This paper highlights the critical role played by ecofeminism and stakeholder engagement in the region to depict a symbiotic relationship between women and forests that is critical in sustaining human and non‐human life in the Garhwal Himalayan region of India. While it uses ecofeminism to demonstrate the positive role of community in sustainable forestry and development, the chief aim of the paper is to highlight the need to go beyond the ‘civil society’ versus ‘state’ debate that has become rather popular in the development studies discourse. Instead, the paper posits the need for the two to work in active collusion, not only to be successful but also because it is what the subject/agent needs and demands. This paper is the result of field research by the author in the summer of 2004 in the Garhwal Himalayan region of India. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.