The extended family household was the basic unit of access to the village forest, and each household was assigned specific dates during which it could remove wood or other materials. For most materials, there was no limit on the amount that each household could remove during its scheduled time. In many villages, a number of households were organized into groups called kumi. Each kumi was assigned a different section of the forest for its use. In order to ensure fairness, the assignment was rotated each year so that each kumi could use a different part of the forest.
The way the rules worked can be illustrated by a typical procedure for removing animal fodder from the forest. Each household could send only one adult to cut the grass in its part of the forest on the scheduled day. Everyone in the same kumi formed a line to cut the grass in their part of the forest, and they could only start cutting after the temple bell sounded. They left the grass to dry after cutting. About a week later, two people from each household could go to the forest to tie the dried grass into bundles and place the bundles in piles of equal size (one pile for each household in the kumi). The piles were then distributed to all the households in each kumi by lottery.