by the pest attack and the lower coffee prices due to international market. The global influence on coffee e-mapping in Kodagu started experiencing during this period. The lower prices of coffee also led higher borrowings. Vulnerability due to dependency on cash crop like coffee started to show up in the form of bankruptcy and dependence on the high interest rate borrowings from local traders. History of state and the planters associations’ intervention in the coffee market State intervention in the coffee marketing in India, was mainly in the form of various subsidies and loans to coffee industry. During 1917, Rs.100, 000 Takkavi loan was given to the planter in Kodagu. This was the first ever financial support given to coffee by the state. State also intervened in the coffee marketing by encouraging publicity to India coffee in Europe and U.K. The Imperial Council of Agricultural Research (currently called Indian Council of Agricultural Research) in 1930, conducted a study and suggested advertising the Indian Coffee in the global market especially in the U.K and other European countries. The CPA general body pressurized the government to popularize East India Coffee and to start limited liability company for sale of raw, roasted and ground coffee. The Empire Marketing Board in England showed interest in financing 50% of the cost of propaganda and sales of Indian coffee in U.K. CPA general body agreed to the propaganda scheme in Britain through the Empire Marketing Board. In June 1930, there was an exhibit in India house in London, and many growers from Kodagu sent the samples of Coorg coffee, pepper, and cardamom. A propaganda cess (tax) was imposed on coffee to promote Indian coffee in U.K. The Empire marketing board gave preferential treatment to empire grown coffee. There was an effort by the CPA to bring together all planters in British colonies like Nairobi, Kenya and ask for support a movement for an increase in the preferential duty on coffee and equal treatment with tea. CPA also invested in bringing market experts to get advice for their coffee market in Europe. In 1935, Mr. Hodges came to India to give advice to better market Indian coffee in England. With the increased demand for Indian coffee in Europe, and increased export, the government of India, increased the tax on coffee export and coffee became one of the most heavily taxed commodities in India.

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High dependency on the European market made it difficult for the growers to have any control over the market. The coffee price fluctuation in the global market created uncertainty. The growers felt for some kind of intervention in the coffee market. In 1941 April, Mr. Ivory Bull, a prominent coffee grower in Kodagu conceived the idea of a scheme of coffee control and later that resulted in coffee control ordinance. Later this led to the passing of the Coffee Act and creation of Indian Coffee Board in 1942 head quartered at Bangalore. The Board consists of representatives from producers, curers, exporters and labor unions and the state representatives. As per the Coffee Act, the Board decided the proportion of the annual crop that every registered grower is required to hand over to the pool. The proceeds from the sale of coffee were distributed among the producers after deducting costs of collection and disposal of coffee. The return to the grower is usually referred to as rupees per point. The “point” is a value unit of uniform applicability to all varieties and grades of coffee on a price differential scale (Narayana, 2004). The scale takes into account all changes in market value to broadly reflect intergrades and varietals differences on the basis of market performance (Narayana, 2004). The Board sold its coffee stock on international and domestic markets when prices were favorable. It then deducted working costs and distributed the rest to growers according to the quality and quantity they had sold to the Board. The Board served as a monopoly trading institution and was directly regulated by the central government. The Board used some amount of revenue from the coffee sector for the research and extension. It also extended low cost loans to coffee growers, and subsidized inputs like fertilizers and pesticides. Board was able to increase the coffee export over the year (Figure 4-3). During this period of coffee board control over the Indian coffee market, the coffee emapping was highly manipulated by the presence of the Board. The Board guaranteed the profitability of coffee cultivation. Vulnerability to market volatility was minimized. The board tried to balance between the good year price and the bad year prices. The Board acted as an entitlement stimulant for the coffee growers. The livelihood standards and per capita income of the people in coffee growing areas like Kodagu increased.

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Production and export of coffee in India (60 kg bags)

N u m b er o f b ag s

6000000 5000000 4000000 Production

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Export

2000000 1000000 2004

2003

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Figure 4-3 Production and export of coffee in India (Data source: Coffee Board of India)

Change in the structure: From Coffee Board pooling system to open market and its impact on coffee growers’ entitlement The Indian Coffee Board shaped the coffee production and marketing of Indian coffee. However, when the International coffee agreement collapsed in 1989, many large growers and exporters India thought it is a right opportunity to expand the business. At the same time, the Indian coffee growers were unsatisfied with the working of the Coffee Board. Growers were dissatisfied with what they perceived as extravagant and unnecessary spending by the Board. They were also unsatisfied with the Board for the delay in paying the money to the growers. Bureaucratic control and political influence in the Board also created unrest among the coffee growers. Growers pressured the government to open up the coffee market and remove the Board’s control on the coffee market.

Role of coffee growers’ associations in opening up of Indian coffee market Creation of new institutional arrangement for the Indian coffee market after the collapse of ICA in 1989 was an act of hope for the better future in the open market. The growers associations in India played a major role in removing marketing functions of the Board. The Indian coffee growers have a history of creation of influential coffee growers associations, which made significance contribution into the shaping of Indian coffee enterprise. In Kodagu, Coorg Planter’s Association (CPA) was established as early as 1879. There are Karnataka Planters

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Association (KPA), and United Planters Association of South India (UPASI). Several small associations like small growers associations and local associations were also emerged but had not much significant influence as there were three major associations. When there was opposition growing against the role of coffee board as the sole buyer of the Indian coffee, these associations played a vital role in shaping the future of Indian coffee industry. During the beginning of the 1990s, there was an opinion in the Coorg Planters Association, that the producer is not getting the remunerative price for the coffee from the Board. CPA was demanding for a floor price below which coffee should not be sold. The floor price included cost of production and profit of 12.5 % on the capital cost of Rs.3500 for Arabica and Rs.2800 for Robusta. CPA also raised objection to the coffee board’s enormous spending on coffee promotion in non-traditional areas from the pool funds contributed by the growers. There was also concerned raised in the CPA meetings about the quality of Indian coffee shipped by the Board to other countries quoting the Kothari News letter Jan to March 1982, which reported that the coffee shipped abroad, was at great variance to samples shown and because of that Indian coffee name is tarnished. After 1992, when the process of opening up the Indian coffee market was started, there was a sea change in all aspects of coffee organization and marketing. Initially, board decided to the grower to retain 10% of the coffee grown for direct sale in the open market. Board sent proposal to the government to allow certain amount of coffee grown directly to the international market. Some growers suggested for a parallel marketing organization for marketing of Internal Sales Quota (ISQ) coffee. The pressure to open up the coffee market increased when the growers came to know that the Board paid Rs.3, 500,000 out of pool funds due to a breach of export contract by the board with a Brazilian firm. The instant coffee company which buys low quality robusta coffee, was declaring 43.8% dividend to its share holders, but the price of the coffee given by the Board to the planters was much low, this made the grower to think that not every thing was fine with the Board’s pooling system. The dissatisfaction of functioning of the Coffee Board was raised by the growers as early as in 1977, when the Board was paying only a part of the price received from the sale to growers and spending remaining money on promoting coffee cultivation in non-traditional areas. The growers were also dissatisfied with the Coffee board for selling coffee to their staff at reduced rate Rs.31/kg as against Rs.40-50 in the market. Coffee Board was also making

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losses in its coffee houses in different parts of India. Frustration with the coffee board functioning, the Karnataka Planter’s Association and Coorg Planter’s Association decided to agitate in front of the coffee board for all inactions of the board and for redrressal of grievances. In the agitation in front of the Coffee Board of India in Bangalore against the malfunctioning of the Coffee Board, growers lost control and damaged the furniture and windows the board building. As there was good response for the ISQ coffee during 1992-93, CPA resolved to address the board to enhance the quota to 50 % optional pooling. Growers were arguing that during 1940's when ISQ was granted to growers for a short period, the existing traders purchased the coffee at the estate level and that the realization was good. The increase in the price of coffee in the open market made growers to demand for 100 percent Free Sales Quota (FSQ) to small growers and 70 percent to large growers. When the growers associations were demanding for the FSQ, not all the members were convinced that open market is better than the pooling system. They raised their concern about the issues like creation of alternative organization for marketing, changes in the policies on loan facilities, smuggling and theft of coffee, which they think will adversely affect of a large number of small growers. One member in the CPA meeting argued that “Because of coffee price boom, Colombian coffee growers are now able to afford a motor car, Mexicans are able to supplement their rice and bean diet with meat, Guatemalans - bicycle with motorcycles” and it is good for the Indian growers if the market is opened up”. When the growers associations and coffee exporters were agitating for the open market, some small farmers in Sakleshpur and Chickmagalur are resisting in fear that the open market will harm the interests of the small growers. With increased pressure from the growers and also the liberalization policies of the government, in 1994, government announced the reduction of coffee board staffs by announcing the scheme called the golden hand shake to workers of the coffee board. Through this scheme the staff of the marketing and propaganda department was reduced. In summary, the change in Indian coffee market structure started in 1992 when the central government amended the Coffee Act of 1942 and announced that 30% of coffee that was produced could be retained by growers for sale under the Free Sale Quota (FSQ). In 1994, government made yet another amendment and raised FSQ to 50%. In 1996, pooling of coffee

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with the Coffee Board was totally abolished. What remained was free sale without any quotas. The market was totally deregulated and the Coffee Board was reduced to an advisory body. When the FSQ was raised to 50% in 1994, coincidently there was frost in the Brazil, which led to increase in the global coffee price. The growers misunderstood this raise in price as the result of open market. However, growers started to observe the problem of open market only after1997 when the global coffee prices started to fall. The period between 1994 and1997 could be considered as a boom period in Kodagu. This period witnessed the growth of investment in housing, vehicles, and infrastructure by the coffee growers through out Kodagu. The coffee prospectus seemed good and the financial institutions offered all sorts of loans to coffee growers hoping that the coffee prices will remain high for a long time. In this period, the global coffee market change and the change in the Board’s role in Indian coffee market actually acted as an institutional stimulant in the grower’s coffee e-mapping. However, the most influential factor for this golden age was the Brazilian frost in 1994. Brazilian frost affected the world coffee supply, and created a short term increase in the coffee price through out the coffee growing areas. The coffee e-mapping not only influenced by the change in global market structure but also the change in the weather condition in the different coffee growing areas in the world. Between the 1994 and 1997 the coffee emapping of the growers in Kodagu was influenced by the change in the global coffee supply, global coffee agreement and also change in the local coffee market due to influx of new traders in to the market (Figure 4-4).

Global coffee open market

Local coffee open market

Global coffee supply

Traditional local and regional institutions

Coffee e-mapping for the Kodagu Coffee grower Figure 4-4 Institutions influencing Coffee E-mapping soon after Indian coffee market opened up

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Post 1997 coffee e-mapping for the growers in Kodagu After opening up of the coffee market, some old institutional factors became obsolete and new institutional factors emerged. After 1997, the coffee prices declined (Figure 4-5). Between 1998 and 2004 in India, robusta price fell from 76 cents to 31 cents per lb. The prices of arabica dropped from 99 cents to 58 cents per lb during the same period. The sharper fall in robusta price, which is more widely grown in Kodagu, has only meant that the impact has been wider. In 1991, India exported 103,638 tones of coffee with the export earning of $ 133 million. The quantity of coffee exported and the foreign exchange received increased over the years. It reached its peak in 1998 when export value reached $ 469millions. After 1998, the quantity of coffee exported fluctuated a little but the value of export decreased tremendously, in 2002 the export value of Indian coffee was only $ 244 million. The fall was significant. Oxfam (2003) estimated that between 2000 and 2002 there was a 20% fall in the number of coffee plantation workers in Karnataka. This means the loss of at least 150,000 jobs in the coffee sector during this period. Even though the coffee price declined and workers were laid off, companies such as TATA Coffee and Amalgamated Bean Coffee Ltd (ABCL), which sell the retail coffee in their brand names, have made tremendous profits and also acquired large number of coffee plantations after the coffee market is removed from the coffee board control. In fact, neither in the international retail market where the multinational companies dominate, nor in the Indian retail market where multinational companies like Nestle and Hindustan Lever Limited (HLL) and the Indian companies like TATA Coffee and ABCL dominate, have consumer prices of coffee powder or instant coffee been reduced. In Kodagu, the local economy depends mainly on coffee income. When coffee prices were very low, many growers failed to buy the livelihood necessities. Lower coffee prices affected not only the coffee growers but also to the local business people. In addition there is a high seasonal need for laborers to harvest the coffee, and consequently, a large number of people who depend on the income they earn during the harvest season. During the period of very low prices, growers reduced labor intake, affecting the livelihoods of the large number of seasonal laborers coming to the district from neighboring states. Periods of low coffee prices can thus disrupt the fabric of the society. Late 1990’s coffee crisis was reminiscent of the coffee crisis in

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1883, when the low prices dealt the deathblow to the growers and the laborers in Kodagu. The coffee crises worsen the financial situation of the coffee growers.

Price Paid to Growers 140 US cents per lb

120 100 80

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Robusta

40 20 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004

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Figure 4-5 Farm gate price paid to growers in India (Data source: International Coffee Organization)

Financial institutions as barriers as well as stimulants in coffee e-mapping One of the entitlement stimulants that helped the growers to cultivate the crop was the financial assistance by the banks. Generally, growers take crop loan and the term loans from the commercial bank or the cooperative banks. Crop loans for the yearly maintenance of the crop and has to be repaid every year to get the new loan. The term loans are for the capital investments like construction of drying yards, fencing, irrigation etc. Not all the growers have the term loan, but majority of the growers have taken crop loan that varied from Rs 5000 to Rs. 100,000. After the coffee prices started declining, while some growers are able to pay only the interest to the banks, many are struggling even to repay the interest on the crop loans. The growers who have taken terms loans for constructing drying yard, buying irrigation equipments and construction of pond etc, are not even thinking of repaying the loans in near future. When a grower is not able to pay the loan taken in the previous season, he will not be eligible for the next year’s loan. That means he will not have enough working capital for the next season to buy inputs for the coffee cultivation. If the grower fails to take care of his coffee, the

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coffee yield will decrease, leading to less income again in the next season. This vicious cycle continues. After 1997, the many growers were trapped in this financial vicious circle. Financial institutions played the role as stimulants and also as barriers during the different periods of coffee e-mapping. When the prices were high, the banks lent the loan to all new purposes that it never lent before. The growers were lured to take more and more loan. In the case study village Nokya, there is a Cooperative bank and a commercial bank. When the coffee prices peaked, many commercial banks opened their branches in the interior regions of Kodagu. A grower in the Nokya village said that he has taken loans from both cooperative bank and commercial bank for construction of tank, for sprinkler set and for drying yard. His current total debt is around Rs 500,000 and he was not able to repay the loan due to the decrease in the coffee price. On contrary, another grower in the same village says he didn’t take any loans from the bank, but he constructed the water tank by using his own money, he could do it due to his clever management of finance. Extensive lending by the banks also was responsible for the financial crisis in the region. As the ex-secretary of the local cooperative bank told “If you see some of the people- they have 2-3 vehicles and a nice house but they say they can not repay the loan. People wasted lot of money on housing when the coffee prices were high. I agree that we need good house, but spending too much on house is not called for, that too by taking loans, this is a dead investment.” Increased coffee prices after opening up of coffee market also made coffee growers to invest in new ventures locally. Banks introduced new loan schemes, thinking that coffee price will be high for more years. People have invested in shopping complexes and marriage halls in near by towns and cities but now since people do not have money, these businesses are running under loss. The rules in the local financial institutions some times bent to rescue the growers struggling to repay the loan. In Cooperative banks, since the members and the office bearers are the local growers, sometime the secretary who will also have political ambition, will find a way to refinance some loan for some of the growers. As an ex-secretary of a cooperative bank described “when we have problem of repayment, the secretary will make sure that the interest is repaid and then continue the loan. Since it is a bank, the members have to deposit 10 percent of

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the loan amount in the bank, and from the deposit amount only interest are adjusted. The member gets dividends if the bank is in profit. He can withdraw the deposit after he repays the loan. The bank officials go directly to the member’s house to collect the money. But when the coffee prices are low it is difficult to collect the loan amount from the members. Bank has to do the recovery with in 5 years, otherwise the person in-charge in the bank will be held responsible.” Even though growers owe large amount of money to the banks, the banks officials are in opinion that the agricultural loans are much safer for the banks compared to industrial loans as the industries or factories can closedown their operations and disappear. But the growers will not do that as they are practicing agriculture for centuries and they will not give up the agriculture and also it is difficult for them to change the livelihood dependency from agriculture to other sector. The ex secretary said “sometime I paid interest to the bank for other members, to keep the bank running and keep good faith in the village. If the member repays the interest, he is eligible for the next loan, so the secretary who is also a political leader will pay the member’s interest amount so that the member will be eligible for the next loan. Once the member gets the next loan, he will pay back the secretary the interest amount he paid on behalf of the member.” However, this arrangement is not useful for all the members. Only influential members might be able to play this trick. The small growers who have no significant influence might not be able to get use of this system. This arrangement is possible only in the cooperative banks, but not in commercial banks. This arrangement is also limited to the places were secretary is ready to take risk. This institutional arrangement acts as risk aversion measure in the coffee e-mapping. Before the open market of coffee, growers had no problem in proving their credibility to the bank to get the loan. When the coffee board was controlling the market, member has to show the receipt from the board about quantity of coffee the board received and the price, based on that the bank refinanced the member considering the 3 years average of the coffee yield. After the open market, the growers have to prove their credibility by actually repaying all the outstanding loans to all the banks. This also indicate how financial institutes activities during open market system especially when the prices are high act as a stimulants. However, these financial institutions acted as barriers during the time of coffee crisis.

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Role of the state during financial crisis Another very important institution in the coffee e-mapping is the state. The financial crisis after the coffee open market was the major factor affected the coffee e-mapping of the growers. This also affected the total well being of the growers. Severity of the crisis puts political pressure on the government to step in to help the growers. Here state comes as an entitlement stimulant to make sure that the failure of other institutions will not affect the livelihood outcomes of the coffee growers. In the situation like this, the state usually comes forward to reschedule the loan taken by the growers to longer period, and some times the state will pay of the interest for the loans taken by the growers. In coffee growing areas, the state government has taken several steps to help the growers to solve this financial crisis. Some of the schemes that the government introduced include converting short-term loan to long-term loan by rescheduling the repayment schedule from one year to 5 to 7 years. But, this scheme is only applied to cooperative banks and not for commercial banks. There are also possibilities that government will intervene and waive the loan interest. In that case those who have taken the loan will be saved. The government some times comes to rescue of the growers by announcing the interest waiver. For example in 2002 government paid of all the interest that the growers owe to the cooperative banks. However, government does not rescue the people who have taken loan from the private moneylenders and traders. When it comes to repayment of loan to the banks, people wait for government decision on the interest and or loan waiver. Since government has waived the interest on agricultural loans earlier, the growers who could repay the interest also wait and postpone the payment. One grower told that he had taken Rs. 57,000 from the cooperative bank, and he has to pay Rs.17000 as interest. He is able to repay some amount, but waiting for government decision on interest waiver. He told that he will wait for some more time and pay off the interest at least, and if government waives the interest that could be used for repaying the principle amount. As another grower said, “I have taken loans Rs.2 lakhs4 each from the cooperative bank and the commercial bank, but I am not able to repay even the interest amount. The bank will definitely come after me; they are just waiting to see what government will do. If we don’t pay, what they can do? They cannot put us in jail. They have to auction our lands, and then who will 4

1Lakh = 100,000

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buy the land. Last week State bank manager came to my house and asked me nicely, why I am not repaying the loan. I started laughing and told him sarcastically " We have bumper coffee crop this year, and prices are so high - no traders want to buy it". He also laughed, I also told him that as I have mortgaged the land to the bank, you bank people take over the land and manage it and it is fine with me. He felt sad and left. This is the fate of not just me but every coffee grower in the district.” When the coffee e-mapping is not helping to improve their total well beings, growers expect state’s intervention. The actions taken by the local cooperative banks to help to reduce the risk by playing with the repayment rules is only a short term arrangement. For long term changes, the state has to act an important role as the coffee market is not controlled by the growers in Kodagu.

Influence of alternative financial institutions on coffee e-mapping in Kodagu When the prices were low, and when the banks stopped lending loans, grower’s source of finance diminished greatly in the region. It has become very difficult to get finance during emergency situations. The main source of finance during the emergency is close relatives or friends. Since the friends and relatives are also depending on coffee, they will not be able to finance. The only alternative is to go to local coffee traders and promise them to sell the next season coffee to them and get advance cash. A small farmer who has only 4 acres of coffee could not even get loan from the banks as his land still in his father’s name and he could not register it in his name as he could not had enough money to pay the registration fees. He generally gets the loans from the neighboring big planter and agrees to sell all his coffee to him. He says that even though he will get little lower price for his coffee, he can depend on that big planter during the times of emergencies. When the traders or big growers advance loan to the small and medium growers, the interest rate will be very high. This alternative financial source for the coffee grower helps during the times of distress. However, considering the higher interest rate and also giving up their freedom to sell their coffee to highest bidder, influence of these institutional factors on coffee e-mapping of a grower is negative in the long run improvement in their total well beings.

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Labor management as an institution in coffee e-mapping Access to labor is another important factor that influences the grower’s coffee e-mapping. Declining coffee yields affected the coffee cultivation in terms of reduction in the number of laborers working in the coffee plots and also in terms of reduction in the wage rates. Even though the negotiated wage rate in the state is Rs.64 per day, many small and medium growers pay Rs.50 – Rs.60 per day. They also have to pay between Rs.80-100 per day for special work like tree pruning. Many growers also have permanent laborers. These permanent workers work 5 days a week. Permanent laborers are provided with house, they are given loans for festivals, to visit their relatives and for their children's marriage. A portion of the loan is deducted every week from their wages. Small and medium growers usually have one or two permanent laborers or none at all. It also happens that when they hire permanent laborers they have to give loan for them. Sometimes, the labor family just disappears, making it difficult for the growers to get the loaned money back. Since there are tribal people in the region, the growers do not have to worry about the availability of laborers. Many growers prefer to have temporary laborers than permanent laborers. If a grower hire permanent laborers, then he has to give them work through out the year. Permanent laborers get housing, water facilities, but no electricity. At the end of the year, they are given Rs.2 per day of work in the year. One medium grower said “We have 4 men and 4 women workers in our estate. They are permanent workers. We have given them house, toilet, water, but no electricity. Their children go to school. These 8 members are not enough for us. We hire some from the tribal colony if we need. During weeding - we hire ten more people. We pay Rs.50 for the permanent laborers and give Rs.3 as bonus for each days of work at the end of the year. Whenever they come to our home we give coffee and food. During festivals we give cloth and food and drinks to all our permanent laborers. We also take care of them when they have some health problem. We take them to hospital.” The big growers whose plantation is away from the tribal area will take their vehicle to the tribal area and bring them to work. Usually tribal people come to work from Tuesday to Saturday. Usually Rs.60 for men and Rs.50 for women paid as wages for regular work. For skilled work like tree pruning, wages varies from Rs.80-100. There are certain jobs that the tribal

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people are given money per plant basis. For raking up the soil Rs.1.50 per plant and for digging cradle pits Rs.5 per pit are paid. Labor sharing is also in practice in some families. The small growers in Madenadu village collectively do the work in the rice fields especially during the transplanting and harvesting seasons. During the transplanting or harvesting season for rice, the farmer in whose field they work provides meat and drinks to every one who work in the paddy field. Coffee crisis reduced the facilities given to laborers. One grower in Somwarpet said, “earlier we needed 25 people to work in our plantation everyday. Now we need only two people. Earlier we used to give - bonus, facilities, help them during their medical problems, help their children's education - now we stopped everything. Now it is not possible. When we were giving all the benefits, they were happy to come to work. Now they are also in difficult situation. They get work only for 3-4 days a week and difficult for them to even to get full meal everyday”. Coffee cultivation is labor intensive agriculture. The decline in coffee prices, forced the growers to reduce the labor force in their coffee plantations. This resulted in the bad management of the coffee plants contributing to the lower yields. The grower’s coffee e-mapping has been affected also by the fact that they cannot hire enough laborers to maintain the coffee plots in good condition.

Coffee Board of India as an institutional barrier When the Board was marketing the coffee, they recruited agents at the coffee growing areas to collect coffee from the growers. These agents collected coffee and sent it to the board through curers. These agents were paid commission per bag and were paid once in a year. As one trader in Thithimathi said, “When the Board was controlling the market, there was no competition from other traders”. These agents were actually the agents of the curers. These curers were recognized by the Board for pooling coffee. However, there was competition among curers. When the 30% ISQ was declared, curers became the first traders to enter into the coffee open market. Curers fixed prices for ISQ coffee and the board fixed the prices for regulated coffee. Many growers seemed to be happy with the marketing structure during the Board’s regime. However, about the functioning of the Board when it had marketing function growers are divided among themselves. They are still not very satisfied with the constitution of the Board,

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the coffee growers are divided among themselves. According to the present rules of the Coffee board, no one amongst the four main players in the coffee industry — planters, curers, laborers and sellers can be nominated as chairperson. The logic is that if any one of these players occupies the top post, they might favor their sector. Earlier the chairman position was given to government officials of Indian Administrative Service (IAS) cadre. Growers also complain about the coffee board members’ foreign tours using grower’s money. These tours according to the growers have not helped much to the coffee growing conditions or to the coffee market. Growers list the activities of the board that acted as barriers for in their coffee e-mapping. Some argue that the Board was best for them, but coffee board did not educate the growers about the global coffee market fluctuations. In 1976, when the global coffee prices were very high, growers were not aware of that, and coffee board did not increase the price of coffee. Coffee board was managed very badly there were excess employees. Grower's representation in the board is very less. Members are not elected, they are selected and these are political appointments. Growers also complain that the coffee propaganda run by the Board failed to improve domestic coffee market because of the wrong choice of places for promotion such as Chennai, which is already a coffee drinking area.

Growers’ disappointment about the

functioning of the Board was mainly due to lack of proper representation of growers in the Board, its failure to educate the growers about the global marketing fluctuations, and about its wasteful spending. When the coffee e-mapping for the growers in Kodagu was controlled by the Board, many growers think that their coffee e-mapping was affected because the board acted as a barrier due to its wrong priorities and bad management of the Indian coffee affairs. The Coffee Board of India was created to stimulate the coffee e-mapping of the growers and the workers. In it’s 50 years of influence in the Indian coffee market it stabilized the coffee prices and helped to develop the coffee in India. However, some of the mismanagements and wrong priorities of the board was seen as barrier in the e-mapping of the growers. This along with the liberalization policies of India resulted in the dismantling of marketing functions of the board

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Influence of local coffee market as a new institution on coffee e-mapping of growers After the Board was taken away its marketing power, the several traders entered in to the coffee market. The marketing that is an important aspect in the coffee e-mapping for the growers now depends on the highly volatile and competitive coffee market. Most of traders who entered into the coffee market are the well established coffee curing works. They appointed local agents through out the coffee growing region. Inexperience of coffee growers in coffee trading was exploited by the traders. Many traders absconded after taking the coffee from traders and promising them to pay the money in a later day. There are incidents of giving forfeited currencies by the traders to growers. As a result, now growers allow the trader to lift the crop only after receiving full payment. If the grower knows the trader very well then he might wait for few days to get full payment. Growers also store their crop in the trader’s storage facilities, and ask him to sell it when they think the price is appropriate. For that, the trader will not charge the grower any storage charges. In this arrangement, grower gets the free storage facility, and the trader is sure of getting the product. As one local trader told me “We sell most of the coffee by December. Even though planters have not asked us to sell, we sell it, because we need space to store the new crop. But whenever planters ask us to sell it at particular price, even though coffee is not there, we will make the payment based on the price and the quantity he stored with us. Sometimes it is possible that we may give more than the market price to the grower, hoping we manage to buy coffee from someone else for less. It happens in the market to beat the competitors, but these are all gambling. It will work out for small quantities.” This type of gambling by the traders has benefited the growers in many cases, as they get more than the market price. However, several traders have gone bankrupt especially when they buy the coffee price for higher than market price but had to sell the crop for less. After the coffee open market, the local coffee traders’ role as financiers has been increased. The trader in Thithimathi in Nokya village lends money to the local growers during emergencies and he will not charge them any interest if the amount is small. This will makes him sure to get business from that grower when his coffee is ready for sale. One trader said “For large amounts I will charge interest. But usually I will not charge, because this is a small area,

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and I have to depend on the local planters, if I were in a big town like Gonikoppa, where people from different villages bring coffee, then I can charge interest.” After the open market for coffee was introduced, coffee curing works acted as a major force in the Indian coffee market. The curers follow the international market, speculate the future price, and fix the price for buying coffee. Curers generally make an agreement with exporters to supply coffee and fix the price. Curers appoint agents through out the coffee growing areas. Agents work for commission. Sometime traders pay more than the international price to beat the competitors. After the free sale quota (FSQ) was introduced, the coffee curers increased the commission per bag to their agents. Agents are paid up to Rs.30 commission per bag instead of Rs.10 per bag during the Board’s period. Agents also kept the price difference. Many traders have gone bankrupt when their speculation went wrong. Open market also introduced several coffee hullers in coffee growing regions. These local hullers also buy coffee from the growers. Traders, who lent loan to the growers, generally pay less than the market price to that grower to compensate for the interest on the loan lent to the grower. Growers some time try to take their coffee to the larger towns as the prices are generally higher there, but in many cases they will end up getting less as they have to pay the transportation charges. If they sell it to the local traders, the traders will transport the coffee. Opening of coffee market also led to development of cooperative growers societies like Indian Coffee Marketing Cooperative Ltd (COMARK). When the prices were high, the cooperative society worked well, they collected coffee from the growers and sold it at the right time. In the first year, COMARK worked very well and they made a significant amount of profits. They distributed all the profits to the members immediately. But next year, when the society sold the coffee for lower price, no members came forward to give back the money. Inexperience in coffee marketing and understanding the international coffee trend made the cooperative to go bankrupt. The new market structure for coffee in Kodagu is very volatile. There is no consistency in prices. Dishonest trading practices have entered in to the coffee market.

Coffee price fluctuations and growers’ vulnerability There are several stories where the growers lost money due to lack of market information. As one grower mentioned that when the coffee prices were very high, he planned to

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renovate the house, so he called the local trader for the price. At that time price was Rs.2500 per bag, the grower agreed to sell the coffee at that price. Next day early in the morning the trader came to his house and took the coffee paying Rs.2500 per bag. Later in the day the grower came to know that the price in the morning increased from Rs.2500 to Rs.3000 per bag. The lack of market information has made grower to lose money. Regarding whether the coffee open market is not good for the growers, the opinion is divided. As described by one grower that in the open market, grower sells the coffee and get all the money at once. Growers spent the money for unproductive purposes. When the board was controlling the coffee market, growers were given initial payment as soon as they pooled the coffee to the board, and then based on the sales, growers were given money in 2-3 installments. Growers had money in their hand during the critical cultivation times like spraying, weeding, pruning and during major social occasions. Even if they had no money sometime, they could have asked some one saying they will repay once the board pays the next installment. As one grower said, “People believed in us when the coffee board was controlling the market) at that time and used to give loan.” He said “when the board was active, we bought the fertilizer from the shop and the board paid the money directly to the fertilizer shop. Same thing was happening in the cooperative banks, the interest amount and the loan amount were paid to the bank directly by the board. Now shops have stopped giving loans, since they are not sure of getting the money back. Capitalists ruined the coffee industry. Coffee board should have been there.” An old grower said, “When board was there, bank was not afraid to give loans as they were guaranteed that board will give minimum payment covering the cost of cultivation and some more. Therefore, it was easy for us to get loans from bank. The check from the board was going directly to the bank and bank was giving us payment after deducting the loan amount and interest. If board worked well and paid amount properly, then there should have been no problem.” Yet another grower opined “I think coffee board was better. Now we don't know how the market behaves. When the board was there, we didn't have to worry about the marketing. Even though coffee price is higher now compared to Boards period, the price of fertilizers and other inputs have been increased too. Now we don't know when the price will crash and when it will rise.”

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Dismantling coffee board’s marketing function made coffee growers more vulnerable to the market fluctuations. Even though board acted as an institutional barrier in certain periods of time, its intervention in the market helped reduced grower vulnerability to the global market fluctuations. Since the politics play a major role in the international coffee market than the supply and demand, an institution like Coffee Board of India helps the peasant coffee growers who have no influence in the market.

Liberalization policies of the government and its impact on coffee e-mapping Liberalization policies of the government of India has forced small farmers to compete in a global market where commodity prices have plummeted while the reduction of government subsidies has made farming more expensive (Müller and Patel 2004). The cost of cultivation for robusta coffee with all the financial adjustments and after reducing certain cultivation practices comes up to Rs.20, 000 per acre. If the yield is good growers can get up to 35 (50 kg each) bags per acre. A price of Rs.800 –1000 per bag will fetch around Rs.30, 000 to 35,000 per acre. For a small coffee grower, this amount is very less to maintain his family and his plantation. For arabica coffee, prices are generally high, but the cost of cultivation is also high. Arabica coffee needs more chemical application like Bordeaux mixer and lindon to control fungus and white stem borer attack. The prices of chemical fertilizers have also gone up. Arabica coffee needs wet processing that means more investment required. Small and medium arabica growers generally take their coffee to the big growers for pulping and pay them on hourly basis. Liberalization policies not only opened up the vulnerable peasants to the global market, it also increased the cost of cultivation of crop by reducing the farm subsidies. Because of the increased cost of cultivation due to increased fertilizer cost, increased pest attack, and decreased returns due to lower coffee prices, the coffee e-mapping is severely affected. The total well being of the growers generally in Kodagu is deteriorating. This is most severe for the small and medium growers.

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Natural causes and its impacts on coffee e-mapping The EEEF helps to analyze not only the institutional factors influencing the e-mapping but also the natural causes influencing the e-mapping. In this section, I will discuss some of the natural causes that affected the e-mapping of the coffee growers in Kodagu.

Effect of drought on the coffee e-mapping Apart from the international coffee crisis, the local growers also faced wrath of the nature. Coffee needs a well distributed rainfall to ensure good crop. The rains in February called blossom shower and a back up shower in March decide the next year’s crop. Those who have irrigation facilities, artificially provide these two showers to coffee. However, a large number of growers especially the small growers depend mainly on the natural rainfall. In Nokya, failure of monsoon especially during blossom shower and back up shower season affected the coffee yield from 1998 to 2001 (Figure 4-6).

60 55 50 45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0

Feb Mar

70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00' 01' 02' 03' 04'

rain fall cm

Blossom Shower and Back up shower

Years

Figure 4-6 Distribution of blossom and back up showers in Nokya village

Rainfall was scanty in Arabica growing areas of the northeastern Kodagu. Some of the growers in Somwarpet region have started replacing arabica coffee with robusta which is more drought resistant. Even those who have constructed tanks for irrigating coffee, have failed to irrigate because they could not collect enough water in their tanks. These factors have contributed to lower yields that have gone down to 25 percent of the normal yield in many cases.

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Impact of coffee white stem borer on the coffee e-mapping Increased attack of coffee white stem borers is another blow to the coffee growers in Kodagu during the global coffee crisis. The white stem borer attack is more severe in arabica variety S268. Growers are advised by the Board to uproot the affected plants and burn them. Some growers have started removing coffee trees and growing annual crops like sorghum. The Board supplies the pesticide Lindon at a reduced price to control borer, but many people do not use this chemical as they cannot afford. Even in places where Lindon was used, borer menace has not reduced much if the adjacent plantation has not applied the chemical. The Board also encourages the growers to collect the white stem borer grub, beetle and the moth manually. Board pays Rs.1 to 5 per borer depending on the life stage of the borer. Aug-September is the main season for borer attack. When borer attacks, it first enters into the stem and eats everything inside making the tree hollow. Once the borer becomes a moth it flies. One grower in Somwarpet region said “ We are removing the borer-attacked plants and replacing it with new plants. Every year we remove the plants. People from neighboring district who grow tobacco buy the uprooted plants for up to Rs. 4 per plant. In the uprooted place, we again plant coffee. Due to reduced rains, people are going for other crops also. Last year we irrigated to the coffee and flower was setting well, and after the blossom was set, there was one heavy rain and we last most of the crop.” Grower’s coffee e-mapping has been affected by the natural factors like white stem borer attack and irregular rainfall. The livelihood outcomes also affected by the natural causes in addition to the global and local coffee market fluctuations.

Intercropping as secondary e-mapping for the coffee growers The fact that coffee is shade grown in Kodagu helps to grow several intercrops. Emappings of these intercrops could help the growers to improve their total well-beings. In Kodagu, black pepper and orange are the two major crops grown as intercrops in coffee. Black pepper vines are tied to the shade plants. Pepper wilt is the major disease that is causing worries among the growers. Pepper fetches about Rs.6, 000 per quintal. Pepper yields have been reduced in most cases to nearly 25-30% of normal yield due to wilt disease. One small grower said that last year he harvested 50 kg of pepper, year before it was 27 kg and before that he had 700 kg of

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pepper. This kind of uncertainty in the crop yield is common in the area, and every grower faces this problem. Growers also fail to get remunerative prices for their pepper mainly because of the highly volatile market. Those who have some financial stability store the pepper and wait for the good price in the market. As one grower said “We will sell pepper in October, we can get a good price. We will call the local traders and ask for the price, if it is good, and then will sell it.” As like coffee, pepper also depends on the global and national market, growers are always on the receiving end. One grower said, “last year during the season, pepper prices were increasing and it reached Rs.105 per kg. My trader told me to sell it as it is the good price, but I after seeing the increase in price in the previous week thought should wait until I get at least Rs.110 per kg, but instead of increasing, price started decreasing and came down to Rs 71. I needed money and I had to sell the pepper at Rs 71per kg”. Since the pepper was in trader’s storage, trader had already sold the pepper at Rs. 105, but the grower got only Rs 71 per kg. Lack of market intelligence is affecting many of the growers. Dependence on the local traders for finances is another factor for why growers fail to get remunerative prices for their product. Many growers who do not have storage facilities to store their coffee and pepper, store them with the local trader. The trader will sell the produce when the growers think the price is good for them or when they need the cash. The trader generally does not keep the produce for so long, he sells it when there is a good price for the product in the market, but he will give the market price of the day when the grower ask him to sell. Traditionally coffee was intercropped with oranges. Coorg oranges had special market in India. The villages in the south east of the Kodagu district were famous for oranges. Even in the Nokya village, many coffee growers produced oranges. Today, orange crop is almost vanished because of the viral disease. Whoever have some orange plants sell the oranges to local traders for as low price as Rs.4 -5 per kg. The trader will bring his own laborers and harvest the oranges. When the crop was thriving, the growers themselves were harvesting the crop and selling in the Rural Market Committee’s market yard. They even have taken the fruits to neighboring state of Kerala and also to the state capital Bangalore. The intercropping in the coffee seems to be helping the growers to withstand the negative effect of the market fluctuation in coffee. However, the market fluctuations and natural factors

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for intercrops like black pepper and oranges are also affecting the profitability of these crops. Intercrop helped the growers in improving their total well being.

Rice e-mapping for peasant farmers Most of the growers also grow rice. However, rice is not an intercrop, it is grown on different land altogether. This diversification of crop should have helped the growers during the coffee crisis. Rice grown in this region depends on the water. After 1998, four consecutive years of drought situation affected the rice cultivation especially in the study village Nokya. Many farms received less than 40 inches of rain and that too not well distributed. As a result many growers have either stopped cultivating rice or cultivate only in the area where water is available. Due to increase in the coffee price in the initial years of coffee open market, labor wages increased in the region. Since same labor force work in rice field who work in the coffee plantations, the cost of cultivation of rice also wet up. Market for rice did not increase. Many farmers have converted rice fields into areca nut garden or coffee cultivation. When the coffee prices were high, people converted all their baanes to coffee. Those who had rice paddies also planted coffee in them by investing a large amount of money borrowing from the commercial and cooperative banks. Many of the rice paddies in the region are either abandoned or planted with coffee or areca nut or ginger. The cultivation of rice became a non profitable venture. The contribution of rice emapping to the total well-being of the grower has been reduced in most cases.

Ginger e-mapping for peasant farmers Another crop grown in this region is ginger. More and more rice paddy areas are cultivated with ginger. People from Kerala lease the land from the local farmers for a year for growing ginger. Ginger has very good local market. The higher market price for ginger helped many growers to withstand the financial crisis created by the global coffee market failure. Ginger crop when introduced in Kodagu, fetched higher price, but after three years, prices fell down and many growers who invested heavily on ginger cultivation lost their investment. Ginger requires heavy doses of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Many farmers made money by growing ginger, but several others failed, due to over use of land and the less yields. At the same time,

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people lost money due to failure of ginger market. When the farmers try to grow rice in the land where the ginger was grown previously they got lower rice yields.

Other minor e-mappings for peasant farmers In cardamom growing areas of North Western Kodagu, like in Madenadu village, growers started converting their cardamom crop to coffee. Cardamom once was a highly profitable crop, destroyed by a viral disease called Katte disease of Cardamom. Attracted by the successful cultivation of Vanilla in the neighboring districts, some planters have started cultivating vanilla vines in the coffee plantation. The intercrops and the alternate crops are one of the risk aversion measures followed by the farmers through out the world. These crops not only help to improve the total well being of the farmers, they also act as insurance during the period of crisis. If the intercrops are commercial crops like black pepper, oranges or ginger, the risk reduction depends on the market fluctuations for these crops. If the major crop is a commercial crop like coffee in this case, growers are forced to grow alternate cash crops to reduce the financial burden and repay the loans. The livelihood outcomes of the coffee growers in Kodagu region after marketing function of the Board was removed are very volatile. The coffee e-mapping of the growers now depends mainly on global coffee fluctuations, local coffee marketing structure, natural factors like rainfall, pests and diseases, land tenure policies of the government, growers’ lobby through associations, intercrops, state’s intervention in solving financial crisis, access to laborers, and the Boards role in research and market information (Figure 4-7).

Vulnerability reduction measures by the growers during coffee crisis International coffee market failure and the further opening up of Indian coffee market, has created a situation where people had to produce alternate commodity crops like ginger to repay the loan and cover the increased cost of production. In Nigeria, Watts (1983) observed that commoditization had profound implications for complex forms of household differentiation, accumulation, and proletarianization. A similar observation was made in Kodagu also. The rural producers in Kodagu are increasingly incorporated into the global coffee market. Coffee growers

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have become more vulnerable to the global coffee market fluctuations after coffee market was changed from regulated market to open market.

Local coffee market

Natural causes – rainfall and pests

Global coffee market Access to laborers

Coffee e-mapping for grower

Land tenure laws

Coffee Board

Growers associations

State interventions Inter crops and alternate crops

Figure 4-7 Coffee e-mapping for the grower after the Coffee open market

Researchers have argued that the peasants adopt various vulnerability measures during the time of crisis. The global coffee crisis created vulnerability to the people in Kodagu. This study observed several vulnerability reducing measures that people take during the time of financial crisis. Growers are also developing a new set institutional arrangement that can create new endowment and entitlement to sustain the livelihood outcomes even though the coffee entitlement mappings are failing. The vulnerability measures used by the growers include a) Dependency on kin relationship: This dependency is mainly on the earnings from their children working in the cities. Since many coffee growers’ children are highly educated and working in cities, the income from their children helps to reduce the vulnerability. b) Balancing between commercial crops and subsistence crop: Small holders with less than a hectare of land preferred to balance between cultivation of commercial crop like coffee and subsistence crop like rice. Because their dependency on hired laborers was minimum or nil, their expenses on inputs were low. Since they also grow rice for self consumption, their home expenditure also reduced. Large farmers also find it useful to grow some quantity of rice to reduce the dependency on market. c) Labor

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sharing: Small farmers depend on family labor and or on labor sharing where families help each other in cultivation activities of rice. Even though the total family income is less, the vulnerability reduced as their market dependency minimized. e) Lobbying: Coffee growers lobby the government to intervene in the market and credit policies when the open market for coffee deteriorated their livelihoods. Waiver of interest on bank loans, conversion of short term loan to long term loans, reduction of taxes, and minimum support prices are some of the vulnerability reduction measures that the coffee growers lobby for with the government. However, the government usually responds by providing some relief measures like converting short term loans to long term loans and waiving interest on loans provided by the cooperative banks. f) Growers also try to create a new set of informal institutional arrangement for managing finances. The arrangement with the local trader for storage of coffee and borrowing money from the trader in emergencies is one of the alternative institutional developments seen after the coffee open market. The peasant farmers with less land might end up paying more interests. However, certain vulnerability measures like creation of new financial arrangement may not work equally for all the actors. These vulnerability measures are creating new institutional setups and in some cases trying to alter the existing institutional set up and there by managing the vulnerable situation due to the institutional factors on which these social actors have no control.

Policy implications for the future of coffee This study shows how reliance on the global market produces vulnerability, especially for the poor. Based on these observations it is clear that it is necessary to create market interventions to decrease the impact of market volatility on livelihood. The study clearly identified the coffee market failure after the collapse of International coffee agreement and after the removal of Indian Coffee Board’s marketing functions. The extended environmental entitlement framework helped to understand the impacts of institutional barriers created after the removal of market intervention. The coffee market needs institutional stimulants that can help the growers to have better livelihood outcomes. The global nature of the coffee market makes it necessary to have some kind of meso level institutional arrangement at the state level. There are three changes required in the Indian coffee policy, first is to increase the domestic market for coffee so that dependency on global coffee market can be reduced to some extent. Second, strengthen coffee

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growers’ cooperative marketing association by getting professional help, and improved technology to make it competitive in the international market. Third, increase the role of the Board in market stabilization through better market intelligence and also through establishing a market stabilization fund. This market stabilization fund could be used to control the local market price fluctuations by the declaring minimum support price for the coffee in each season. Specialty coffee and fair trade coffee might provide respectable livelihoods for some growers. However, these are still in infant stage in Indian coffee.

Conclusions The development of coffee as an institution changed the livelihoods of millions of farmers and workers through out the world. International coffee agreement brought about the stability in the coffee market prices by controlling the production and supply of coffee in the international market. This institution guaranteed protection from the volatile global coffee market assuring the livelihoods of the coffee producers and laborers. The Indian coffee growers experienced the market volatility of the global coffee market as early as in 1883. The post World War II collapse of global coffee market forced Indian coffee growers to advocate for establishment of an institution to regulate the coffee market that resulted in establishment of Coffee board of India in 1942. The ICA and the coffee board have helped the growers and laborers to sustain their livelihoods. The collapse of ICA and the coffee board in late 1980s and early 1990s resulted in the major institutional change in the coffee e-mapping for the growers and the laborers. The EEE framework helped in this study to analyze the impacts of these institutional changes on the livelihood outcomes of these socially differentiated actors. It helped to reveal how small farmers are particularly vulnerable to market volatility because of their relatively limited options for e-mapping due to both their limited endowments and a set of institutions that limit their ability to convert those endowments into livelihood. Although farmers take measures to reduce their vulnerability such as diversifying their crops, these opportunities are also differentially available. Furthermore, none of them appear able to replace the national and international institutions that disappeared with the neoliberalization of the global coffee market. Increased vulnerability of coffee growers to the volatility of the open market policies in Kodagu appears to parallel the situation in the rest of the coffee growing world.

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5. INFLUENCE OF FOREST, COFFEE AND RELATED INSTITUTIONAL CHANGES ON THE LIVELIHOOD CAPABILITIES OF LANDLESS AND TRIBAL PEOPLE IN KODAGU Introduction In this chapter, I will use Extended Environmental Entitlement Framework to understand how institutional factors at various temporal and spatial levels influence entitlement mappings and the total well beings of the tribal and landless laborers in Kodagu. Commodification of agriculture in terms of introduction of coffee in to Kodagu, has not only changed the e-mappings of the farmers, it has also changed the e-mappings of the landless and tribal people of the region. For landless people in Kodagu, working in the coffee plantations, and collection and marketing of non timber forest products (NTFP) are the two major livelihood activities. I will argue that even though there are several endowments available for the tribal and landless people to gain entitlement and thereby improve their total well beings, the institutions acting as entitlement barriers at various temporal and spatial levels are hampering people’s efforts to improve their livelihood outcomes. I will prove my argument by analyzing coffee agriculture, deforestation, and related changes to the institutional context of forest use have transformed entitlement mapping of the tribal people. Institutional factors such as social and economic status, political empowerment, the forest product marketing structure, forest and wildlife conservation policies and coffee market fluctuations played as either entitlement barriers and or stimulants in deciding the total well being of these landless people in Kodagu. Among all these institutional factors, global market dependence of the coffee crop and the state’s conservation policies significantly increased the vulnerability of these communities. Kodavas are the major agricultural community in Kodagu. Kurubas and the Yaravas are the two major tribal communities in the study area that depend on coffee plantation labor and forest products for their livelihoods. There are large numbers of landless laborers other than tribal communities working in the coffee plantations.

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A majority of the tribal settlements in Kodagu comes under the Nagarahole National Park. There are two sub groups in Kurubas. Jenu Kurubas are primarily hunter-gatherers people who are expert honey gatherers and also earn a living by casual labor in coffee estates and the agricultural farms. Betta Kurubas (hill dwellers) are food gathers and they specialize the bamboo craft. Yaravas specialise in fishing and subsistence agriculture, and they are Pani Yaravas and the Panjeri Yaravas among Yaravas. Even though there are several other tribal communities in the

region, this study mainly analyses the entitlement mapping of these two tribal communities. In this study, entitlement mappings of the sub groups of Kurubas and Yaravas are not analyzed separately since the difference in these sub-groups are not so significant in terms of their livelihood opportunities and outcomes. E-mappings of non tribal landless laborers are also analyzed in this chapter. This class includes the immigrant laborers and the local non tribal people whose livelihoods depend on the wage work in the coffee plantation and other agricultural farms. According to the survey conducted by the district commissioner’s office in Madikeri, Kodagu, currently there are 155 tribal settlements in Kodagu. These tribal settlements are locally called Haadis. Of the three talukas (sub-districts) in Kodagu, Virajpet district has the most number of tribal settlements and the number of tribal people (Table 5-1).

Table 5-1 Distribution of tribal population across three talukas of Kodagu

Number of Tribal Taluka

Settlements

Number of tribal people

Madikeri

15

189

Virajpet

84

2307

Somwarpet

56

1017

Total

155

3513

Source: Office of the District commissioner, Madikeri, Kodagu

In the study village Nokya and surrounding villages, few Yaravas have small agricultural lands that they cultivate, but government records consider this as an illegal cultivation. In the Madenadu village located in Madikeri taluka, Kudiyas and other tribes are majority among tribes. In the Gonimarur village of Somwarpet taluka, again Kurubas and Yarvas are the major tribal people.

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Forest, expertise in collecting NTFPs, working in the agricultural field, and the manual labor are the endowments for landless and tribal people. Entitlement is the legitimate effective command over alternative commodity bundles. Environmental entitlements refer to alternative sets of utilities derived from environmental goods and services over which social actors have legitimate effective command and which are instrumental in achieving well-being. In Kodagu, the total well being of a tribal member is the summation of coffee labor e-mapping and the NTFP e-mapping. E-mapping due to the welfare programs for the tribal people and the political empowerment also constitute to the total well beings of these communities. For the non tribal member, the total well being comes mainly from the coffee labor e-mapping. In this chapter, first I will discuss the endowments available for landless and tribal communities. I will discuss the forest policy changes in the Kodagu and its impact on tribal people’s livelihoods in the King’s regime and the British regime. I will discuss in detail about the institutional factors influencing the e-mapping of the tribal people in the region. E-mappings for the tribal people will be discussed with specific reference to their NTFP e-mapping and the coffee labor e-mapping. These two major e-mappings for the tribal and landless people are shaped by the institutional factors influencing at various spatial and temporal scales. The institutional factors in terms of political empowerment of the tribal people, cooperative marketing facilities for NTFPs, government social welfare programs, social and economic relationship with the farming communities, forest policies protected areas and the forest department, and the changes in the coffee market act as entitlement stimulants and or barriers in deciding the well being of the tribal people. These factors decide the direct uses of goods and services in the form of commodities, such as food, water, or fuel; the market value of such resources or of rights to them; and the utilities derived from environmental services.

E-mappings for the tribal people during the king’s and the British regime The forest policies of the Kings, the British and the post-colonial governments on the forests of Nagarahole in Kodagu shaped the e-mappings of the tribal people over centuries. Currently, Nagarahole forests where majority of the Kodagu’s tribal people live has been declared as a national park. Nagarahole national park is situated to the east of Nokya village one of my study villages to study the coffee e-mapping for the farmers. The total area of the park is 643 sq. km. This includes 87 sq. km teak plantation (Appayya 1999; Mahanty 2003).

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Nagarahole national park falls under Mysore and Kodagu districts (Figure 5-1). The tribal settlements in the Nagarahole national park currently are the major labor suppliers to the coffee plantations in the South Kodagu including Nokya village.

Figure 5-1 National Parks and Sanctuaries of Karnataka (Source: Karnataka Forest Department)

Tribal people in Nagarahole forests were mainly hunter-gatherers, pastoralists and shifting cultivators. When Nagarahole forests were under local kings’ control (before 1834), it was the Royal Hunting Reserve. Kings employed tribal people to trap and domesticate elephants in this forest. The British and the Indian government’s forest departments used them as laborers in logging and other forest operations. Within the Nagarahole forests, tribal people hunted, fished, trapped small birds, collected non timber forest products and practiced slash and burn cultivation. Tribal people sustained their livelihood through various NTFPs such as tubers, fruits, flowers, roots, honey, herbs, and vegetables for food, medicine and household implements. As Figure 5-2 shows, the tribal people lived and are living in very minimum materials (Janara Budakattu Hakku Stapana Samithi, 2003). During the King’s regime, the e-mapping for the tribal people included shifting cultivation, hunting and gathering, honorarium from the kingdom for catching elephants and also to some extent returns form the agricultural labor in the farms next to Nagarahole forest (Figure 5-3).

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Figure 5-2 Kuruba tribal woman with her grand children and her fuel wood stock for the day

Hunting and Gathering

Shifting Cultivation

Agril. Labor

Capturing Elephants

Kingdom’s elephant requirement Total Well beings – tribal people

Figure 5-3 E- mapping for the tribal people before the British regime in Kodagu

The British government declared the Nagarahole forests as “Reserved forest” during 1894-1901. Under this category of forest, the shifting cultivation was banned. Government also banned the resource use by forest dwellers and neighboring villagers (Brand 1933, Mahanty 2003). However, rights of way, the collection of NTFPs on a licensing basis (Tireman 1914, Mohanty 2003) and seasonal grazing by farmers with a fee per head of cattle were permitted

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(Brand 1933, Mohanty 2003). British government initially used selective felling and later started clear felling in these forests. The clear felled forests were planted with teak plants and allowed tribal people to plant food crops like millet alongside teak in young plantation areas (Mohanty 2003). The colonial government continued to trap elephants, used and sold deer horns, and placed bounties on predatory species such as tiger and cheetah (Richter 1870; Tireman 1914). Reservation of Nagarahole forest and elsewhere in India restricted local rights of hunting, but allowed hunting by British and elite Indians as a legitimate form of wildlife exploitation as in other parts of India (Rangarajan 1996). Under the colonial regime, even though shifting cultivation and hunting was banned in the Nagarahole forests, tribal people were able to maintain their relationship with forest mainly because the forest department depended on the tribal people’s knowledge of the forest, and their skills in working in the forest.

Hunting and Gathering

Small scale agriculture

Forest and coffee labor

Colonial Forest and coffee policies Total Well beings – tribal people Figure 5-4 E-mapping for the tribal people during the colonial period

During the colonial period, the total well beings of the tribal people depended on the emappings of the hunting and gathering, small scale agriculture, working in the forest plantations and the also working in the newly introduced coffee plantations in the region (Figure 5-4). The institutional factor affecting these e-mappings at that time was the colonial government’s forest policies in the Nagarahole forest. For tribal people living in Nagarahole national park, endowment in the forest in terms of shifting cultivation and hunting were initially denied when the colonial government took over the forest management. When the cultivation of land is banned, tribal people were forced to depend more on the wage labor in the farms. This also forced tribal people to enter in to the monetary 99

economy, leading to increased dependency on NTFP collection and sale for cash income. Their entitlement to forest and forest products reduced due to the state’s claims over the forestlands but at the same time tribal people’s dependency for livelihood on forest products increased. This forced tribal people into wage and sometime bonded labor in colonial timber operations, coffee and other plantations, and exposed them to the exploitation by the agriculturalists. Table 5-2 Institutional changes in the Nagarahole forests in Kodagu 1832- Coorg (Kodagu) annexed and directly administered by the British (Rice 1908; Thornton 1857). 1854- First Coffee plantation opened in Kodagu 1871- Coorg Forest Rules introduced (Stebbing 1926) 1878 - Indian Forest Act of 1878 1894- 1901- Nagarahole forest became reserved forest 1948 - Coorg (Kodagu) constituted as a separate (Class C) state of the Union of India 1955- Nagarahole constituted as a wildlife sanctuary covering 28,416 ha. by the Coorg State (Alva 1978; Lal et al. 1994). 1956 - Kodagu (formerly Coorg) redefined as a district of the former State of Mysore (now Karnataka) (Bhatt 1997). 1975 - notice of intent to upgrade Nagarahole from a Sanctuary to a National Park in 1975 and extend area to 57,155 ha. (Alva 1978; Krishnegowda 1998; Lal et al. 1994). 1983- final notification to upgrade Nagarahole to a National Park (Alva 1978; Krishnegowda 1998). 1987- notification of intent to extend park area by 7,814 ha. to the south (Lal et al. 1994). 1992- name changes to Rajiv Gandhi National Park, but the park is still widely known as Nagarahole (Lal et al. 1994). 1998- commencement of Nagarahole Ecodevelopment Project – A World Bank project 1999- creation of Nagapura resettlement on the Nagarahole boundary and resettlement of 51 tribal families.

Source: modified from Mohanty (2003)

E-mappings for the tribal people during the post colonial period In the post colonial period, there was a paradigm shift in the forest policy in the Nagarahole forest. After the creation of a wildlife sanctuary in 1955, management of Nagarahole forest changed from production forestry to protected forestry. In 1970s, Nagarahole forest was declared as a national park under the Wildlife (Protection) Act of 1972. In 1973, the Project Tiger was lunched in Nagarahole forest to protect tigers whose numbers had shrunk from an

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estimated 40,000 at the turn of the century to 1,827 in 1972 (Government of India 1983). Table 5-2 gives the time line in the forest policy changes in Kodagu. By the time when the rules national park was declared the coffee cultivation in Kodagu was well established and tribal people have been working as the laborers in the neighboring coffee plantations. Among Kurubas and Yaravas, Kurubas are traditionally much closer to the forest. Kurubas unlike Yaravas restricted only to the forest occasionally working in the neighboring farm. With the philosophy of state being the sole protector and the owner, state acquired the forestlands in the 'public interest’. During the process of acquiring the land, only recorded rights are considered for settlement. Tribal people’s informal rights and privileges on the land were completely neglected. Since, the tribal people did not have any records on the land they were using and cultivating for centuries, their claim over the land was not considered. In addition, the public interest litigation by the World Wildlife Fund – India seeking complete implementation of Wildlife Protection Act of 1972, and the following court orders on the issue led to the forest department to start evicting tribal people from the national park. By creating the National Park, tribal people’s one of the major endowment “land” for cultivation has been taken away by the state. However, some of the tribal people especially the Yaravas, who are living in the boarder areas of the national park, are still cultivating the land. When the transition occurred from commercial production to a wildlife protection, forest department started seeing the tribal people as a liability to the new management paradigm. According to the national park rules, no one is allowed to live inside the park and no products are allowed to harvest. Therefore, the government has tried to pressure tribal people to come out of the park and relocate outside. The World Bank also helped earlier in rehabilitation program. After declaration of Nagarahole as a national park in 1975, forest department started resettling tribal people. Many tribal people have been moved out of the forest and settled in the government allotted lands of which one site is in Nagapura where 50 Jenu Kuruba families from Nagarahole and Kallhalla forest ranges. However, the National Forest Policy of 1988 identified the need to conserve and preserve biodiversity and the intrinsic relationship of the local communities to their forests. The policy also identified the protection of the customary rights and recognized the importance of forests as a means of livelihood for indigenous peoples. With the new forest policy and political pressure from the human right groups, environmentalists and the left wing political groups, forceful

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eviction of people from the national park was stopped. However, it did not improve the living conditions of the tribal people. According to the World Bank report (1996), increasing government protection and legal control have curtailed local communities' resource use and management, forced changes in traditional livelihoods, and removed incentives to use resources sustainably. Forest department employment opportunities have also shrunk with the establishment of the national park. Meanwhile, tribal people had developed two main types of e-mappings; NTFP e-mapping and the coffee labor e-mapping. Collection and selling of NTFPs and working in the coffee farms are the two major livelihood options they had. A small number of tribal people also worked for the forest department occasionally (Figure 5-5).

Coffee labor

NTFP collection and marketing

Forest department work

Total well beings for tribal people

Figure 5-5 E-mappings for the tribal people during the post colonial period

Change in the NTFP e-mapping of the tribal people Collection and sale of non timber forest products such as honey, soapnut, lichen, tree gums, etc. always been a subsidiary occupation for tribal communities. Tribal people living inside the Nagarahole national park are not allowed to collect any NTFPs inside the park. However, they are free to collect the NTFPs in the forests outside the national park. After the independence, government of India adopted the recommendations of the Bawa Committee of 1971 and introduced the concept of Large-scale Adivasi Multi-Purpose Societies (LAMPS). These were to be co-operative societies for integrated tribal development through marketing of NTFPs and provision of credit, agricultural inputs and rationed goods. By 1989,

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2912 LAMPS had been established across the country, more than 80% of them in the five states of Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Orissa that have large tribal populations.

NTFP marketing by LAMPS NTFP collection and marketing is a major activity of the Large Scale Adivasis Multipurpose Cooperative Society (LAMPS). The society applies to the state forest department for grant of a lease to collect NTFP from forests. The Karnataka forest department grants the lease in some forest areas to LAMPS and collects royalty. Protected areas like national parks and wild life sanctuaries are excluded in the lease. Forest department may also restrict collection of certain NTFPs in certain areas for the ecological reasons. Before collection season begins for each product the LAMPS announces the "collector price" which is the price to be paid by the LAMPS to the tribal collector. Each tribal member who wish to collect the NTFP will be given a collector’s pass which he has to carry when he goes to forest for collecting the product. Though the forest department does not strictly enforce the carrying of pass, this can be used for harassing the tribal people by the forest guards and officers. The product collected then will be given to the LAMPS. The collector will get the price fixed in the beginning of the season by the LAMPS. LAMPS then auctions off the entire quantity to the higher bidder. Profits, if any, are supposed to be returned to all members through dividends. For the Nokya village of the study area, LAMPS is in Thithimathi village. The area of operation of this LAMPS is the entire Virajpet taluka. This LAMPS has 4350 tribal members in the society. One of the main objectives of the LAMPS is to provide work for the tribal members. Since collection of NTFP is one of the main sources of income for the tribal people, providing a better market for the NTFPs has become a major goal of the LAMPS. According to the secretary of the LAMPS, an individual tribal can make up to Rs 200 per day by collecting and selling the NTFP to the LAMPS, which is much profitable compared to working in the coffee plantations. Even though the NTFPs are seasonal, people are able to collect one or the other NTFP through out the season. April to June is the honey season, June- December it is the season for collecting Lichens, December to March they can collect Segekai, gooseberry, soap nut etc. There are some tribals who only depend on the NTFPs through out the year. Tribal people collect NTFPs from the forests outside the national park. LAMPS gave Rs 55 per Kg of Honey and Rs 50 per Kg of Lichen in the year 2004. LAMPS is not very strict

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about who brings the NTFPs. It buys from the non members and non tribal people also. Many non-tribal people take advantage of this, especially in the areas that are far away from the LAMPS’ office. The people who collect NTFPs from the tribal people and sell it to LAMPS are locally called “agents”. These agents pay less than LAMPS collection price, but tribal people in the far away places sell it to them as it is difficult for them to come to LAMPS. The immediate cash needs make them to sell it to the nearest and the easily accessible agent. The president of the LAMPS in the study area himself acts as an agent to the LAMPS. He said he has some people working under him; they collect the NTFPs and give it him. He also collects the NTFPs from the forest. In this case, fellow tribal people working for him get only the wages. Depending on the NTFP, each person definitely collects NTFP worth more than the per day wage given to him. In the tribal settlements like Majjigehalla that is on the border of the national park and right next to the state highway, people have some advantages in terms of access to NTFPs than the people inside the national park. The forest north of the highway is not included in the NP. It is a reserved forest and tribal people have right to collect the NTFP. Honey, lichens, and soap nut are the some of the NTFPs collected in this forest. However, many tribal people clandestinely go to the national park and collect the NTFP even though it is not allowed. Especially in the case of products like honey, many people said they collect it from the national park too with out the notice of the forest department. However, vast area of the national park in the study area is planted with the teak plants. This has restricted the tribal people from getting the required NTFPs, as teak plantation provide hardly any products that they can use for home consumption or for market. Creation of national park also increased the number of wild animals especially the elephants. LAMPS sells the NTFPs through public auction, in theory the state co-operative marketing federation should find the better market for the NTFPs and arrange for the auction. However, in the study area, the LAMPS sells NTFPs that are collected in small quantities directly to the traders. Inefficiency of the marketing federation in finding the market for the NTFPs and the lack of storage facilities at the local LAMPS are some of the reasons for the local LAMPS to sell the NTFPs by themselves. This might lessen the chances of getting competitive price for the product. This practice also brings corruption in the system, where in the trader has

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to bribe the secretary and the president of the LAMPS and he also have to bribe the forest officials who issue the transit pass before the trader transport the produce. LAMPS is definitely helping the tribal people to use their endowment (NTFPs) efficiently to gain the entitlement. However, the inefficient marketing strategies, corruption, lack of scientific storage and processing facilities fail to provide more opportunities for tribal to improve their livelihood capabilities. State plays a very contrasting role when it comes to the tribal livelihood. Through its forest policy and through forest department, it restricts the livelihood options of the tribal people, at the same time through social welfare department and through the LAMPS societies, encourages the tribal people to enhance their entitlement. The most contrasting program is by the LAMPS. LAMPS provides the crop loan to the tribal people who are cultivating in the forest land. This includes the people who are cultivating inside the National park too. Each tribal family gets around Rs 2000 to 5000 for seven months period. However, the tribal members reported that this scheme has been misused. These loans are given by the commercial banks; they want some document to prove that land belongs to the particular tribal member who applied for the loan. In this case, some other farmer or tribal member who has the land record will be shown as a person applied for the loan, and the loan will be sanctioned. The tribal who actually required the loan will be given a major fraction of the amount and remaining will be divided among the people involved in the sanctioning loan. As secretary of the LAMPS said these loans are never repaid. The LAMPS society has eight tribal members in the board of directors. There are five exofficio members that include Assistant Conservator of Forest, Taluka5 Block development officer, Tahsildar (Assistant commissioner of the Taluka), Representative from the District cooperative bank, and the Integrated Tribal Development Plan program Officer. A tribal member statutorily holds the post of the president. There are incidents however, where the LAMPS was superseded by the government and made the Assistant conservator of forest as the president of the society. Even though the LAMPS are supposedly working on cooperative principles, the government intervention is very high through the very powerful bureaucrats. Since the level of literacy in the tribal communities is very low, the department of co-operative societies generally provides secretary of the LAMPS. The government appointed or the locally appointed secretary, 5

Sub district

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who is not a tribal member, will control the activities of the society. Both president and the secretary together have the control over the financial matters of the LAMPS. The secretaries especially the one appointed by the government, is a burden to the LAMPS. In the study area LAMPS, government appointed secretary was drawing the salary fixed by the government from the LAMPS, which ultimately led to the loss to the LAMPS. There are incidents where the tribal members who have some education and hold the position of director in the society have acted more for the benefit of themselves than for the over all benefit of the society. Lack of accountability in the LAMPS has failed to generate the outcome that is beneficial to the tribal people. LAMPS as an institution created for the betterment of the tribal people is successful only in some aspects. Even though the LAMPS has severe problems in administration, adoption of cooperative principles and also in creating infrastructure, the presence of LAMPS has guaranteed NTFP collection privilege and the minimum price for the tribal people. However, the lack of political will, bureaucratic control, and illiteracy of the tribal people decrease its effectiveness as an entitlement stimulant. Figure 5-6 sketches out the contribution of NTFP e-mapping for the tribal people in Kodagu. The two major institutional factors influencing significantly in the NTFP e-mapping of the tribal people in Kodagu are the forest policies and the LAMPS. While the creation of National park hindered the NTFP e-mapping, the recognition of the rights over the NTFPs in the rest of the forests helped the tribal people. The LAMPS on the other hand had helped the tribal people by providing price stabilities for the NTFPs and reducing the exploitation by the private traders. However, LAMPS also failed in using its full potential to improve the livelihood standards of the tribal members because of the bureaucracy, inefficiency, corruption and lack of infrastructure. In the Figure 5-6, a dotted arrow connecting total well beings of the community to environmental transformation suggests that it is the process of creation of total wellbeing through e-mapping that influence the environmental transformation. The dotted line connecting endowments, entitlements institutions, livelihood outcomes and the environmental transformations shows that the process is dynamic.

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Natural Causes NTFPs Environmental Transformation Total wellbeing of others

Collection rights Total wellbeing of community Emapp ing of others

Total wellbeing of the tribal member

Forest categoryNational park/ reserved forest LAMPS

Food / living materials / Sale

Social status

Coffee labor e-mappingCapabilities Tribal member

Forest work E-mapping

Figure 5-6 NTFP e-mapping for the tribal people in Kodagu

Forest work e-mapping for the tribal people in Kodagu Forest department also provides work for the tribal people. Capturing and domesticating wild elephants, putting out wildfires, clearing roads, digging trenches, afforestation are some of the works tribal people get from the forest department. Creation of national park and its impacts on tribal people’s daily routine Creation of national park has acted as an institutional barrier in the livelihoods of the tribal people. Creation of national park, helped to increase thick undergrowth in the forest. For tribal people, this made difficult to go inside the forest, and danger from the attack of wild animals increased. As a consequence, tribal people cannot go too deep inside the forest to collect their basic needs like fuel wood. After the creation of national park, Tribal people cannot do cultivation of any kind in the forest; they cannot rear livestock or keep dogs as it might spread contagious diseases to wildlife. They are not allowed to hunt, not even the ritual hunting. Even simple repairs to their houses are not allowed. New infrastructure is not allowed that includes digging of wells or de-silting tanks. There is a total ban on collection of NTFPs like tubers,

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mushrooms and other wild vegetables and fruit, which constitute major part of tribal people’s diet. The traditional music and dances are not allowed to perform any more inside the national park as the noise might affect the wild animals. The basic needs, which the tribal people used to get from the forest, have to be purchased from the market. The situation is difficult when there is extension of family, like new childbirth or marriage; tribal people find it difficult to construct new houses for the family members. Tribal people live in fear. Forest department officials confiscate the knives and any other materials the tribal people carry inside the forest to collect the fuel wood. They are living in fear from both the forest department and the wild animals. Tribal houses are small and constructed with some basic material available in the forest; it is very hard for them during monsoon season to protect themselves from the heavy rains, as these houses are not well equipped to withstand the monsoon. For tribal people, only fuel available is the fuel wood. During the heavy rainy season, it is difficult to enter the forest to collect the fuel wood. Traditionally every household in the Western Ghats collected the fuel wood and stored for the rainy season. This practice is not possible for the tribal people living inside the national park, because, they are not allowed to store large quantities of fuel wood, and also because of their small houses, they are unable to store it even if they managed to collect the fuel wood. Another source of fuelwood is the coffee plantations, where pruning of shade trees generate large quantities of fuelwood. But coffee planters will not give them for free. They have to pay for the fuelwood if they want to get it from the coffee plantation. Some tribal people also use kerosene stove as alternative source of fuel. However, this is not effective as they have to buy kerosene, and with their meager income, buying kerosene is a luxury for them. Most of the solar lights provided by the forest department 3-4 years back are not working any more. Children are the most affected people in the tribal areas. Since it is a national park, forest department allows no school to be constructed inside the park. In Majjigehalla, with great difficulty a kindergarten was started. Here also the forest department did not give permission to construct new building. So the school is being conducted in one old building after renovation. For the children inside the national park, school is several miles away. With the undergrowth growing thick and number of wild animal population increasing, children have to either go to school with fear or do not go at all.

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Creation of national park induced the lack of infrastructure and basic facilities for the tribal people. As a result tribal people lag behind in the socio-economic development. Their children are missing the opportunities.

Relocation of tribal people from the National Park: Creation of new endowments for the tribal people Forest department is trying to convince the tribal people to move out the national park. Some people are ready to move out if the alternate land is allotted inside the Kodagu district, many are not ready to move out at all. There are some people who are ready to move out anywhere if the government allots the land. However, the government is slow in identifying the alternative land for the tribal people. The whole issue of relocating tribal people has become fight between the different NGOs and the forest department. The fight to take credit is becoming more important, and tribal people are caught in between the drama that is enacting after the creation of the national park, almost 30 years ago. The two incidents that happened in the national park area played a significant role in tribal people’s life. These incidents also helped both human right NGOs and conservation NGOs to grow and flourish in this area. First one is the creation of national park it self. Second is when the forest department is pressurizing the tribal people to live the forest area, forest department entered into a lease agreement with the Taj Group of Hotels (one of the leading hotel chains in India) for a period of 18 years, in August 1994, to lease an area of 24 acres for the construction of a three-star resort complex inside the national park. By signing the lease agreement, forest department was violating the same Forest conservation act, which they were using to evacuate tribal people. This resulted in the strong protest against the construction. The tribal people with the help of NGOs filed a petition in the High Court and won the case, but the Taj and the government appealed to the Supreme Court. Again, the verdict was in favor of the forest dwellers. The buildings remain abandoned in the forest. The forest department was trying to promote eco-tourism to attract rich tourists to the national park, by ignoring livelihoods of thousands of tribal people living inside the national park. However the effort to relocate the tribal people continued. With increased in number of environmental groups, NGOs and individuals lobbying for the relocation of the tribal people, forest department stepped up the effort to relocate the tribal people. While majority of the tribal people still live in the park, some families have left their settlements and accepted rehabilitation

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packages in the village Nagapura6 (Betta Hosahalli). While the environmentalists (like Wildlife First, Project Tiger) argue that the presence of the tribal people inside the park will affect the wildlife, the NGOs supporting tribal rights (like Budakattu Janara Budakattu Hakku Stapana Samithi, Coorg Organization for Rural Development (CORD)) argue that restricted access to forest resources affected traditional livelihoods and loss of indigenous knowledge and tribal cultural heritage.

Entitlement mapping for tribal people living in relocated area Tribal people are gradually dragged into the cash income. By relocating the tribal people and supporting them to do new agriculture is another stage in the bringing them in to market economy. From the hunting and gathering economy to labor economy to peasant economy, these tribal people have come a long way. It is still not clear how well they will survive in the market economy. To study the new entitlement mapping of the tribal people that are relocated from the national park to Nagapura, I visited this new settlement and interviewed several people living there. Nagapura is a tribal rehabilitation area where around 550 families have been rehabilitated. It is around 60 km from the Nagarhole National Park. The houses here are built by the government, and are in better shape than those in the park where forest department does not allow any construction or repair of the houses. In Nagapura, houses have fences all around. Streets have solar lights. However, there is no electricity in the houses. There is a community building where people gather for any meetings, marriage etc. There is a primary school, and there are tribal hostel for girls and boys separately in the near by town. Relocating to Nagapura has brought about several changes in the life style of the tribal people. When they first moved here, forest department supplied rice and finger millet every month. Finger millet is the staple food of the people of plain region, and for tribal people it is new. Today many tribal people prefer finer millet to their traditional food- rice. Major change in their livelihood is now none of the tribal members in Nagapura go to forest to collect NTFPs. Some tribal people from Nagapura still work in forest as elephant mahouts, however. Each tribal family in Nagapur is given 5 acres of agricultural land. In the beginning, forest department with the help of the University of Agricultural Sciences, decided the cropping 6

Since the tribal people relocated are from Nagarahole National park, the name of the new village is named “Nagapura”. Where Naga means cobra and Pura is town. In the original name Nagarahole, hole means stream.

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pattern for the tribal people. The cropping pattern included growing finger millets, sorghum, cotton, and pulses. Initially the government ploughed the land with tractors and supplied the seeds and fertilizers. Tribal people are not allowed to sell the land for 20 years. They can only transfer it among their families. They are also not allowed to grow tobacco. Tobacco is the cash crop of the region, and tribal people are not allowed to grow tobacco, as it requires lot of firewood, which will increase the pressure on the forest. However, many tribal people have sub leased the land to the local landlords. The usual arrangement is that the local landlord will be given lease on one acre of land. In return the landlord has to till the land with his tractor and has to help the tribal family to select the seeds and help in taking decision on cultivation methods. Though this arrangement looks good, the major benefit is going to the local landlord, as it will take him less than a day to plough the land, for that he will get one acre of land for whole season. The tribal people are slowly engulfed in to the monetary economy where they have less advantage. These lands are not suitable for growing rice and also there is not enough water available to grow rice. Another example of how market economy is attracting the tribal people is now they grow more cotton crop that is a cash crop than finger millet that is a staple food. The government through agricultural department supplies cottonseeds and other seeds on a subsidized price. Nagapura is next to the Tibetan settlement. Tibetans were given land in different parts of India when they were given refugee status in India after China invaded the Tibet. Tribal people in Nagapur also work in Tibetan farms. As the leader of the tribal community in Nagapur said, they should maintain same timings as Tibetans in sowing crops. Once Tibetans harvest the crop, they remove the electricity connected to their fence and tribal agricultural lands become vulnerable to elephant attack. Once in a week, a hospital van comes to Nagapura. The local NGO “LIFT” will send the ambulance to Nagapura in the case of emergency. LIFT also gives training to tribal people in brick making through Social welfare department. Driving license and tailoring training to ladies also were given to some people. However, these trainings have not made major change in their livelihood outcomes. Their major livelihood income comes from the agriculture and from wages. Even today, many tribal go back to Kodagu to work in the coffee plantation during the shade pruning and coffee harvesting seasons.

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Forest department shows the Nagapura experience as a successful rehabilitation program for the tribal people living inside the national park. There are three groups in tribal communities who are living in the forest, one is ready to move out of the National park and live like the people in the Nagapura. Second group does not want to move out of the forest but wants some kind of management control of the forest. The third group agrees to move out only within the Kodagu district where they are sure of continue to use forest and get work in coffee plantations. Different types of NGOs who have different philosophical approaches to nature and society relations support these groups. The group which believes that people should be away from the forest to protect it, they include the conservationists and wildlife activists, support the rehabilitation of tribal people outside the national park. The second group is the one that believes the tribal people who are living inside the national park should have the access and control over the resources available inside the national park.

Agriculture

Wage labor

Non agricultural work

Government, NGOs, Local farmers and agriculture market

Total well being in Nagapura Figure 5-7 E-mapping for the tribal people in Nagapura ( tribal relocation center)

Figure 5-7, sketches out the e-mapping for the tribal people in Nagapura village. Here the e-mapping for the tribal people includes the e-mapping of agriculture, farm labor and the non farm work. The institutional factors influencing these e-mapping are 1) forest department – involved in the relocating program.2) NGOs – NGOs involved in training, and in helping tribal people to adjust to the new environment 3) Local farmers – Local farmers are playing a major role in the tribal agriculture e-mapping. They sub-lease tribal people’s land, they plough their land for rent, and they also help the tribal people in deciding the cultivation practices.

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The e-mapping for the tribal people in Nagapura looks mush better compared to the emapping of the tribal people in the national park. However, many tribal people in the national park believe that there are so many opportunities in the national park to improve their livelihood if the government takes proper action in involving tribal people in management of the national park. They also feel that moving out of the national park and outside Kodagu will ultimately affect the tribal culture.

Coffee labor e-mapping for the tribal and landless people in Kodagu After the NTFP e-mapping, working in the coffee farms is the major e-mapping for the tribal people. Apart from the tribal people there are non tribal who came to Kodagu for working in the coffee farms over more than a centaury. Among the tribal people, Yaravas even though were depend on the forest for their livelihood, have a special relationship with the farming community in Kodagu. They have worked for the native farmers who traditionally cultivated rice and leguminous crops. Introduction of coffee by the European settlers after 1830’s increased the demand for agricultural laborer. The British colonial government encouraged coffee cultivation by giving forestlands which is suitable for coffee to the Europeans, and later native big farmers also bought the government lands for coffee cultivation. Coffee has been a labor-intensive crop. Even today the coffee cultivation is less mechanized and depends on manual labor. When the coffee was introduced, once again the tribal people were the major local labor force available for the coffee plantations. The high demand for laborers in the region led to a large in-migration of labor class from neighboring districts of Mysore and Canara (Now called Dakshina Kannada) and from the neighboring states of Tamilnadu and Kerala. The process of commodification of agriculture in terms of coffee cultivation introduced a new social class of landless laborer in the region. Today the landless laborers are a mixed group of tribal people, local and non-local nontribal population including schedule caste7 people, people of different languages and cultures. The traditional skills the tribal people had in using the forest and the forest products have become their new endowment in the commodified agricultural farms. Local farmers consider Yaravas for land-based work because of their expertise in cultivating field crops, while the Kurubas are preferred for coffee plant and shade tree pruning as they have special skills in climbing trees and understanding of the nature of the tree species. Therefore, for the tribal 7

Underprivileged castes recognized by the constitution of India

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communities, apart from non-timber forest products, working in the agricultural farms became another important livelihood option. Even though the entitlement in the forest and forest related activities are reduced and or curtailed by various entitlement barriers, the coffee plantations which were expanded in the Kodagu district over the last about two centuries are acting as a major employment generation sector in the district. I will discuss the process of development of plantation labor class in Kodagu, how this resulted in a specific set of institutions affecting the ability of tribal and landless people to map labor endowments into entitlements, and the process of creation of entitlement stimulus and barrier for the livelihoods of the landless laborers.

Role of Planter’s Association in shaping e mapping for labor in coffee In Kodagu, the Coorg Planter’s Association (CPA) had significant role in deciding the labor management in the district. European planters started the association in 1879. Soon it become an important forum in Kodagu representing the planters, it also had a major role in the administration of the district and also Coffee marketing and policies in India. With regard to the labor management, CPA acted as a forum for the planters to raise their concern about labor problems and wage rates. The content analysis of CPA meeting minutes for from 1870 to 2003 helped to understand the historical changes in the process of coffee labor emapping for the landless people in Kodagu. The documents revealed that the plantations were paying different wage rates for men, women and children. Most of the discussions in the CPA meetings relating to labor issues were about the labor shortage or the labor wages. The CPA did not address the tribal as a separate entity. The major concern for them seems to be the management of laborers who came from outside the district. Laborers from other districts generally came under a labor contractor8, who brought laborers to plantation. He is like a middleman between planters and laborers. Planter and the supervisor come to an agreement about the wage rates and other facilities. In 1884, the wage rates were 5 anna for men and 3 anna for women. These supervisors get commission based on the wage rate. The CPA record (1884)

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Locally called Mestries. Mestri system of labor management is very popular in plantation sector in South Asian countries. Mestri is an agent acts like a broker between laborers and the planters. He finds the laborers for planters, fixes wages for the laborers, he works on commission.

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showed that the CPA discussed that supervisor who took no advances to bring laborers received 15 percent of the laborers’ wage and those receiving advances were given 13 percent or less. The supervisor’s commission was different in North and South Kodagu. In North Kodagu planters paid 8 anna per head to the supervisor for number of days work done each month and in south, planters paid certain percentage in the total amount of his coolies (laborers) earning. The labor wages were also varied among the laborers. Generally, the laborers from Canara district were paid less compared to laborers from other districts. The contract laborers especially for skilled jobs like digging, renovating, pitting, generally done by moplas (the people from Kerala state) were paid more. The CPA meeting minutes showed that the local tribal people even in 1884 were working in the coffee plantations. Though it was not clear how many of them were working in the plantation, it is clear that they were paid little more than the laborers from Canara district, because tribal people were recognized for their skill in certain aspects of coffee production. It seems that the supply of labor to the coffee plantations were not enough inside the district. The plantation labor management in the India and south Asia is a unique organization. Since from the time of introduction of coffee, and other plantation crops in the mid 1800, both the Mestri system and the kangany9 system coexisted. The planters, in order to have a control on the mestries who took advances promising to bring laborers, demanded a certificate from the local government official (amildar) regarding his character. Amildar - after receiving application and 8 anna stamp, institutes an enquiry about the mestri’s name, father's name, place of resident, occupation, landed property, applicant's age, height and any other particulars for identifying him. In 1889, because of the scarcity of Canarase labor, the members in CPA proposed to getting labors from Ganjam and other area of neighboring Madras state. With the influx of 100s of laborers from other region to Kodagu, the planters had to take care of health care facilities in the district. In 1891, CPA passed a resolution to build a hospital and dispensary in Polibetta village out of government funds. In the early days CPA even decided the amount that would be given to laborers as advances and it was fixed at Rs 10 maximum in 1890. In spite of having a strong association, some plantations followed their own instinct in deciding the wage rates. 9

Kangany is a person who would be entrusted by the employer to recruit workers from his own kin or village to work with him in the plantation. This phenomenon was more popular in plantations in Malaysia. This system was aborted after the Great Depression.

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The CPA was so influential even in the local administration. In the beginning days, the members of CPA were only European planters; this made CPA to have significant influence in the decisions taken by the British administration in Kodagu. When the coffee prices were low, the CPA not only reduced the wage rates of the laborers, but also convinced the government to reduce the wages in public welfare department and the forest department. The European members in CPA often discussed about the condition of the labor and their health. Some members raised concern about the effect of reducing wages to the laborers especially for the temporary laborers from Canara district. The discussion on the malnutrition of the laborers in the CPA meeting minutes reveals that the health and nutrition conditions of the laborers in the coffee plantation were in a bad state. This was further affected when the CPA decided to reduce the wage rates due to reduction in the coffee prices. For the landless laborers, working in the coffee plantations is the only livelihood option available in Kodagu. The wage reduction during the times of lower coffee prices has acted as entitlement barrier for the landless plantation workers. In the first 50 years, the wage rates of the laborers did not increase much. In fact, it was little less in 1936 compared to the wage rates in 1880s. In 1936, however, over the years especially after the Coorg Plantation Labor act of 1926, wages and daily allowances for the estate laborers increased. Laborers were also paid way expenses and given rugs for sleeping. In 1944, the laborers who worked 5 days a week were given daily allowance of one anna per day. Since most of the planters were Europeans, a special war bonus at the rate of Rs 6, and Rs 4 per head to adults who have worked for 200 days and 100 days for current and previous seasons were given. In the mid 1940s, due to the world war and the scarcity of food, the supply of rice and kerosene to laborers were rationed. And the planters who own the paddy field were also allowed to store 4 1/2 baskets of rice per laborer. However, the rationing of the food grains affected the laborers as the ration was given only to the working members of the laborers’ families. Housing was provided by the planters to the laborers as many of the workers came from outside the district and from the plains. In 1949, according the CPA estimate average expenses for housing for plantation laborers was Rs. 100 per acre. The average floor size was 210 sq ft excluding verandah. The typical labor house will consist of a verandah, kitchen and living room.

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There will be one borehole latrine for 2-6 houses; there will be bathing shed near the water source. The Coffee Board of India established in 1942, with the effort by the planters in Kodagu and other districts, had also influence on the labor management. Coffee board gave grants to the coffee growing districts for capital expenditure in respect of welfare measure for estate laborers. With establishment of the Coffee Board, and passing of labor acts, factories act etc, the labor management in the coffee plantations became more organized. In 1956, most of the estates in Kodagu were paying 6 1/4 % of bonus on basic wages for one or two years on the recommendation of either CPA or United Planters Association of South India. The labor wages, bonus, DA were negotiated by the labor unions with the planters association. After the independence, many of the industrial acts were introduced in the coffee sector. Because of the international market for the coffee, coffee was considered as an industry and controlled under the Ministry of Commerce. As a result, the most of the acts and rule that were not in other agricultural sectors like field crops were seen in the coffee industry. For example, Central maternity benefit Act is one of the acts in the plantation sector, which is not applied to other agricultural sectors. Now the plantation act requires the planters to build a group or garden hospitals for the benefit of laborers. However, the planters preferred to use the government dispensaries in the district and pay the hospital expenses for their laborers. The government program on population control was also incorporated in the plantations. In 1978, estates paid Rs 240 to a women worker who under went tubectomy and Rs 120 for men who underwent vasectomy - in addition to 7 days leave and with wages. In a corporate coffee plantation in the study area, interviews with the laborers found that the company follows the labor wage agreement and pays the laborers as for the agreement. Company provides housing, electricity, water facilities to laborers, but the electricity bill has to be paid by the laborers. Laborers also feel that two rugs given to them every year is not useful, instead they prefer better quality rugs. Permanent laborers get 15 days paid holidays, and way charge to visit their native places. Company also gives scholarship - Rs250 per year for all school going children. There are many children in the labor community in the estate going to schools and colleges. The laborers are however not satisfied with the management. Especially after the plantation was taken over by the India’s leading corporation, laborers’ over all income reduced.

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They say that now they are not getting overtime work they used to get before. Now the management says according to one laborer, “take your wages and go home at 4.30”. During the previous management laborers were given overtime work for planting, tree pruning. Many of them used to make Rs.100 more a week. Especially during the coffee picking season, generally laborers make more money. They have to pick, 75 kg minimum of coffee per day of work. Anything extra picked by them will be weighed and will be paid separately. Estate allows its permanent laborers to collect fuelwood from the estate. Laborers are not allowed to rear cattle in their labor colony. There is a mestri for every 20-25 laborers. There is a writer, and a manager. They all get salary from the estate. The management also gives loan to laborers. The marriage loan given to laborers in this estate is Rs.1000. The company’s rice paddy field is gradually replaced with coffee after the increase in the coffee price during mid 1990s. During the paddy-harvesting season, company sells the paddy for less than the market price to laborers. Company also provides transportation to take paddy to mill and pays milling charges too. Now the company does not have paddy lands, it has been converted in to coffee. As a result, laborers no longer get rice for subsidized price.

Contract laborers in the coffee plantations and their entitlement The contract labor (regulation and abolition) act 1970 was introduced by the government to ensure contract laborers also get certain minimum benefits like other employees; however, this act is not implemented seriously. Other wise the tribal people who are contract laborers by and large would have lived in a better condition. All these acts and rules helped mostly the laborers from the neighboring districts and the states that came here to work as laborers in the plantations. The local tribal people who worked in the plantations but prefer to live in their houses in the forest were left behind. And also many of these acts and rules like plantation labor act apply only to the estates that are more than 25 acres and that employ 30 or more persons. Many planters even though they have more than 25 acres of land, register the land among their family members in order to escape from these acts and also to avoid agricultural income tax. Unlike other agricultural crops, in plantation sector like coffee, tea and rubber, the labor organizations and labor laws are more powerful. Various political parties back these labor organizations. Plantation sector has its own labor law. Once in 3 years, the labor unions and planter’s associations negotiate the labor wages, bonus, and other allowances. Although these

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rules are pretty much implemented by most of the plantations, these benefits are available only to the permanent laborers. But majority of the tribal people whose main livelihood option is to work in the coffee plantations are not permanent laborers. They work on temporary basis and or contract basis. They get higher wages than the permanent laborers but they will not get any other benefits like other permanent laborers. Since they are temporary laborers, they suffer when there is a major set back to the coffee industry, and they lose their job. The labor unions have failed to address this issue. The tribal people are not able to join the labor unions as many of them have not been able to get 5 days work through out the year, this makes it difficult to pay the membership fees that the unions demand. Even though the labor unions in the coffee sector are stronger compared to other agricultural sectors, the tribal people are not benefiting from the political advantage the labor unions have. Tribal people’s role in the coffee labor force is not reflected in the labor union activities. Surprisingly, the permanent laborers who are living in the labor quarters inside the plantations are gradually moving out of the plantation. According to one of the laborers, if they live inside the plantation, they will be stuck there forever. So many people prefer to come out of the plantations and resign their permanent laborer position. They generally build house in the government lands, some times in the forests. Generally they build houses on roadsides and plant coffee, banana, beetle nut, coconut etc. The landless laborers have also built houses in the village commons such as sacred groves, grazing lands etc. These lands are also been encroached by other immigrants from neighboring Kerala state where employment opportunity is much lower and have very minimum economic activities. The various government schemes and programs were also helped landless laborers in getting building materials. Irony is that most of the people left the plantation and build their own houses are the permanent laborers, and also recent immigrants who just came from Kerala. The local tribal people who lived there for centuries are living in bad condition, and are forced to move out of their settlement to neighboring district and plain area. In general, the living conditions of the landless plantation workers are little better then the livelihood conditions of the tribal people.

Effect of coffee crisis on the livelihoods of tribal people and landless laborers Tribal people preferred to live in side the forest even though they work in the coffee plantation. During the mid 1990s, when the Board’s marketing functions are removed and the

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open market for coffee was announced, the price of the coffee increased tremendously. This resulted in investment on the luxury items like houses and vehicles by the planters. With the increased mobility and the capital with the planters, investment on coffee farm also increased. Planters took extra care of their plantation by doing proper soil and weed management. This trend benefited the labor class. They not only got more work but also got higher wages. As one tribal member said “ When the coffee growers received lot of money due to increase in coffee prices, they gave us more and more work and more and more money. We demanded higher wages and they just gave”. Planters even took their vehicles to the tribal settlements to bring them to work. This helped many tribal people who otherwise should walk several miles to go to work. One tribal member said “coffee growers from far away places used to come to our colony to take us to their plantations. They bring their vehicles to take us and in the evening they brought us back”. However, this trend lasted only for few years, after the coffee price crash in late 1990s, planters reduced the work in the plantation. Today, many tribal people just walk outside the park and wait for the planter's vehicle to come and pick them up. Many tribal people get only 2-3 days of work in a week. As one of the tribal member said, “ now coffee prices are low, the financial situation of the growers is really bad. Many growers purchased vehicles when the coffee prices were high. Now they sold them. They come by bus sitting next to us. It is kind of embarrassing for them. If they get good price for coffee, we will also get better wages and benefits”. The labor wages for the people working the coffee plantation is fixed by the agreement between labor unions and the planters association. The current wage rate is Rs 64.50 per day. However, only the big estates and corporate estates follow this agreement. The small and medium farmers usually give less wages usually Rs 60 per men and Rs 50 per women for regular work. For skilled works like shade pruning and coffee pruning, laborers are paid up to Rs 80 to 100 per day. Reduction in the cultivation practices by the coffee planters during the lower prices, affected mainly the women laborers. This is because planters cut down application of fertilizer and weeding to reduce the cost of cultivation. The women generally do these works, and obviously, women laborers suffered a lot during the coffee price crises. Men in the tribal or landless laborer family also suffered because the skilled works like pruning are seasonal jobs last

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only for three months in a year. As a result, the tribal and landless laborers entitlements were reduced during the global coffee market crisis. Natural Causes Coffee Labor Environmental Transformation

Locality of the settlement

Total wellbeing of others

Wages and allowances

Global Coffee Market

Food / living materials

Social relationships

Total wellbeing of community Emapp ing of others

Coffee growers associations

Total wellbeing of the Landless people NTFP emappingCapabilities Landless people

Forest work E-mapping

Figure 5-8 Coffee labor e-mapping for the landless people in Kodagu

The Figure 5-8 sketches out the coffee labor e-mapping for the tribal and landless people in Kodagu. Coffee growers association, locality of the tribal and landless people’s settlement, global coffee market fluctuations and the social relationships with the coffee growers all influence the wages and the allowances that these people receive. Tribal people’s social relationships with the farming communities in Kodagu also influence the livelihood out comes of the tribal people. The social relation between the landlords and the tribal people has created a peculiar kind of livelihoods for tribal and farmers. Tribal people especially Yaravas worked in the agricultural field for the local landlords since the beginning of the agriculture in Kodagu. Kodavas says Yarava’s work in the agriculture is very neat. Kodavas also believe that because Yaravas have some special gift, farm will be in good condition if the worker is a Yarava. Kodavas and Yaravas have maintained very interesting and contrasting inter-relationships through out the history (Mallikarjuna 2003). Kodavas are normally the landowning class, and the Yaravas have been always landless workers, often

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bonded to the Kodava households. There were instances of slave trade of Yaravas in Kodagu in the 19th century. Kodava and Yarava have relation which much more than the landlord and worker relation. There is high similarity between Kodava’s social culture and Yarava’s culture. There are incidents where Kodavas marry Yaravas. However, Kurubas live in small huts in the forest. Kurubas did not have kind of relationship with Kodavas as the Yaravas. This is because Kurubas preferred to live freely in the forest. The other social class in the region is the schedule caste and was once untouchables. The untouchability was not practiced in Kodagu especially by the Kodavas, as the studies by sociologists showed that influence of Brahmanism in Kodagu is very less when compared to other regions in India (Srinivas, 1989). The landlords also preferred the schedule caste people for work in the farm. Schedule caste people often locally called holeyas (Polaya/ Harijanas). They were often addressed as the “holeyas of the particular thakka or the Kodava family”. After the introduction of coffee to Kodagu, many schedule caste people have deserted their masters to serve as coolies in coffee estates. Tribal people and other laborers and landlords are interdependent for their livelihoods. Many laborers, who are working in the small and medium farms, get monetary help during emergencies. This also leads to creation of the bonded labor system. Even though bonded labor system is abolished by the act, it is still exist in a small way. In the absence of the institutional credit facilities for the landless laborers, the monetary dependency on landlords keeps the bonded labor system to some extent, even though it is not serious as it was once before. The poachers and the local elites also exploit tribal people by forcing them to hunt the wildlife for them. At the same time, many landlords help the tribal people when they are in need. Especially during the festivals, the tribal who work frequently in the landlords’ farm are given food and clothes. These patron-client relationships bind the laborers to specific landlords, and are more likely to be forthcoming under conditions of labor scarcity, when coffee prices are high and growers compete for access to the labor they need to maintain the productivity of their coffee farms. Tribal people have three main routes to map their skill and labor endowments into wages/entitlements available– rights on forest products, working in the coffee plantation and working for the forest department. However, most of the tribal people live in utter poverty and also benefit from government policies and programs on the tribal welfare that have been in place

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since independence. These policies and programs are designed to help to improve the social, political and economic status of the tribal people. Providing education to tribal children, public distribution system, decentralization of political administration, occupational training are some of the programs of the state that are designed to help the tribal people to improve their capabilities. These programs and policies are supposed to act as entitlement stimulants. I will analyze the role of state’s welfare programs and political decentralization of local administration, which directly aims at empowering and creating better livelihood outcomes for the tribal people by enhancing the endowments and entitlement.

Role of political power on tribal people’s e-mapping The role of political empowerment of the people in their e-mapping is an important aspect of institutional dynamics because it affects the ability of people to influence the institutions that shape their livelihood opportunities. Political ecologists often study the amount of devolution of power to the local people and its impact on the natural resource management and livelihood outcomes. Political decentralization is considered superior to the centralized administration on grounds of efficiency, equity and social justice (Banuri and Marglin 1993 in Agarwal and Ostrom 2001). Decentralization of power is assumed to create sustainable management of natural resources and create better livelihood outcomes as the decision making process will be in the hands of the local people. The experiences of decentralization from various parts of the world indicate that not all the decentralization processes have successfully transformed power to the local actors. Studies have shown that local scale management is not always sustainable or just (Schroeder, 1999) and the actions of the people are influenced greatly by their political and economic position (Robbins 1998). Decentralization, if it devolves power to the local people, will act as an entitlement stimulant in the process of improving the livelihood capabilities of the people. However, de-concentration of power instead of decentralization will only lead to pseudo devolution of the power wherein the power rest with the powerful social actors and the bureaucrats (Ribot 2001). The empowerment of tribal people through the political process would have helped them in creating new infrastructure in the form of better housing, schools, water facilities etc, which would help them in creation of entitlements. However, failure of political empowerment of the tribal people is acting as an entitlement barrier for the tribal people in gaining entitlement from

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their resources like forest products and wage labor and other government programs and welfare schemes. In India, socially and historically underprivileged communities like tribal people and the lower caste people are protected and are given special privileges in the constitution. Tribal people like any other citizens in the country are eligible to participate in the political process. The constitution of India guarantees equal rights to all citizens, and prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, gender, caste, and religion. The Indian Constitution mandates preferential quotas and reservations for scheduled castes (SCs)10 and scheduled tribes (STs) in educational institutions and government jobs. This quota was for an initial period of ten years and has been extended for 10 more years every time the ten years term is ended. The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act of 1989 is another legislation brought into force to prevent atrocities on SC/ST citizens.

Tribal people’s participation in the state political process To involve tribal people in the political process, in the areas, which have high tribal populations, political positions are reserved only for the tribal people. In Kodagu, member of legislative assembly (MLA) seat of Virajpet constituency to which my study area belongs is reserved for the tribal people. Regardless of the party affiliation, only tribal people are eligible for contesting for the member of legislative assembly (MLA) seat in this constituency. Local numerically dominate but poor tribal people like Yaravas and Kurubas have not benefited from this reservation. Only one tribal member from the local tribe became MLA during 1972-1984. The political parties are dominated by the local elites, and tribal people work under these elites. So the local elites do not want to see tribal people in the powerful positions. In addition, the national parties look for a winning candidate who is capable of raising and spending money in the election. Even though the constituent is reserved for tribal people, rules do not say that it should be from local area. And also many lower castes but economically better off are included under schedule tribe’s category. So most often local people from the neighboring districts who belong to "schedule tribe (ST)" according to government category contest for the election through the national parties and get elected. Here the political parties and the elites have down 10

Schedule caste and schedule tribes– the caste and tribes that are underprivileged and are identified by the constitution of India for special privileges.

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played the states intention of empowering and devolving power to tribal people. The proper political empowerment of tribal people would have helped in solving some of the major basic livelihood problems they are facing by improving their ability to retain and create endowments and by giving them more leverage over the institutional framework through which they map endowments to entitlements.

Tribal people’s participation in the local political process Yaravas and Kurubas, participate in the local panchayat11 election where they have quotas. Their ability in these local administrations to operate freely is often hampered by the fact that they are illiterates. Many a times, they find it difficult to work with other members who are from the elite class in the village. It will be much more difficult when the tribal member is working in the other member's plantation for their livelihood. Even though the statutory rules guarantee the protection of the ST and SCs and the upper class people have to face severe charges if mistreat SC/STs, the social and economic divisions of the village still plays an important role. Whenever there is a reservation for the president of the panchayat for the SC/ST people, and if the member elected from the SC/ST quota is illiterate then, that member’s ability to function as a president is dependent on the cooperation of the other members and the secretary, who is a government appointee. Gowramma, a tribal woman belonging to Kuruba tribe, is a resident of Majjigehalla tribal settlement. She is the vice-president of the gram panchayat. She is illiterate. She has been member of the gram panchayat for the last 10 years. Initially, it was difficult for her to work with other members who are predominantly powerful, rich and influential. She was working in a coffee plantations belonging to her co-members in the panchayat, and she still works as a laborer in the coffee estate. Since, she worked in the gram panchayat as a member and vice president; she has gained some respect in the village. She has to depend on other members and or friends of her to read and understand the papers and government schemes. She says she works based on her intelligence. She said, “ When I first became a member of panchayat, it was difficult for me to work there, because other members were rich coffee growers and I worked in some of those coffee plantations. I am also a illiterate, so it was difficult for me to understand all the procedures. I 11

Decentralized local administration system

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ask my reliable friends to read all the correspondences for me. Now I work using my intelligence. I also gained respect in the village. However, I still work in the coffee plantations for livelihood”. Has it changed anything to her settlement and people in the settlement in terms of facilities and justice? Gowramma was able to bring a kindergarten and a drinking water well to her settlement. She was also able to renovate houses that were built by the government for the tribal people through government housing scheme. She complains “ I don’t have much power, I try everything to improve the conditions of our people, but still the government officials and bureaucrats often do not respond”. Because she is poor and is tribal, she is not able to influence forest department to hire the local tribal youth who have some education to work as forest guards and in other positions. She said “ I asked the forest officials to recruit our tribal youth for the post of forest guards. When I go and ask them, they agree and say they will do it, but they recruit someone who gives them bribe.” As a representative of the tribal people, she has not much power to change the life of the tribal people. The devolution of power through Panchayat Raj institutions has given very little power to the tribal members like Gowramma. Tribal members’ effort to improve their livelihood outcomes through political system is hindered by their local social and economic status. The failure of political empowerment of the tribal people is acting as an entitlement barrier for the tribal people in gaining entitlement from their resources like forest products and wage labor and other government programs and welfare schemes.

Role of Social welfare department in creating entitlement for the tribal people State is playing a dual role when it comes to tribal issues. It created an entitlement barrier for tribal people by creating national park, at the same time, state also acts as an entitlement stimulant by implementing several welfare programs and schemes for tribal people. Government through the social welfare department, implements programs to improve the livelihoods of the tribal people. Social welfare department conducts various training programs for the tribal people. However, most of these programs are benefiting only the somewhat better off castes like Nayaks and Kudiyas that were included in the ST category. Department gives training in radio and TV

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repair, beautician, tailoring, driving and Bidari12 craft. The social welfare department conducts computer diploma for degree holders. These trainings are not very useful for Kurubas and Yaravas, as they have very less education. These training programs are planned for the urban environment, but not for the rural environment where tribal people live. However, the department’s program on education to tribal children is helping tribal children. The government has established schools especially for the children of tribal people in and near their settlements. The primary schools are called Ashram School where children are given food allowances every month and also money for clothes and books. There are hostels available for the high school children, where food, cloth and books are given free. In Thithimathi town, there is a Ashram school and also two hostels one for boys and one for girls. Most of the children in Kuruba and Yarava settlements go to school. These children also get scholarship for going to school. Girl students get more stipend and scholarship; this was done to encourage more girls to go to school. Children also get special scholarship if they score high in the exams. The state also provides scholarship to students going to professional schools. Ashram school, hostels and the scholarships are helping tribal children to get education. Since there are several castes included under schedule tribes, the most underprivileged tribes like Kurubas and Yaravas in Kodagu are facing tough competition in getting welfare benefits. Most of the training programs are not beneficial for Kurubas and Yaravas. Furthermore, those living inside the national park have no infrastructure to avail these welfare schemes.

Vulnerability reducing measures by the landless and tribal people Landless people try use different vulnerability reducing measures in Kodagu. The most immediate measure is the dependency on kin relationship. However since tribal people do not have high education and are shy of moving to cities, most of their kin are working in Kodagu in coffee plantations. There is relatively little livelihood diversification within households. The social relationship of the landless laborers and the tribal peoples with farming communities in the district acts as a major vulnerability reducing measure. During the emergencies, farming communities help tribal people if they know them well. The coffee growers and the tribal people try to have a good relationship, because they both depend on each other for their livelihood outcomes. 12

A traditional handicraft in the northern Karnataka

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Second major vulnerability reducing measure is the utilization of government schemes. Midday meals scheme in the school makes tribal people to send their children to school. This helps them not to worry about baby-sitting when they are at work and also not to worry about providing food for their children at least one time a day.

Summary: Environmental entitlement for tribal people Tribal people have several entitlement stimulants and barrier operating at various levels. However, the entitlement barriers are working more strongly than the stimulants leading to poor livelihood conditions for the tribal people. In a typical tribal family, both husband and wife work in the coffee plantation. During the coffee picking season and the pruning seasons, they get more work also so higher wages. Most of the children after finishing primary or the high school start working in the coffee plantation. Non-agricultural and non-forest jobs are rarely done by the tribal people. Government schemes and programs suffer from lack of planning, over bureaucratic management and corruption. Tribal people’s own cooperative helped to preserve the right of tribal people over the NTFPs, but failed to utilize its full potential. Environmental change in terms of change in the land cover in the national park especially the creation of teak plantations are making it difficult for the tribal to get entitlement from NTFPs and to collect their basic needs. Increase in wildlife and under growth in the national park making it difficult for tribal children to commute to the school and adult to go to work in the coffee plantation. On the other hand increased coffee area in the region guaranteed work for the tribal people. The total well being of a tribal family in the region depends on the functioning of the LAMPS, forest department policies, coffee international market, and functioning of the social welfare department. Introduction of coffee to Kodagu and creation of national park together forced tribal people to depend on coffee labor market. Any change in the coffee e-mapping for the coffee growers also affected tribal people. For tribal people and the laborers, increased coffee prices initially after the opening up of coffee market, brought lot of work opportunities in the plantations as many growers increased their investment on the coffee plantation. The wage rates were also increased. This increase in the wage rate improved the results of wage entitlement mapping of the tribal people. However, the post open market coffee price decline affected the tribal people’s wage entitlement. Coffee growers reduced their investment on coffee. This

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created less demand for laborers in the coffee plantations. Growers no longer pay even the minimum wage stipulated by the government. Women laborers were most affected mainly because the cultivation practices that depend on women labors like weeding, planting etc have been reduced in the coffee plantations. Tribal people’s wages entitlement map failed to contribute significantly to their total well-being. This resulted in general decline in the standard of living in terms of availability of food, housing and the medicine for the laborers and tribal people. Even though the coffee crisis affected coffee growers, it is the tribal people and the landless laborers affected the most. When the coffee prices started declining, and tribal people were less wages and work, it deteriorated their livelihood standard because they had no formal institutions to provide financial assistant. Housing, education and health became inaccessible. The food consumption pattern also changed in some tribal family. Number of meals for day reduced. Because of the non availability of cultivable land and also restriction by the national park policies to cultivate in the forest, tribal people are not able to produce their own food and have to buy it from the market. So, coffee crisis affected tribal more severely than the coffee growers

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6. ENVIRONMENTAL TRANSFORMATIONS: LAND USE AND LAND COVER CHANGE, AND BIODIVERSITY CHANGE IN KODAGU In this chapter, environmental transformations in Nokya village with respect to the change in e-mappings of the coffee grower and the tribal people were analyzed. In the extended environmental entitlement framework, environmental transformation affects the endowments available for mapping into entitlements, and at the same time it recognizes that people’s livelihood choices affect subsequent environmental transformation. In this study, land use and land cover change and the biodiversity change are the two main environmental transformations analyzed (Figure 6-1). Land use and land cover change in the study village Nokya from 1991 to 2002 is analyzed by using LANDSAT satellite images. Biodiversity change is analyzed by comparing plant diversity in the coffee plantations and the scared groves in the study village and the surrounding villages. Multiple e-mapping processes were analyzed in the preceding chapters, and their implications for land cover change are considered here. Process of Tribal people’s /workers’ emapping

Process of Coffee grower’s emapping

Land use and land cover change and biodiversity change

Natural causes

Further resource availability

Figure 6-1 Environmental transformations due to the process of various e-mappings

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Land use and land cover change in Nokya village Land-use and land-cover change and global environmental change form a complex and interactive system linking human action to use/cover change to environmental feedbacks to their impacts and human responses (Yang et al, 1999). Land-use and land-cover change is increasingly recognized as being an important driver of global environmental change (Turner et al. 1994). To understand the environmental transformation and to plan the management of natural resources, it is necessary to quantify the processes of landscape change. The scholars have demonstrated that the patterns of landscape modification are the results of complex interactions between physical, biological and social forces (Turner 1987, Lambin et al 2001). Remote sensing is a useful data source for measuring landscape modifications (Hudak and Wessman 1998, Lambin et al 2001, Yang and Lo 2002). The dynamic process of landscape modifications in terms of land use and land cover change can be investigated through temporal series of remote sensing data and by analyzing change trajectories (i.e. sequences of successive changes in land-cover types) (Turner 1987, Turner et al. 1989, Singh 1989, Hall et al.1991, Alves and Skole 1996, Coppin and Bauer 1996, Lambin 1996, Guerra et al.1998, Mertens and Lambin 2000). Land cover change detection involves the use of multi-date images to evaluate the differences in land cover due to environmental conditions and human actions (Yang and Lo 2002). Political ecologists often integrate the land use and land cover change and the qualitative and ethnographic data. The scholars recognize these land use and land cover changes as the study of cultural landscapes (Behrens et al., 1994; Moran and Brondizio, 1998; Jiang 2003). Remote sensing analysis has contributed to the study of landscape by providing a large spatial and temporal context for landscape studies (Moran and Brondizio, 1998), supplementing the use of ethnographic data in evaluating land-use dynamics (Guer and Lambin, l993), and enabling quantitative measurements of land-use intensity and diversity (Behrens et al., 1994). Jaing (2003) in her study in China argued that the landscape interpretation through the remote sensing analysis have to be sought in the broad context of political change and economic modernization. In the present study the land use and land cover changes in Kodagu are interpreted as the result of the institutional factors influencing the local livelihood dependencies.

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Data and Methodology To understand the historical changes in the land use in the village, Nokya village cadastral map was acquired from the Land survey and settlement office in Kodagu. The village accountant office in the Nokya village provided the data on the land tenure in each parcel in the village. Introduction of coffee to Kodagu created new e-mapping for the farmers. The process of creation of new e-mapping was influenced by the institutional factors such as power relations of the European planters with the colonial government, forest tenure system that made available land needed for the coffee cultivation. At the same time creation of coffee labor e-mapping for the tribal people and the laborers from outside the region also enhanced the land use change from forest to coffee. The historical documents mention that Kodagu had very dense forest cover. Introduction of coffee changed the land cover in the forest tenure. Historical documents also show that the coffee was introduced in the “forested” areas and gives details of methods followed to convert forest to coffee. So, it is fair to assume that when farmers converted baanes to coffee, it changed not only land use pattern but also the land cover. Village map was then scanned and digitized and rectified to the Survey of India topographic maps. The village map that was updated over the years had tenure and land use classes. The land survey record showed land assigned for coffee cultivation, baane lands, settlement areas, forest lands, rice paddy and also the government lands (Figure 6-2). Identifying these tenures especially the coffee, baane and the rice paddies will help to know how coffee has expanded in these lands after its introduction to the region. The Nagarahole national park is to the east of Nokya. The land classified as forest in the southeastern part of Nokya village is now part of the national park. Land use in Kodagu changed significantly after the introduction of coffee in 1854. The first, land use change occurred in terms of conversion of forested land to coffee. Historically, large tracts of forests were thrown open by the government for coffee cultivation. In the beginning, coffee was cultivated by completely clearing the forest. However, later realizing that the coffee plants can not withstand the heavy monsoon rains without the tree cover, growers retained shade trees in the coffee plots. But the under growths were completely removed and trees density in the new coffee plots was reduced to make it suitable for the coffee cultivation.

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The second land use and land cover change was the conversion of baanes (private forests that supply green manures for rice cultivation) to coffee. European investors found it easy to buy baane lands for coffee cultivation instead of waiting for government to open up the new forests for coffee cultivation. Again here, undergrowth was removed and the tree densities were reduced to accommodate coffee. Baanes were either sold to big farmers who wanted to grow coffee or the owners of the baanes themselves started cultivating coffee in baanes. The conversion of baanes increased over the years, today in the study area nearly all baane lands are under coffee cultivation The land tenure map of Nokya shows coffee lands which are once forest which were opened up for coffee cultivation. The baanes are the traditional land tenure class and are clearly demarcated on the map.

Land use and land cover changes in the recent decade To study the land use and land cover change Landsat satellite images of the year1991 and 2002 were used. 1991 was the year when the Indian Coffee Board monopoly over the Indian coffee market was seriously questioned. This was also the year when the India started liberalizing its economy. The collapse of International Coffee Agreement in 1989 also another reason for choosing 1991 year for the land covers analysis. In this decade the global coffee market has been changed tremendously. The immediate effect of coffee open market was the increase in farm gate price for coffee. The later part of the decade witnessed a record low coffee price. These market fluctuations are assumed to affect the land use and also land cover change in Kodagu. In this study, land use and land cover changes in the study area between 1991 and 2002 have been critically analyzed with respect to the institutional factors playing at the local, regional and the global levels. Geometric rectification of LANDSAT images Geometric rectification is critical for producing and comparing spatially corrected maps of land use and land cover changes over the different time periods. The data downloaded from the Earth Science Data Interface (ESDI) at the Global Land Cover Facility (GLCF) maintained by the University of Maryland were already radiometrically and geometrically corrected and projected to UTM map projection, WGS 84 datum, Zone 43. The images used in the study are for the Landsat path 145 and row 51.

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Figure 6-2 Land tenure classification in Nokya village

The dates of these images are 01/02/1991 and 03/29/2002. The 1991 image was a TM image and the 2002 images was a +ETM image. Although, these images were geometrically

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corrected, there was a slight mismatch between the images. Both the images were then rectified to the Survey of India topographic map (Topo map number 48/P/16 and 57/D/4) and also by using the ground control points collected in the field. The RMS errors for the both the images were (RMSE: x=0.037, y= 0.04 tot = 0.05). Principal Components Analysis (PCA) PCA is often used to remove inter-band correlation that typically exists within multispectral image data. PCA identifies linear combinations of the original band data of an image to produce component images representing the axes of maximum variation (Campbell, 1996). Often the purpose of PCA is to compress most of the information contained in a multiple band image into a new image with fewer components. These product images are then used in place of the original band data (Lillesand and Kiefer, 1994). One benefit of PCA is that it uses all the information provided in a multi-spectral image. PCA uses mathematical algorithms to transform n bands of correlated data into n principal components, which are uncorrelated (Schweik and Green 1999). The first principal component describes most of the variation of the brightness values for the pixels of the original bands (Jensen 1996). Subsequent components explain less and less of the data. The main benefit of principal components analysis is that it can reduce the amount of data (bands) without losing much of the information. In this study, two separate principal component enhancements were used. PCA was performed on bands 1, 2, and 3 (the visible bands) and on bands 5 and 7 (the middle-infrared bands) separately and first principle component was used for in the image classification. Bands 1, 2, 3 are highly correlated and also the mid infrared bands (5 and 7) are also typically highly correlated among themselves (Jensen 1996). Along with the two PC-1 bands, band 4 was used in-classification, thus, reduced the number of layers from six to three, with minimal loss of information. Tasseled cap transformation Although, PCA could have given the most of the land cover classification, to improve the classification tasseled cap transformation was done on both 1991 and 2002 images. Tasseled cap transformation is one of the available methods for enhancing spectral information content of Landsat data. Tasseled cap transformation especially optimizes data viewing for vegetation studies. Tasseled cap index was calculated from data of the related six bands. Three of the six tasseled cap transform bands are often used:

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band 1 (brightness, measure of soil), band 2 (greenness, measure of vegetation), band 3 (wetness, interrelationship of soil and canopy moisture) It is the first two of these which contain the most information (95 to 98%) (Jensen 1996). The band 1 from tasseled cap transformation is known as the soil brightness index (SBI). This index shows bare areas such as agricultural fields, beaches, and parking lots as the lightest features. The band 2 is the green vegetation index (GVI), which is an indicator of vegetation status since it displays areas with healthy, green vegetation as the lightest feature (Jensen 1996). In this study, a tasseled cap transformation on the six bands of the image was performed and then utilized the SBI and GVI for the further classification. Finally, the 2 layers from PCA, Band 4 (infrared band) and SBI and GVI were stacked together to use in the classification in Erdas in the following order. Band 1: PC-1 from TM bands 1, 2, and 3 Band 2: TM Band 4 Band 3: PC-1 from TM bands 5 and 7 Band 4: Soil Brightness Index (SBI) Band 5: Green Vegetation Index (GVI) Image classification A hybrid method of classification was used. Initially, the ISODATA (Iterative SelfOrganizing Data Analysis) algorithm in ERDAS Imagine was used to identify spectral clusters from the Landasat data (Yang and Lo, 2002). The interested land cover classes in the study area were – Coffee, Rice, Dense Forest, Low dense forest, New Crop, Scrub, teak, and Settlement. ISODATA algorithm was implemented without assigning predefined signature sets as starting point. To begin with 15 clusters were specified, convergence value was specified as 0.99 and the number of iterations specified was 80. The 15 clusters then recoded in to 10 clusters. However, to reduce the 10 clusters to 8 clusters, visual or manual interpretation was used. Visual interpretation was used because it allows an integrated use of spectral and spatial contests as well as the field observations (Yang and Lo 1999). In the case of 1991 image, forest and low dense forest categories were retained separately. However, in the 2002 this distinction was difficult. In the final classification in both images all forests were classified under low dense forest category. The land tenure boundaries of the Nokya village were used as AOI (area of interest) to correct

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the misclassification of coffee as forests. With in the rice paddy lands the class other than rice was classified as new crop. The new crop class contained both young coffee plants with dadap and young grevallia robusta as shade crops, and ginger. Separation of young coffee and ginger in rice paddy areas was difficult because of the low resolution of the Landasat images which was complicated because of the smaller plot sizes of these crops. These new crop plots were sometimes smaller than the pixel size of the Landsat images used in the study. A class called teak/degraded was added to the classification because some of the plots in the study villages had mixer of teak plants and the thick scrubs. The tenure class and the ground truth information were also useful in separating the scrub, teak and fallow rice paddy fields. The final classification included 8 clusters - Coffee, Rice, Low dense forest, New Crop, Scrub, Settlement, teak, and teak/degraded. Table 6-1 Results of accuracy assessment of 1991 land use and land cover map produced from Landsat + TM Class

Reference

Name

Classified

Totals

Totals

Number

Producers

Users

Correct

Accuracy

Accuracy

Teak

1

1

1

100.0%

100.0%

1.00

Coffee

25

28

25

100.0%

89.3%

0.79

New Crop

5

5

3

60.0%

60.0%

0.56

Teak/degraded

1

1

1

100.0%

100.0%

1.00

Scrub

0

0

0

---

Rice

11

10

9

81.8%

90.0%

0.87

Low Dense Forest

5

5

5

100.0%

100.0%

1.00

Forest

2

0

0

---

---

0.00

Settlement

0

0

0

---

---

0.00

50

50

44

Totals

Overall Classification Accuracy =

---

0.00

88.00%

Overall Kappa Statistics = 0.8168

The accuracy of the 1991 image classification was 88% (Table 6-1). The reason for the somewhat less accuracy was that the ground truth for 1991 was limited. Old maps and field enquiries are the two major sources of ground truth for the 1991 image. The low resolution of the image was one of the reasons for some of the miss classification. The 2002 image classification (table 6-2) accuracy was somewhat better compared to 1991 image. For 2002 image, there was enough ground truth collected in the field. For some smaller classes the lack of sufficient ground

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truth also one of the reasons for the less accuracy. However, the 88% accuracy for 1991 and 92.5 % accuracy for the 2002 image are generally considered as good accuracy percentages. Table 6-2 Results of accuracy assessment of 2002 land use and land cover map produced from Landsat + ETM Class Reference Classified Number Producers Users Name

Totals

Totals

Correct

Accuracy

Accuracy

Coffee

51

52

50

98.04%

96.15%

0.89

Rice

8

9

8

100.00%

88.89%

0.88

New Crop

10

10

9

90.00%

90.00%

0.89

Forest

5

3

3

60.00%

100.00%

1.00

Settlement

0

0

0

---

---

0.00

Scrub

0

0

0

---

---

0.00

Teak

2

2

1

50.00%

50.00%

0.49

Teak/Degraded

4

4

3

75.00%

75.00%

0.74

Low Dense

Overall Kappa Statistics = 0.8644 Overall Classification Accuracy =

92.50%

Change detection After classifying 1991 and 2002 images, change detection was carried out using Erdas Imagine 8.7(Figure 6-3). Even after considering the accuracy problem in the classification, it is clear at least a part of all land cover classes in 1991 have been converted to coffee by 2002. Forest and the rice paddy were the two land cover categories that were converted to coffee in large extent. Rice paddies were introduced with new crops. These new crops mainly included coffee and ginger. The rice paddy and teak plantations have very close signatures. The knowledge based classification was used to separate rice paddies and the teak. Even then misclassification of these two categories appeared. Results of land use and land cover change analysis (table 6-3) showed that between 1991 and 2002 area under coffee and the new crops have increased. At least part of all most all land cover classes in 1991 have been converted to coffee. However, since these coffees are shade grown, it did not result in complete deforestation. The major land cover change in this decade was increase in coffee area and decrease in rice paddy area. The conversion of rice paddies (the land for subsistence farming) to coffee happened in most cases after the increase of coffee price in early parts of 1990s immediately after the coffee

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board control was removed. During that time, most of the land available for coffee cultivation was already converted to coffee (Figure 6-4). Increasing coffee prices resulted in increased labor wage rates, however, the price of rice was not increasing, so the rice became uneconomical. As a result large tracts of rice paddies were left fallow or converted to coffee plots. Table 6-3 Land cover change between 1991 and 2002 1991 Land cover classes 2002

Low Dense

settleme

Total(Hecta

Coffee

Rice

New crop

Forest

nt

Scrub

Teak

Teak/Scrub

Coffee

671.56

36.80

51.70

12.00

1.75

3.29

0.26

1.58

778.95

Rice

13.59

86.85

9.90

0.51

0.87

0.00

0.00

0.00

111.73

New crop

23.72

44.91

35.35

0.00

0.00

0.44

0.00

0.00

104.42

Forest

0.48

0.17

0.20

94.21

0.22

0.37

0.04

6.61

102.31

Settlement

1.32

0.08

1.00

0.57

6.80

0.00

0.00

0.00

9.76

Scrub

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.68

0.00

0.14

0.00

0.00

0.82

Teak

0.01

0.02

8.19

2.20

0.00

0.00

17.11

0.00

27.53

Teak/Scrub

0.04

8.36

0.11

40.25

0.00

0.00

10.83

7.76

67.35

Total (hectares)

710.72

177.18

106.46

150.41

9.65

4.24

28.24

15.96

1202.87

res)

Low Dense

Another significant land cover change identified was the conversion of rice paddies to ginger plots. Reason for ginger cultivation was that the decrease in coffee prices in the late 1990s had created indebtedness in the regions and farmers wanted some enterprise that will give them immediate cash income. Ginger being another commercial crop which also had very good market helped them to reduce their financial burden to some extent.

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Nokya Village Land Cover in 1991

Nokya Village Land Cover in 2002

Figure 6-3 Land cover in 1991 and 2002 in Nokya village in Kodagu

140

1991

b /S cr u

Te ak

Te ak

ub Sc r

en t se ttl em

Fo re st

Lo w

D

en s

N

e

ew

C

R

cr op

ic e

2002

of fe e

Hectares

Land cover change between 1991 and 2002 900 800 700 600 500 400 300 200 100 0

Land cover

Figure 6-4 Change in the area under different land cover classes in Nokya between 1991 and 2002

The other change was the construction of houses in open access state forests/lands by the coffee plantation workers who migrated to Kodagu from the neighboring districts and states. However, this change was not seen the change detection. Because this change was not seen in the primary study village Nokya, but noticed in the neighboring villages. This was mainly due to introduction of government housing scheme where government allotted land to landless people, later on many people constructed houses in government lands even though they were not allotted any lands hoping that government will regularize their occupation. Table 6-4 Expansion of agricultural in various land tenures over the last century Low dense

New

Teak/

Total

TENURE

Coffee

forest

Crop

Rice

Scrub

Settlement

Teak

degraded

(hectares)

Bane

357.50

6.86

17.70

0.38

0.00

0.00

0.14

1.89

384.47

Coffee

270.88

3.59

7.07

0.79

1.19

0.00

1.32

1.03

285.87

Fallow

3.20

0.17

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

3.36

Forest

19.18

0.31

0.01

95.66

0.42

0.82

23.82

53.17

193.38

Rice

70.01

95.15

76.71

1.66

0.12

0.00

0.86

5.79

250.30

Government land

24.84

0.32

1.20

0.00

0.01

0.00

0.00

4.36

30.73

Road

1.05

0.26

0.06

0.19

0.00

0.00

0.67

0.00

2.23

Settlement

4.29

3.19

0.00

3.04

7.13

0.00

0.00

0.00

17.66

Coffee in rice paddy

10.88

0.00

1.42

0.00

0.89

0.00

0.00

0.00

13.19

Total (hectares)

761.83

109.85

104.17

101.73

9.76

0.82

26.80

66.25

1181.20

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Overlying the tenure map of Nokya village on the 2002 land cover class showed that the land originally assigned for the non agricultural purposes have been converted to agriculture mainly to coffee (Table 6-4). All most all baane lands are now become coffee plots. Significant areas of rice paddies also are cultivated with coffee. Especially in the northern parts of the village, where there are corporate coffee plantations, some of the rice paddies have been converted to coffee much before the coffee open market. Another change in land use was observation in the village and the surrounding areas is the creation of national park. The area under national park was historically used as a production forest by both the colonial and post colonial period governments until 1975. Teak was planted inside the park area during various periods in the history. The coffee labor e-mapping for the tribal people available in Kodagu made the state to take this land use change decision without worrying too much about the tribal people’s livelihood options. Creation of national park and restricting the activities of the tribal people in the park led to increased scrub cover inside the national park. The tribal people once cultivated some of these lands. The results of land use and land cover change analysis in the Nokya village showed however that coffee as commodity agriculture has not expanded in the national park area The land use and land cover study showed that the forested lands in the village have been converted to coffee for the last one and a half century. Some of the environmentalists argue that this change in land use and land cover is affecting the biodiversity of the region. To study how introduction of coffee influenced the biodiversity change in the area, vegetation study was conducted. In the next section the results of the vegetation study are discussed.

Biodiversity change accompanying land cover change One of the criticisms of agriculture especially the commercial agriculture is the change in biodiversity. Introduction of coffee in to the Western Ghats area has been criticized by the scholars as a threat to the bio-diversity of the area. While the land use and land cover change study in the previous section has shown that large areas of forests have been converted to coffee cultivation in the last century in Kodagu. However, the since the coffee is grown under shade in India, coffee plantations could be easily confused for forest. A substantial literature exists suggesting the conservation value of shade-grown coffee. Over the years the composition of the shade trees in the coffee plantations have been changed, the forest policies, rights and privileges

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of these forests in coffee, demand for timber and also because of the fluctuations in the coffee market. To analyze the biodiversity changes in the coffee plantations, a vegetation study was conducted in the study village and the surrounding villages. Some of these changes may be related to the e-mapping activities of coffee growers that were considered in chapter 3. Their implications for land cover change are developed later in the current chapter. To analyze the biodiversity changes due to coffee cultivation, the biodiversity in coffee and another landscape where the biodiversity has not affected have to be compared. However, it is difficult to find a landscape that has no human impact. In the study area, the forestlands that are under the state control are highly managed and planted with the tree species like teak. So, the only landscape that had lesser human impacts is the scared groves. Although many sacred groves in the area are degraded, these are the only landscape available in the region to compare the impact of coffee on biodiversity. The studies have shown various conditions of biodiversity in the scared groves in different parts of India. In many parts of Asia, Africa, Europe, America and Australia people preserve a section of natural environment as sacred groves for various social, cultural, religious and ecological purposes (Chandran, et al 1998). In India, sacred groves are located in varieties of habitats ranging from heavily forested areas of Western Ghats to the deserts of Rajasthan. These sacred groves often act as bank of relic vegetation (Kushalappa and Bhagwat, 2001), and protector of watersheds and water sources. There is a popular theory that sacred groves that protect a watershed or water source might have originated because of the people's belief that a deity located near the grove yields water for agriculture. However, general belief is that people will protect the sacred grove or will not destroy the sacred groves because they believe that the intruders of the sacred groves will face the wrath of the deity and face the ill fate. There are 1214 sacred groves covering an area of 6375 ha in Kodagu according to forest department records. These patches are locally referred as Devarkaadus – which could be literally translated as God’s forests. Each village has at least one sacred grove and some have more than one grove. Each grove has a deity in it, among them Iyyappa, Bhagavathi, Mahadeva and Bhadrakali are the most common. Recent years have witnessed construction of temple inside the sacred groves. Kodavas, the dominant people in the region, are traditionally known for their love for hunting in the wild. As the deities, especially Iyyappa – is the God of hunting, people make offering of small terracotta icons of hunting dogs in the sacred groves. This is to appease the

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deity and praying for the good hunt before going for hunting the wild boars in the forest. Today many of the sacred groves have been encroached for coffee cultivation and for human settlement. The sanctity in many of the sacred groves has reduced only to the small area surrounding the deity. There are sacred groves that are maintained by various religious communities like Jains (Jain basadi devarkaadu), Veerashaiva sect (Muttkaadu), Muslims (Palli kaadu) and lower caste Hindus (Hole devarkaadu) (Chandrakanth and Nagaraj 1997). When British annexed Kodagu in the year 1834, there were several thousands of sacred groves existed in Kodagu. There were village committees headed by a village thakkas (head of the committee) in each village and were in charge of festivals that are conducted for the deities in the sacred groves. Colonial government conducted the settlement of sacred groves of Kodagu and estimated that there was 15,506 ac of sacred groves in Kodagu in 1873. In over 100 years, area under sacred groves has been decreased by about 42 percent while the number of sacred groves increased by 39 per cent (Kushalappa and Kushalappa1996). These lands were officially put under the less stricter forest tenure called ‘protected forest’ and only in 1985 state forest department declared these lands as reserved forests (more stricter rules regarding use and access of these lands) and took over formal ownership. Before 1985, the government even used some of the land under sacred groves for house schemes. According a study (Kushalappa and Kushalppa 1996), today out of 97 big sacred groves, 9 have been fully encroached, 30 partially encroached, 40 are intact and 9 are improved by the forest department. This demonstrates the increased pressure on the forestlands for cultivation of crops and housing accompanying the commercialization of agriculture. The old rules which existed during pre-colonial period about the use and access of sacred groves continued even today in the state forest act. This rule allows villagers to take firewood for temple worship, materials for stage, and timber with special permission for the temple repair. Villagers generally have rights of way and water, grazing and hunting during Keil muhurt (beginning of harvest) and Hutri (thanks giving).

Vegetation sampling in coffee plots and sacred groves Based on the list of sacred groves from the forest department records, 15 sacred groves were visited in and around the sample village. Seven sacred groves out of 15 found had vegetation and 3 groves were completely or partially encroached for coffee cultivation and housing. The plant diversity was then compared with the shade grown coffee. People in and

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around these sacred groves were interviewed using open-ended questions, and interviews were recorded, transcribed and then coded and analyzed. Vegetation study was conducted to assess the plant diversity in 7 sacred groves and the similar study was also in 7 coffee plantations where the shade trees are redeemed and 7 coffee plots where shade tree are unredeemed. The vegetation samplings in coffee plots were done by a masters student named Satish. The data from his sampling is used in this analysis. If the landowner had paid the seigniorage price for the tree to the government, then that land will be considered redeemed land and the land owner will have the right over that tree. The land in which seigniorage price for the trees to the government has not paid that land is considered as unredeemed land. Considering the thick undergrowth inside the sacred groves, a quadrate of 20m X 20m was laid out and all the trees greater than or equal to 10 cm girth at breast height (GBH) in the quadrate were enumerated and identified. Girth was measured using a measuring tape and approximate height of the tree was recorded. Regeneration of species was recorded at 4 corners of the quadrant in a 2m X 2m plot. In the case of coffee plantation, plots were laid out at 25m X 50m (Figure 6-6).

Quadrate in Sacred groves (20m x 20 m)

Quadrate in Coffee (50m x 25m)

Figure 6-5 Quadrate layouts for vegetation sampling in sacred groves and coffee plots

Vegetation sampling results Vegetation analysis of the data collected in unredeemed coffee plots, redeemed coffee plots and the sacred groves found only 5 tree species common to all the three. Totally 109 different species were found in all tenures together. Number of species were higher in sacred groves (62), however, the number of species in unredeemed and redeemed coffee plots were same (38 and 38). While unredeemed coffee and redeemed coffee had 19 species in common, the unredeemed coffee and sacred groves had only 7 species common among them. Redeemed coffee and the sacred groves had only 9 species common (Figure 6-6).

145

Redeemed Coffee (38)

15

Unredeemed Coffee (38)

14

4

5

17

2

51

Sacred Groves (62) Figure 6-6 Distribution of total 108 species in three land tenures

Simpson’s reciprocal index (Simpson 1949) is a measure of diversity. It is often used to quantify the biodiversity of a habitat. It takes into account the number of species present, as well as the abundance of each species. Following formula is used in calculating Simpson index. n(n-1) D = ________ N(N-1) where D is the diversity index. N is the number of species. The Simpson reciprocal index is 1/D. So the larger value of the index the greater the diversity. Results of Shannon Weiner index The test showed that there is a 0.8065 probability that unredeemed plot and redeemed plots have same diversity at 5% levels. However, tests showed that the estimated probability that sacred grove is same as redeemed coffee is = 0 and unredeemed coffee is = 0. Sacred grove is more diverse than redeemed coffee plots at 5% level of significance and also sacred grove is more diverse then unredeemed coffee plots at 5% level of significance. The estimated probability that sacred grove is less diverse than the redeemed and unredeemed coffee combined is 0.0046. So the sacred groves are more diverse then coffee plots at 5% levels of significance. 146

Table 6-5 Alpha diversity indices

Land tenure

Shannon Weiner

Simpson Relative Index

H

H Variance

Redeemed Coffee Plots

2.6875

0.0053505

8.0912

Unredeemed Coffee Plots

2.718

0.0078341

7.989

Redeemed and unredeemed combined 2.851

0.0030516

9.1591

Sacred Groves

0.0042271

16.055

3.2948

Results of Simpson reciprocal index The Simpson reciprocal index also showed that the sacred groves are more diverse than both the redeemed and unredeemed coffee plots at 5% level. Sacred groves were also more diverse than the coffee plots. The results of these indices definitely showed that in the last one and half century coffee has reduced the tree species diversity in the region. While regeneration of different species was recorded in the sacred groves, coffee plots had no regeneration. To analyze whether there is any difference in the composition of the tree species in these three land tenures, species importance, species relative density and species relative dominance were calculated (Table 6-7). Total stand density per hectare = total number of trees * (10, 000) /total area sampled Species relative density = number of trees for each species / number of trees for each species by total number of trees and expressed in percentage Species relative (basal dominance) dominance = basal area for each species / the total basal area for all species (expressed in percentage). Where, Basal area = (pi(dbh)2)/4 Species importance = average of relative density and relative dominance. Density can be very high for a species, but if the individuals are small then dominance may be low. Conversely, a species with a very high dominance may be very low in density. By taking the average of these two values you get a better idea of the size and density of vegetation.

147

The tree stand density was found highest in the sacred grove. Even though in the redeemed lands coffee growers have tree rights and can sell the tree, the tree density found more in redeemed lands than unredeemed lands. The main reason is that the Grevillea robusta (locally called silver oak) more dominant in redeemed lands and second dominant trees is that these trees are preferred by the coffee growers. These plants are planted by the growers. These plants are exotic species and there is no restriction of cutting and transporting these trees. The coffee growers after selling trees in redeemed lands plant Grevillea robusta plants for shade in coffee. These trees are also can be pruned and managed easily compared to wild trees. Less disturbed sacred groves have more diverse trees. Grevillea robusta is totally absent in the sacred grove. Impact of introduction of coffee to the region also led to the introduction of exotic forest species like Grevillea robusta in to the region. Results show that in the well-protected sacred groves, biodiversity is well preserved. At the same time coffee, which is often considered as a threat to biodiversity – has significant tree diversity. Converting slowly to more profitable tree species like Grevillia robusta has led to some loss of biodiversity in coffee plantations. However, we cannot ignore the fact that the many of the sacred groves have no tree diversity at all due to fact that they have been converted to housing and coffee plantation.

Environmental transformations due to change in the e-mapping of the social actors in Nokya village To summarize land use changes over the last 150 years in Kodagu, a large tract of forests were opened up for the cultivation of coffee starting about 1854. Since getting forest lands from the government for coffee cultivation was a time consuming process, the European planters started buying baane lands from the local farmers for coffee cultivation. The local farmers also started cultivating coffee in their baanes. The area under coffee increased tremendously over the last one and a half centuries in Kodagu. The higher economic returns from coffee made the farmers to grow more coffee. Since coffee was grown under shade, the prunings from shade trees provided green manures to rice fields even though the baanes which were created to supply green manures have been converted to coffee.

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Table 6-6 Species count, importance, relative density and dominance in unredeemed coffee, redeemed coffee and sacred groves Unredeemed Coffee lands

Redeemed Coffee lands

Sacred Groves

Species

Species Count

Species

Species Count

Species

Species Count

Dalbergia latifolia

73

Grevillea robusta

96

Dimocarpus longan

60

Grevillea robusta

28

Acrocarpus fraxinifolius

38

Acronychia pedunculata

40

Citrus reticulata

20

Erythrina suberosa

31

Mimisilon malabarica

37

Spathodea companulata

17

Citrus reticulata

23

Clerodendron viscosum

33

Species

Species Importance

Species

Species Importance

Species

Species Importance

Dalbergia latifolia

27.9%

Grevillea robusta

26.3%

Dimocarpus longan

13.4%

Grevillea robusta

9.2%

Acrocarpus fraxinifolius

12.8%

Acronychia pedunculata

8.1%

Spathodea companulata

8.3%

Erythrina suberosa

8.5%

Mimisilon malabarica

7.6%

Ficus racemosa

6.6%

Artocarpus integrifolius

5.8%

Clerodendron viscosum

7.5%

Species

Relative Density

Species

Relative Density

Species

Relative Density

Dalbergia latifolia

30.5%

Grevillea robusta

29.1%

Dimocarpus longan

15.7%

Grevillea robusta

11.7%

Acrocarpus fraxinifolius

11.5%

Acronychia pedunculata

10.5%

Citrus reticulata

8.4%

Erythrina suberosa

9.7%

Mimisilon malabarica

9.7%

Spathodea companulata

7.1%

Citrus reticulate

7.0%

Clerodendron viscosum

8.7%

Species

Relative Dominance

Species

Relative Dominance

Species

Relative Dominance

Dalbergia latifolia

25.3%

Grevillea robusta

23.5%

Dimocarpus longan

13.4%

Ficus racemosa

9.9%

Acrocarpus fraxinifolius

14.0%

Margaritaria Indica

14.2%

Spathodea companulata

9.5%

Ficus racemosa

8.3%

Mangifera indica

4.0%

Grevillea robusta

6.6%

Erythrina suberosa

7.5%

Clerodendron viscosum

7.5%

Total stand density

273

Total stand density

367

Total stand density

1361

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The global nature of coffee market introduced uncertainty in coffee prices. However, establishment of Indian Coffee Board helped the farmers get steady market price for their coffee. The guaranteed minimum price for coffee encouraged the farmers to increase the land under coffee. As a result coffee was expanded in all most all tenure classes. In some cases, coffee was grown in the government lands like forests and also in the community lands like sacred groves. Increased area under coffee and a study income made some farmers to reduce the cultivation of food crops like rice. Instead they preferred to convert rice paddies to coffee and buy the food from the market. The self sufficiency achieved by India in the food production, made sure that there was enough rice and other food products available in the market for the coffee farmers to buy for their consumption. After 1990 when the global coffee market become open market, and after the Indian coffee market adapted open market policy, the local coffee prices started increasing. Main reason for this increase was the decrease in the global coffee supplies due to frost in Brazil the major coffee growing country in the world. All these factors along with the increased cost of fertilizers and pesticides in India due to removal of subsidies to agriculture, the Kodagu farmers found that rice cultivation is becoming more and more uneconomical. The farmers reduced the rice cultivation and increased the areas under commercial crops like coffee and also ginger. After the mid 1990s the global coffee prices started decreasing. The local coffee farm gate prices also decreased to record low in the last 30 years. Coffee cultivation became uneconomical. However, unlike other field crops, coffee is a tree crop, and decrease in the coffee prices will not immediately change the area under coffee. Increase in coffee price will increase the area under coffee, but the when the coffee prices decrease the area remains same at least for some time. Decrease in coffee price however might change the land cover and land use in other types of lands. In Kodagu, even though the area under coffee did not decrease after the decrease in coffee prices, there was an increase in area under ginger crop in rice paddies. The coffee growers were trying to find a way to get more cash income as their debts have increased due to lower coffee prices. The coffee area has increased in the region since the coffee was introduced to Kodagu. The vulnerability introduced after India adapted open market policy for coffee, forced coffee

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growers to grow other cash crops to reduce their debt burden. This change in e-mapping for the coffee growers has impacted the land use and land cover in Kodagu. The changes in the land cover in the national park area have not been studies using Landsat imagery. However, the field visits confirmed that the under growth in the forests have been increased after human movement in the forest is restricted. However, the forest area in the Nokya village which is also a part of national park has become degraded and covered with scrub vegetation. Immigrant laborers have also occupied some of the forest lands in the village. When it comes to biodiversity change, the policies on tree rights in the private lands had an influence on the shade tree species composition in the coffee plots. When compared to sacred groves, the tree diversity is definitely less, however, the institutional failure in terms of failure of community management in sacred groves led to complete or partial encroachment in many sacred groves for housing and other settlements. The coffee farms had shade tree density much more than the coffee board suggested numbers. This change in biodiversity especially in coffee has made the growers to relay less on the tree e-mapping. For those who have ownership rights on the shade trees, change in tree composition in coffee shade trees led to the lack of valuable native trees for sale in the time of financial emergencies. The change in biodiversity affected the further e-mapping of the coffee growers.

Conclusions Extended environmental entitlement framework argued that the environmental transformations may be the results of the e-mappings of the social actors. In this chapter, an environmental transformation in Nokya village with respect to the change in e-mappings of the coffee grower and the tribal people were analyzed. The institutional factors acting at the various temporal and spatial scales were analyzed in the earlier chapters were in turn influencing the land use and land cover change decision of the people in the region. The stabilized coffee market through the Coffee Board of India’s control over the market helped the farmers to increase the area under coffee. The coffee crisis in the mid 1990s introduced another type of change in the land use and land cover in the region where the people looked for the new kind of cash crop to compensate the loss from the coffee cultivation. The temporal resolution of this land use and land cover change analysis showed that the increase in coffee cover is the result of the initially higher prices after market liberalization. The ethnographic data discussed in the chapter 5 on entitlement mapping of the coffee growers

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indicated that the growers increased coffee cultivation when the coffee price increased initially hoping this trend will remain for ever. However, the data also indicated that the decrease in price later in the decade forced them to cultivate short duration commercial crops. This observation of environmental transformation due to change in the institutional impact on the e-mapping of the coffee growers affected the further availability of the resources for entitlement mapping. Land under subsistence crop were converted to coffee and other commercial crops which led to diminishing area for subsistence crops. Since coffee is a perennial crop, it was not easy to use the land for cultivating some other crop. The policies on tree rights in the private lands had an influence on the shade tree species composition in the coffee plots. Study showed because growers had no endowment on certain trees, they were unable to use the tree e-mapping opportunities to improve their livelihood outcomes. This encouraged growers to discourage the growth of trees on which they will not have ownership rights, and instead encouraged non native trees. Thus change in biodiversity affected the further e-mapping of the coffee growers. Coffee has changed the landscape of Kodagu. It also influenced the biodiversity of the region. The institutional factors that are many a time global in nature are some of the factors on which the local people have no control, for them to change the local landscape, these forces also contribute to the change in the biodiversity of the region. Extended environmental entitlement framework has helped in understanding how the impacts of institutional changes in the process of e-mapping changed the future availability of resources for the coffee growers and the tribal people.

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7. CONCLUSIONS The objective of study was to analyze the differential impacts of commodification of agriculture on the people’s livelihoods and the environment in the Western Ghats of India. This study was conducted in several villages of Kodagu region of Western Ghats where coffee was introduced as a commercial crop in 1854. Introduction and expansion of coffee in the region is considered as commodification of agriculture because the returns from this crop depend on the global market. The region is the major coffee growing region in India. Coffee in Kodagu supports livelihoods of peasant farmers, big planters and also the tribal people. Introduction of coffee brought about certain environmental changes especially in the form of land use and land cover change and biodiversity change. Study was conducted to understand the institutional factors at the micro, meso and macro levels that influenced the livelihood outcomes of the people who depended on coffee. Two types of actors were considered for the analysis in this study. One is the tribal people who depended on the forest for livelihood but currently depends mainly on coffee labor market, and other actor is the coffee growers. Study also analyzed the LANDSAT satellite data for two time periods (1990 and 2003) to understand the land use and land cover change in the region which was directly or indirectly due to introduction of coffee to the region. That time period includes the period following the international and national deregulation of coffee. National quotas under the International Coffee Agreement lapsed in 1989 and India dissolved it’s national board and price support structure in 1994. In this study, an extended environmental entitlement framework was developed and used to understand the institutional influence in livelihood of the social actors and the environmental transformations of the region. Key concepts under this framework include endowments of skills, labor, land, capital etc. which actors are able to convert into entitlements of goods and services used for household reproduction and accumulation of wealth. The framework draws attention to the process of entitlement mapping by which actors convert their endowments of labor, skills, capital etc. into entitlements. Furthermore, institutions at various scales affect the ability of actors to convert their endowments into components of livelihood. Finally, total well being consists of the summation of multiple processes of converting endowments into goods and services. Total well being, in this sense, is synonymous with livelihood. This framework helped

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to understand the role of institutions in nature-society relations without ignoring environmental factors, environmental change, and the way in which livelihood choices can also affect environment. The study used a multi-methodology where ethnography, remote sensing, GIS and the archival studies shed light on environmental change and the institutions that mediate the way people make use of the environment. In this chapter, I will summarize the results of the study and discuss their implications for policy and theory. First, I will discuss the changes in land use and land cover due to the spread of coffee in the region. Then I will discuss the influence of coffee on the livelihood outcomes of the major social actors examined – coffee growers and the tribal people. The policy implications of this study will be discussed next. Finally, I will discuss the contribution of this study to the political ecology scholarship and the human dimension of the global environmental change.

Environmental Transformations Impact of coffee e-mappings on Land Use and Land Cover Change Land use and land cover in the Kodagu region changed significantly after the introduction of coffee in 1854. Of the six major land use and land cover change patterns first three are related to the introduction of coffee, first two were the initial changes and the rest of them are mainly due to the conservation policies and the market liberalization. In each case, new opportunities and restrictions on actor’s entitlement mapping possibilities led to environmental change. The first land use change occurred was the conversion of forested land to coffee during the initial stages of introduction of coffee to Kodagu. The second land use change was in terms of conversion of baanes (private forests that supply green manures for rice cultivation) to coffee. The third land use change was the conversion of forestlands to a national park. The fourth land use and land cover change happened in the region was the conversion of rice paddies (the land for subsistence farming) to coffee. The fifth land use and land cover change was the conversion of rice paddies to ginger plots. The sixth change was the construction of houses in open access state forests/lands by the coffee plantation workers who migrated to Kodagu from the neighboring districts and states.

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Introduction of coffee to Kodagu created new e-mapping for the farmers. This process of creation of new e-mapping was influenced by the institutional factors such as power relations of the European planters with the colonial government, forest tenure system that made available land needed for the coffee cultivation. At the same time creation of coffee labor e-mapping for the tribal people and the laborers from outside the region also enhanced the land use change from forest to coffee. The historical documents mention that Kodagu had very dense forest cover. Introduction of coffee changed the land cover in the forest tenure. Historical documents also discusses that the coffee was introduced in the “forested” areas and gives details of methods followed to convert forest to coffee. When farmers converted baanes to coffee, it changed not only land use pattern but also the land cover. The third land use change i.e. creation of National park, was the institutional change happened due the change in the conservation policies. The area under national park was historically used as a production forest by both the colonial and post colonial period governments until 1975. Teak was planted inside the park area during various periods in the history. The coffee labor e-mapping for the tribal people available in Kodagu made the state to take this land use change decision without worrying too much about the tribal people’s livelihood options. Creation of national park and restricting the activities of the tribal people in the park led to increased scrub cover inside the national park. Some of these lands were once cultivated by the tribal people. There are also some agricultural lands inside the forest that are not declared as part of the national park due to litigations. These lands are owned by the non tribal local agricultural communities. The results of land use and land cover change analysis in the Nokya village showed however that coffee as commodity agriculture has not expanded in the national park area The fourth and fifth land use and land cover change patterns were the results of institutional changes that affected the coffee e-mappings. These institutional changes include the collapse of international coffee agreement; collapse of Indian coffee board’s marketing activities and the market price fluctuation of coffee. The sixth change was the construction of houses in open access state forests/lands by the coffee plantation workers who migrated to Kodagu from the neighboring districts and states. This was mainly due to introduction of government housing scheme where government allotted land to landless people, later on many people constructed houses expecting government will

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regularize their occupation. This change also influenced by the increased labor wages during the coffee boom period which prompted landless laborers to construct their own houses. Biodiversity Change The conversion of forest to shaded coffee groves decreased biodiversity. This study identified that there is significantly less plant diversity in coffee plots compared to the lessdisturbed sacred groves. Results also showed that first of all there is no regeneration of forest species in the coffee plots. The second observation is that the growers are increasingly replacing the native trees with the exotic fast growing and timber valued trees like silver oak. Introduction of silver oak plants helped certain growers to improve their total well beings.

Livelihood implications of coffee E-mappings Commodification of agriculture differentially affected the tribal people’s and the coffee growers’ livelihood outcomes. Introduction of coffee in the 1800s to Kodagu and coffee open market in mid 1990s are the two major processes in the commodification of agriculture that changed the livelihood outcomes differentially for these two social actors.

Livelihood implications for farmers due to the introduction of coffee Growing coffee was considered as a very lucrative livelihood option and helped people to improve their livelihood standards. Even though it was the European who introduced coffee in a plantation scale, the local farmers who were growing only rice also started cultivating coffee (Richter 1881). When the farmers were growing only rice, the main institutional factors affected their entitlement mapping were the local land tenure regimes, family labor endowments, and social customs and traditions. The market influence on their entitlement mapping was minimum as they depended less on the market. However, when the introduction of coffee gave landowners new routes to map their endowments into livelihood, they came to depend on the market to a much greater extent than before. Even in the earlier days coffee was depending on the international market especially the London market. In the history, prices of coffee have gone up and down and affected the livelihood outcomes of the coffee farmers. Establishment of International Coffee Organization 1963 and the Indian Coffee Board in 1942 brought about stability in the coffee market. For years, the livelihood outcomes of the coffee farmers improved due to the stabilization of the market, and technical, financial and marketing support by the Indian Coffee Board. Farmers total well being was dominated by the entitlement mapping of 156

coffee. Entitlement mapping of other intercrops like black pepper, oranges, and cardamom also contributed to the well beings of the coffee farmers. Institutional arrangements that existed for coffee marketing both at the national and the global levels were responsible for the improvement in the livelihoods of the people in the region.

Livelihood implications for tribal people due to the introduction of coffee Historically the Yarava tribes were mostly dependent on the agricultural labor in addition to their dependence on forest. Kurubas depended on shifting cultivation, forest products and hunting. Production forestry during colonial and post colonial periods used tribal people in logging timber and also planting teak in the forest. Tribal people also depend on the farm labor in the coffee plantations. There were two major changes happened in tribal people’s entitlement mapping in the last about two centuries. Initially, tribal people used resources such as land and wildlife using their endowment such as hunting skills, and shifting cultivation skills and unrestricted access to forest to gain entitlement. The main institutional factors acted during this initial period were their customs and traditions that regulated the use of resources. First change in their entitlement mapping happened when the colonial government took over the forests in the mid 1800s. Colonial government introduced production forestry where forest was used for timber harvest and planting timber species like teak. They allowed tribal people to settle in different parcels inside the forest so that they can be used as laborers in harvesting trees. Tribal people were no longer allowed to do shifting cultivation and hunting, however, they continued hunting and working for colonial forest department in harvesting trees and planting teak and helping the department in capturing wild animals like elephants. This change in the institutional control shifted tribal people’s entitlement mapping from hunting and shifting cultivation to waged labor. Introduction of coffee in Kodagu in mid 1800s by the European planters increased tribal people’s dependence on waged labor in coffee. This is the second major change in the entitlement mapping of the tribal people. High demand for the labor in the coffee plantations and continued restriction to use the resources in the forests forced the tribal people to depend on the wage market. Coffee also attracted thousands of people from elsewhere in the region and also from the neighboring districts and states to work as laborers. Tribal people for their skilled jobs were given higher wages than the rest of the laborers. For tribal people, working in coffee

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plantations became almost a major livelihood option as the forest department tightened its control over the resources in the forests upon which the tribal people depended on for their livelihood. While some tribal people moved to the labor colonies in the coffee plantations, most continued to live in the forest and worked for coffee planters and the forest department. The third change in their entitlement mapping happened when the post independent government recognized the rights of tribal people over NTFPs in the government forests. This, along with the establishment of marketing cooperatives for NTFPs (LAMPS), introduced a new entitlement map of NTFPs which improved the total well being of the tribal people. However, the labor in the coffee plantations remained the major contributor in their total well being for about a century. As discussed in the earlier section, the effect of commodification of agriculture in terms of coffee cultivation on livelihoods become more significant after the liberalization of the Indian coffee market. Increased coffee prices during the initial few years of liberalization, increased the living conditions however, the market failure after the mid 1990s created severe deterioration in the living standards of the tribal and landless laborers. Lack of the work and low wages, lack of land under subsistence crops like rice all mainly due to the indirect effect of coffee market liberalization, reducing the total well beings of the tribal people in Kodagu.

Livelihood implications of coffee market liberalization Coffee brought about the new livelihood opportunities for both the landless and coffee growers, but its dependence on the global market resulted in the increased uncertainty and vulnerability for the coffee growers and the laborers. Institutional factors at the micro, meso and macro levels acted as either stimulants or barriers at various stages of process of creation of livelihood outcomes. Changed global market scenario and increased coffee production by major coffee producers in the world, increased dissatisfaction about the functioning of the Indian Coffee Board by the coffee growers, and the market liberalization policies of the government of India, all resulted in the dissolution of the marketing function of the Indian Coffee Board in the early 1990s. This drastic change to the institutional context of mapping coffee production into livelihood affected the growers and the landless in very different ways.

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After the introduction of 100 percent free sales quota for the coffee in India, initially coffee functioned well as the global coffee supply was affected due to the 1994 frost in Brazil, a major coffee producing country. In the later years, continuous decline in the coffee prices and the absence of any institutional arrangements to regulate the coffee market led to the increased vulnerability of the peasant coffee growers and the coffee laborers.

Effect of global open market for coffee on the growers’ livelihood outcomes For growers, continuous decline in the coffee prices for several years resulted in increased indebtedness, reduced maintenance of their coffee plots and changed cropping pattern. Coffee growers saw initially an improvement in their total well being as the result of increased coffee prices. However, in the post 1994 years, absence of market regulations at the global and national levels affected the coffee entitlement mapping for the growers due to decreased coffee prices. While the pre open market period had strong institutional factors acting as stimulants in the coffee entitlement mapping thereby improving growers’ total well beings, the open market period institutions acted as barriers in the coffee entitlement mappings of the growers. In the pre open market period, where the Indian Coffee Board acted as a marketing, financial and technical partner to the coffee growers, the coffee growers had higher credibility in the economy. Input supplier, financial institutions and other social institutions were not worried about the coffee grower’s repayment of loan, because the board guaranteed the payment. This arrangement helped coffee entitlement mapping for the growers to improve growers’ total well being. When the coffee prices increased, prices of inputs like fertilizers etc were also increased. Neoliberal policies of the Indian government led to reduced subsidies for farm inputs, this in turn increased dependency of the farmers on the cash income. Due to the higher fixed and working capital requirements in commercial crops like coffee, peasants’ financial dependencies on the financial institutions as well on the private moneylenders increased. Initially when the price was higher, even though the board was no longer doing marketing, the growers still had some credibility in the society. Growers’ credibility decreased in the society when the coffee prices started decreasing. The financial institutions became reluctant to advance any loan to the coffee growers fearing they may not be able repay their debt. The increased debt further forced the peasant farmers to grow more commercial crops like ginger or black pepper or vanilla.

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Other impact of the coffee was the change in dependency on other forms of agriculture. Once a traditionally rice growing area, rice cultivation in Kodagu decreased over the years. When the coffee price increased in the early 1990s, the price of inputs and the labor wages also increased making the rice cultivation uneconomical for most of the farmers as the rice price did not increase in the market. This resulted in abandoning the rice paddies or converting to coffee. Previously, only the hillside baanes had been converted to coffee. In the changed institutional environment after the liberalization of agricultural markets, many farmers even converted their rice paddies to coffee. In the study area about 38 % of the rice paddies have been converted commercial crops.

Effect of global open market for coffee on the tribal people’s livelihood outcomes For tribal people and the laborers, increased coffee prices initially after the opening up of coffee market, brought lot of work opportunities in the plantations as many growers increased their investment on the coffee plantation. The wage rates were also increased. This increase in the wage rate improved the results of wage entitlement mapping of the tribal people, which is their main source of livelihood following the various restrictions on NTFPs. The post open market coffee price decline affected the tribal people’s wage entitlement. Coffee growers reduced their investment on coffee. This created less demand for laborers in the coffee plantations. Growers no longer pay even the minimum wage stipulated by the government. This resulted in general decline in the standard of living in terms of availability of food, housing and the medicine for the laborers and tribal people.

NTFP entitlement mapping for tribal people contributing to their total well-beings For tribal people who live in the national park, global coffee crisis severely eroded livelihood possibilities by making it difficult to find jobs in the coffee plantations. By the time of the coffee crisis, these labor opportunities had become the principle component of total well being for the tribal people. Their livelihood possibilities were already constrained by deforestation for coffee, by teak plantations in the natural forest areas, by restrictions on livelihood activities inside the national park, and by institutional limits on entitlement mapping for the remaining NTFP endowments. Tribal people were able to make livelihoods by selling forest products that they can collect only from the forest outside the national park. In these forests they have complete rights over the collection of NTFPs. Rights on the non timber forest products in the forest outside the

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national park helped the tribal people to sustain their livelihoods during the coffee price crisis. However, expansion of coffee in the forested areas of the region is reducing the area under forest where they can collect NTFPs. However, potentials of NTFP entitlement mapping in tribal people’s total well-beings were affected due to the failure of institutional mechanism operating at the local level. Even though there most of the forests in the study village are the included in the national park, there are large tracts of forests in the taluka (sub-district) as a whole where the tribal people have NTFP collection rights. The Large Scale Adivasis Multipurpose Cooperative Societies (LAMPS) as an institutional arrangement which was established to help tribal people to market their NTFPs is lacking in infrastructure, honesty and planning for the improvement. This led to under utilization of NTFP economy as a significant contributor to the total well-being of the tribal people. Other institutional arrangements like development schemes by the social welfare departments, forest department, panchayat raj institute and the NGOs have also failed to improve the livelihood conditions of the tribal people due to their misplaced priorities and conflicting interests. With the coffee crisis and the failure of institutional arrangements that were set up for the welfare of tribal people, the livelihood conditions are deteriorating everyday. With the availability of the natural resources and the skills of the tribal people, if these institutional set ups work properly would improve the standard of living of the tribal people.

Vulnerability reduction measures The EEE framework draws researchers’ attention to actors’ active process of mapping paths from endowments to livelihood. It also helps identify mechanisms actors develop to reduce vulnerability. Researchers have identified that people have their own vulnerability reducing measures like kin relationship where people use their relationship with their friends and families to cope with the famine like situation (Watts, 1984). As Watts (1983) observed in West Africa, in Kodagu commoditization also had profound implications for complex forms of household differentiation, accumulation, and proletarianization. The rural producers and the laborers in Kodagu were increasingly incorporated into the coffee market economy and commodification of labor. Both coffee growers and the tribal people become more vulnerable to the global coffee market fluctuations after coffee market was changed from regulated market to open market.

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This study observed several vulnerability reducing measures that people in both groups take during the time of financial crisis. By using these vulnerability reducing measures, the social actors are creating alternative routes to map entitlements, thus avoiding the vulnerability due to entitlement mapping through global market institutions. They instead are developing a new set institutional arrangement that can create new endowment and entitlement to sustain the livelihood outcomes even when the coffee or NTFP entitlement mappings are failing. These measures include a) Dependency on kin relationship: This dependency is mainly on the earnings from their children working in the cities. Since many coffee growers’ children are highly educated and working in cities, the income from their children helps to reduce the vulnerability. For tribal people, however this potential alternative income is much less due to fact that not many of the tribal people are educated to get jobs in cities. b) Balancing between commercial crops and subsistence crop: Small holders with less than a hectare of land preferred to balance between cultivation of commercial crop like coffee and subsistence crop like rice. Because their dependency on hired laborers was minimum or nil, their expenses on inputs were low. Since they also grow rice for self consumption, their home expenditures are also reduced. Large farmers also find it useful to grow some quantity of rice to reduce the dependency on market. c) Labor sharing: Small farmers depend on family labor and or on labor sharing where families help each other in cultivation activities of rice. Even though the total family income is less because they do not receive wages for reciprocal work, the vulnerability reduced as their need for cash to pay labor minimized. d) Utilization of government schemes: Midday meals scheme in the school makes tribal people to send their children to school. This helps them not to worry about baby sitting when they are at work and also not to worry about providing food for their children at least one time a day. e) Lobbying: Coffee growers lobby the government to intervene in the market and credit policies when the open market for coffee deteriorated their livelihoods. Waiver of interest on bank loans, conversion of short term loan to long term loans, reduction of taxes, and minimum support prices are some of the vulnerability reduction measures that the coffee growers lobby for with the government. However, the government usually responds by providing some relief

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measures like converting short term loans to long term loans and waiving interest on loans provided by the cooperative banks. These vulnerability-reducing measures are creating new institutional setups and in some case trying to alter the existing institutional set up and thereby managing the vulnerable situation due to the institutional factors on which these social actors have no control.

Land use and land cover implications of people’s livelihood decisions In the above discussion we can also observed that the change in livelihood outcomes due to institutional changes in the coffee e-mapping processes also changed the land use decision of the people. The land use change from forested lands to coffee changed improved the livelihood conditions. This further increased people’s capabilities to invest in more coffee cultivation. As a result more forests were converted to coffee and more private forests were converted coffee. However, the deterioration of livelihood outcomes due to decline in the coffee prices did not result in conversion of coffee in to new land use. But, it forced coffee growers to introduce more commercial crops in the rice lands. This is the clear indication of institutional factors in coffee emapping altered further availability of resources to the farmers and the tribal people. Extended environmental entitlement framework helps to analyze these dynamics of the environmental transformations and the livelihood outcomes due to various e-mappings. The framework also helps to analyze the changes in the livelihood outcomes and the environmental transformations without prioritizing any one it. The EEEF’s flexibility to include the historical analysis of the e-mapping processes helped to understand the complex relations between environmental transformations and the livelihood outcomes.

Policy implications for the future of coffee This study shows how increasing reliance on a global market increases vulnerability to both coffee growers and also the laborers. It also shows how exclusionary conservation policies also produce vulnerability and it highlights some of the ways people in the region are taking action to reduce their vulnerability to these changes. While landless tribal people and coffee growers actively search for ways to reduce their vulnerability to market volatility, many of the most promising strategies to accomplish this task require collective action through the state.

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It is necessary to create market interventions to decrease the impact of market volatility on livelihood Coffee e-mapping The study clearly identified the coffee market failure after the collapse of International coffee agreement and after the removal of Indian Coffee Board’s marketing functions. The Extended Environmental Entitlement Framework helped to understand the impacts of institutional barriers created after the removal of market intervention. The coffee market needs institutional stimulants that can help the growers to have better livelihood outcomes. The global nature of the coffee market makes it necessary to have some kind of meso level institutional arrangement at the state level. There are three changes required in the Indian coffee policy, first is to increase the domestic market for coffee so that dependency on global coffee market can be reduced to some extent. Second, strengthen coffee grower’s cooperative marketing association by getting professional help, and improved technology to make it competitive in the international market. Third, increase the role of Indian Coffee Board in market stabilization through better market intelligence and also through establishing a market stabilization fund. This market stabilization fund could be used to control the local market price fluctuations by the declaring minimum support price for the coffee in each season. At the regional and farm level, farmers and farmer organizations could also explore the possibilities of nongovernmental market interventions such as organic certification and fair trade. However, providing subsides and the support prices to the agricultural sector after WTO agreement will be challenging to the states. The International Coffee Organization has an influential role in minimizing the market vulnerabilities of the coffee growers all over the world. ICO has an opportunity to bring a radical change when the new International Coffee Agreement is signed after September 2007. Oxfam America has been very active in recognizing the problems of the coffee farmers and the worker. Oxfam has made some solid recommendation to the ICO. These recommendations are, creation of “Consultative Board on Sustainability”, increase representation of coffee producing countries in the ICO, representation of smallholder producer organization in each coffee group in ICO. Oxfam also recommended that the ICO should work with member governments, the private sector, and civil society groups to a) stimulate access to credit for small producer organizations, b) establish risk-management facilities and tools suitable for use by under-resourced small farmers, and c) organize and manage a “clearinghouse” to disseminate information on technical

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assistance projects implemented in member countries. (Oxfam 2006). Apart from these changes in the International agreement, the coffee producing countries’ governments should guarantee debt refinancing, make available of affordable credit for coffee infrastructure to the growers and rural workers, and also improve the market information (Oxfam 2006). Even though Oxfam has not recommended making any significant changes to the State Coffee Boards, to implement these recommendations, Coffee Boards has to be made more efficient. NTFP e-mapping For tribal people, NTFP entitlement mapping is the most promising livelihood option available. Functioning of the LAMPS have to be improved to make it an effective institutional interference in the NTFP marketing to ensure better remuneration for the tribal people. This improvement should concentrate on increasing the efficiency, reducing the corruption and also by improving the infrastructure in terms of storage and processing facilities; vulnerability to market volatility could be reduced. Political ecological work on decentralization, representation, and accountability in rural governance might inform efforts to improve these important institutions. It’s not enough to remove areas from deforestation activities through parks and set-aside Tribal life is increasingly deteriorating due to creation of national park and decrease in job opportunities in the coffee plantations. For tribal people who are now depending on coffee for their livelihood than any time before, the stabilization in the coffee price (and labor markets) will help in maintaining their family. It is also good to increase livelihood diversity, so that vulnerability to market volatility is reduced Many farmers already diversified their livelihoods, but government’s and NGO programs could strengthen their ability to pursue this vulnerability-reducing strategy such as identifying better intercrops. Similarly, measures could be taken to improve the ability of landless tribal people to map their labor and skills into entitlements, by giving them preference in work in the park, for example, or by diversifying their skill sets and work opportunities. Tribal people’s rights to land need to be respected – either through just compensation, or through recognition of rights to land and forest resources. When the conservation policies of the state created protected area, the forest dwellers either poorly compensated or continued to live inside the protected area struggling to survive

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amid the hostile set of institutions. In Nagarahole national park, the people who were relocated to Nagapura do have better housing and infrastructure. However, some for people who are still living inside the national park, life is misery. They are deprived of their rights over the forest and the forest products. Liberalization of coffee market and recent drop in coffee price reduced their chances of making livelihoods through coffee labor wages. Even though the tribal people who were rehabilitated in the neighboring district are having better life, considering the inefficiency of the government schemes, tribal people will be more likely to improve their livelihoods if they are given more rights in the management of the forest and share the income from the forest management. This also helps to meet the conservation goal of the state. Advocates of community management to natural resources have argued that when granted management rights and the means to derive meaningful benefits from management communities would craft legitimate, local governance and resource management rules (Ascher, 1995; Johnson and Cabarle, 1993, Klooster 2001). The advocates of community forest management in India also argue for the recognizing the role of local communities in the forest management, which they argue will help to protect the natural resources and at the same time guarantees the livelihood opportunities for the local people. The just compensation for the tribal people who are ready to move out of the national park also is an alternative approach. In this case, government, NGOs and the tribal people have to be involved in deciding the location, extent, infrastructure and the rights of land and resources. The planning and implementation of relocation needs to considered after consulting with the tribal people.

EEEF an effective tool for analyzing human dimensions of environmental change Understanding the nature-society interactions has been a real challenge for the scholars. Especially the human dimensions of the environmental changes accompanying process of livelihood creations are poorly understood. Political ecology, peasant studies, land use and land cover change studies have contributed to the study of human dimensions of environmental changes. To understand the complexities of the relations among human livelihood creations, resource availability and the environmental transformation we need a framework that incorporates the dynamic processes of the institutional impacts. Role of institutions in the process of livelihood creation and in the process of environmental transformation have been 166

studied separately and there are several approaches developed over the years to integrate these processes. These institutions act at various temporal and spatial scales and act as stimulants to livelihood outcomes in certain situations and as barriers in some other situations. The change in institutional role in the processes of livelihood outcomes and the environmental transformations are often influenced by the political contexts. Study of these institutions role in temporal and spatial scales and their political contexts are crucial in analyzing the human dimensions of the environmental changes. A framework to link the processes of environmental transformations and the livelihood outcomes linked to the institutional dynamics is very essential to understand these complexities. The extended environmental entitlement framework developed in this study is influenced by the approaches in political ecology, peasant studies, institutional studies, and entitlement studies to understand the complexities. The major conceptual influence is from the entitlement approach to study famines by Sen and also from the political ecology. While entitlement approach helped to conceptualize the availability and access to resources in the form of endowments and entitlements, the political ecology approach helped in conceptualizing institutional and political context of creation of entitlement, especially historical aspects and the influence of social activities at multiple scales. The peasant study influenced the analysis of social actor’s livelihood outcomes to the global market forces. In designing EEEF, the structuration theory of Giddens helped to conceptualize the relationship between structure and agency. Here the social actor’s approach to livelihoods depends on the current institutional set up for that society. In the process of creation of his/her livelihoods the social actor creates or alters or modifies the institutions. This concept in the EEEF helps to understand how human beings get access and control over the resources and how that will turn in to their livelihood outcomes. While in the process the institutional influences force actors to alter or create new institutions. In this case study for example, after marketing function of the Coffee Board of India was dissolved, the coffee growers and the local traders formed a new set of relationship which was informal but solved some of their immediate financial needs. Influence of the institutions in various scales has been effectively incorporated in the framework. Human dimensions of global environmental changes have always insisted that the

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environmental changes are influenced by the factors at various scales. The EEE Framework helps to bring influence of these scales in to the analysis. The EEE framework is helpful in resolving the criticism of political ecology that there is too much politics or too little ecology in its analysis. The EEE framework emphasized both livelihood outcomes and the environmental outcomes without privileging either environmental or social factors in analysis. Component of environmental transformation included in the framework is in the form of the results from the process of entitlement mappings of the various social actors. The EEE framework also considers the natural causes for environmental transformations. These environmental transformations will decide the further availability of the resources for the differentiated social actors. The environmental entitlement approach developed by Leach et al (1997; 1999) had no sufficient room to include the complexities of livelihoods and the environmental transformations. It was difficult to analyze social actor’s multiple roles and the e-mapping of the multiple resources using Leach et al’s approach. Their approach also failed to include the analysis of environmental transformations in the framework. With the Extended Environmental Entitlement Framework developed in this study, these complexities could be efficiently analyzed. This case study demonstrated that EEEF could be effectively used to study the complex relationships among commodification of agriculture, deforestation, environmental transformations and differentiated livelihood outcomes amidst the influence of institutional factors. The dynamic nature of the framework allows the political ecologists to adopt the framework to many issues relating to the livelihood dimensions of global environmental changes.

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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Shrinidhi Ambinakudige was born in India, in May, 1970. He attended the University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad, India and received a BS in Agriculture in 1991. He subsequently earned an MS in Agricultural Economics from the same University in 1995. Then he worked in a research team studying forest-people dynamics in the Western Ghats of India. In 2001, he entered the doctoral program in Geography at Florida State University and, having defended his dissertation, The differential impacts of commodification of agriculture on people’s livelihoods and the environment in the Western Ghats of India: An Extended Environmental Entitlement Analysis completed his degree in 2006. At present, Shrinidhi is a Visiting Assistant Professor of GIS at the University of West Georgia in Carrollton.

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