Indias afforestation efforts have consistently privileged urban requirements for construction, fuel and paper and ignored the rural needs for fuel, food, fibre and fodder. This can be directly attributed to the extractive colonial model of forestry which has replaced the indigenous subsistence model. In practice, afforestation efforts in India have been confrontations in organizational cultures and knowledge systems between western model and indigenous models of development. Indias voluntary sector is strategically placed to play a catalytic role in rural efforts to reclaim alternative models of forestry particularly when the focus of such voluntary action is on organizational culture and traditional knowledge as sites of struggle and resistance.This thesis examines the activities of three voluntary organizations in the state of Andhra Pradesh to reclaim traditional concepts of subsistence forestry.My analysis shows that the organizational cultures of these voluntary agencies contribute to the establishment of participatory, interactive and empowering relationships with villagers and provide a context in which concepts of subsistence forestry emerge out of local knowledge.This thesis concludes that forestry practices which reflect rural peoples knowledge must manifest an integrated view of forestry as a part of the rural ecology, maintain a relational view of nature and be embedded in the social, economic and political values of the rural people.