The project was initiated in 1993 and is being supported by the Canadian International Development Agency. The project is being implemented by the Foundation for Ecological Security in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Uttaranchal.

 Project Background

Degradation of land, water and forest resources is one of the most serious problems being faced by India today. It has led to a complex spiral of adverse economic, social and ecological consequences in the contemporary rural society, where survival and sustenance is intimately linked to the immediate environment. Several factors and processes have contributed to this process of degradation and associated crisis. One of the important historical, as well as ongoing, factors has been the continuous erosion, degradation and transformation of the common property regimes into public and open access regimes. Even the development efforts that claim to focus on enhancing physical/natural resource base have often failed to systematically incorporate common property dimension in their programme.

Even after years of degradation, encroachment, privatisation etc., forests, revenue land, grazing land, community ponds continue to play important role in rural people’s lives. This is more so in the ecologically fragile and marginal areas. The livelihood pattern of communities in these areas is closely interwoven with their surrounding physical resource base and most households meet a substantial part of their requirement from their surrounding forests, grazing land, common water resources etc. The local livelihoods depend significantly on these resources for fuelwood, fodder, forage, food, medicines, drinking water for animals and other household requirements etc. Such dependence grows more pronounced during times of stress, and many contingency requirements are met by using and/or exploiting the commons.

Also in these areas the food production system is intricately linked to the health of local ecology and cyclic nutrient and water balance amongst various components of ecosystems. Given their location on slopes and undulating terrain, forests contribute significantly to maintaining mineral and hydrological cycles. One of the most common types of movement of nutrients is the transfer of fertility from one systems of land use from another. There has been a steady change in the nutrient status of the soils and marginalisation of land. Reduced vegetation promotes surface runoff of water, soil and nutrients and results in reduced groundwater levels, siltation and floods. Thus, regeneration of forests, grassland and water resources strengthen and compliment farming system and animal husbandry and provides much needed stability to the household production systems in these precarious zones.

Any attempt of regenerating and managing land and water resources clearly has to recognise communities’ intimate linkages - in terms of knowledge, use, dependence - with their forests, grazing land, rivers, ponds etc. The effective governance and management mechanisms of these resources thus can be evolved only when the rights and responsibilities are placed in the hands of local communities.

Development efforts thus have to help communities gain access and control over their common resources and help them create and/or strengthen self-sustaining and viable village institutions that can manage and govern local common natural resources in an all inclusive way. Moreover, the spirit and mechanisms of collective governance and management have to go beyond commons and spread into other aspects - both internal to a community and in its interface with external agencies and processes - of community’s life.

Project Aim

The goal of the project is to strengthen the nation’s capacity to reclaim and manage its wastelands in an economically and environmentally sustainable manner. It seeks to create a sustainable model for village-based community institutions, which give priority to local needs, community choices for social forestry combined with sustainable management of land and water resources.

Project Outcomes

In a review of the project that was undertaken by the Canadian International Development Agency in 2004, some of the outcomes and achievements highlighted by the review team were:

• By working directly with communities to devise appropriate interventions (related to land, biomass/vegetation, and water resources), the subsistence needs of the community have been enhanced (i.e. by providing fodder for livestock), thus, ensuring the long-term viability of these efforts.
• Contribution to the livelihood efforts of entire communities by increasing access of marginalized groups to grazing land and water holes for cattle and other livestock. Employment opportunities to the community and income from this have been instrumental in reducing migration.
• Project provides social and political space for marginalized community members to interface with others in the same community on the basis of fairness and equality.
• Effective energy conserving devices introduced to enhance the availability of fuel, fodder and water for poor households (both for animal and human consumption) and to reduce drudgery for women and to make more efficient use of biomass resources.
• Enhanced ability of FES in developing networks to influence and contribute to policy development on natural resource management. The State and District Level Coordination Committees in each project area act as fora to discuss project level activities.
• The project works directly with local, grassroots organizations, and works to democratise these institutions to challenge traditional power hierarchies related to gender, caste, and land ownership. Through this process, it provides access to land and promotes participation by marginalized groups in decision making around resource issues that promote environmental sustainability and improved livelihood options. Thus, the project’s holistic approach provides an innovative model for other natural resource/environmental projects.
• The project has been particularly cost-conscious, especially in managing its day-to-day activities. It has adopted low-cost methods suitable to local conditions, especially in focusing on natural regeneration, resource protection/conservation efforts by local communities, and revegetation measures.