Where we work
With 44% of its geographical area under forest cover, Chhattisgarh is among India’s richest biodiversity habitats, and accounts for 12% of our forests. 77% of the state’s 20.8 million population lives in rural areas and practices agriculture and allied activities. The state has 7.4 million tribals and other traditional forest dwellers, who constitute 32% of the population and significantly depend on forests for their livelihood.
Chhattisgarh has a long-recorded history of community forests held in high regard, as sacred groves and nistari (usufructuary) forests. The implementation of the FRA, 2006, has the potential to secure the rights and livelihoods of forest dependent communities over at least 7.46 million acres across 11,500 villages.
What we do
Since 2019, there has been a leap in the state’s CFR recognition, from a few villages to nearly a thousand. To complement this drive by the state government, we are collaborating with the UNDP, Department of Tribal and Scheduled Caste and the State Forest Department to effectively implement the FRA, thereby supporting the communities in securing tenure over their forestlands via CFR. A project management unit has been established to provide technical support, enhance capacities at the grassroots, set up information systems, and enable orders for CFR and IFR recognition.
Operations in the state were initiated in 2020-21.
Impact at a Glance
As on Mar 2022Village Institutions
Strengthened
Thousand Lives
Impacted
Thousand Acres of Commons under Community Governance
Through FES Teams
*Map not to scale
Implementing Partners
