Paper short abstract:

Civil society organizations (CSOs) often federate into civil society-led coalitions (CSCs) in order to shape forest policy implementation. We develop a framework to analyze CSC strategy choices and apply this to the CSC attempting to influence the Forest Rights Act implementation in India.

Paper long abstract:

Civil society organizations (CSOs) often federate into civil society-led coalitions (CSCs) in order to shape forest policies. They appear to be successful during the policy design phase but we know little about whether they are successful in influencing policies during the implementation phase. This paper analyzes the strategy choices and potential impact during policy implementation of a loose CSC comprised of CSOs, activists, researchers etc. that advocates for the full implementation of the Forest Rights Act in India. Drawing from the Advocacy Coalition Framework's focus on belief systems, and insights from political ecology and social movements literature, we develop a framework to analyze CSC strategy choices. Our analysis is conducted at the national level and in two states, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha. We employ qualitative research methods, including 38 interviews with CSC and non-CSC members, and a comprehensive analysis of the main CSC listserv and 1000 relevant English language newspaper articles. Our study reveals that the CSC employs a range of conflictive and collaborative strategies at both national and state levels. It draws on a loose, heterogeneous network with ability to connect internally and a clear moral justification of its involvement in FRA implementation. However the diverse range of views on the implementation issues held by CSC members, lack of dedicated funding for coordination, limited legitimacy in the eyes of some state actors and a constricting wider institutional setting, impedes the CSC's ability to make coalition-level strategy decisions and therefore their impact on the policy implementation process is limited.