Heterogeneity in Household Characteristics, Forest Resource Utilization and Sustainability in Hills of Uttaranchal: A Case Study

the life of jaunsaries, a tribal community of jaunsar bawar of dehradun, india, is based on agriculture and forest. forest utilization is the key for survival due to dependency of agriculture on rain. however, population pressure results into need to conserve forest. this study envisaged for exploring linkages between forest utilization and household characteristics for reducing pressure on forest for conservation. for this, data on relevant parameters were collected from 302 randomly selected households from 35 villages through multi-stage sampling. the regression analysis shows that forest utilization is directly related with farm size and livestock. the non-significance of relationship between forest access and utilization supports that forest utilization is integral part for livelihood of these household. the factor analysis results show that decision, economic, and forest access parameters are important for forest conservation. the non-significance of infrastructure is due to poor development. therefore, infrastructure development is essential. as forest utilization is an essential component of these households, integrated attention to the requirements and facilities within the whole household production systems and forestry's role would be required to consider conservation and management of the forest. if conservation is a priority, programs are required to support and strengthen households' economic status.