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Abstract
In India, the tribal communities depend largely on trees located on public forestlands to support livelihoods. These communities have developed customary norms to manage trees. It is important to understand unique relationship of local people with their trees in light of ongoing efforts to decentralize forest management to ensure the sustainability of forestlands and trees within them. Various qualitative and quantitative methods were used for data collection and analysis across four villages in Dumka District of Jharkhand, India. Our findings revealed that tribal communities have developed a set of customary norms to govern forest trees around ownership creation, intergenerational transfer, and distribution. Additionally, factors such as the presence of ethnic communities, land titling, and commercialization of forest-based activities also influence the customary norms. Regression analysis identified a negative relationship between the forest trees under customary ownership and participation in forest management activities. This study provides insights for implementing community-based sustainable forest governance in India.