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PROJECT
Tamira-SES: Restoration of Social-Ecological Systems of Tamiraparani River Basin by
Soubadra Devy, Shrinivas Badiger and Priyanka Jamwal
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BACKGROUND
The river Tamiraparani in Tamilnadu, which originates in the Agasthyamalai Mountain Range of the Western Ghats is the only perennial river which even today evokes an emotion that binds the people, culture and history.
The river flows through five landscapes or Ainthinai as described in Tamil Sangam age. Kurinji in the rugged hilly area and Mullai or forests at the foothills abutting villages were used for cattle grazing. The streams and rivers that join perennial Tamiraparani from the mountains, support the lush green fields depicted by Marutham. The landscape further south breaks into Palai or desert of the Therikaadu region with deep red soil and sand dunes studded with palm trees. Tamiraparani reaches Neithal, the coastline with beaches interspersed with rocky outcrops and adds magnificence to the coastal landscape. The Tamiraparani and landscapes are best viewed as coupled social-ecological systems with feedbacks that influence to each other.
PROBLEM
The river is being extensively used for irrigation, domestic purposes and industries. Unfortunately, Tamiraparani is experiencing copious amounts of pollution from agricultural runoff, untreated wastewater and solid waste from villages and small urbanizing towns all along the river. The riparian vegetation is critical for primary filtration of the pollutants and nutrients and serves as summer refugia for biodiversity are either encroached, denuded or replaced by invasive species. River ecosystem restoration is an important intervention since alteration of hydrology, water chemistry, and biology of rivers has adverse impacts on biodiversity and human health.
SOLUTIONS
The most critical step to building specific restoration goals and its implementation is the identification of sources of water quantity and quality problems which are often a combination of biophysical, economic, socio-cultural and institutional factors.
Our project will restore the social-ecological system, supported by well-informed policy design, enhanced capacity of local communities, civil-society and line departments along the 130 km stretch of the river, from biodiversity rich head-waters to fragile mangrove habitats near the estuarine region entering the Bay of Bengal.
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PROJECT
Systematics and Evolution of Indian Lauraceae by R. Ganesan and Nabasmitha M.
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BACKGROUND
Historically, India is known for diverse spices as part of international trade. The plants belonging to the Lauraceae from India are the source of leaves and bark of various species of Cinnamomum. The wild avocado fruits sourced from the forests of the NE region are traded in the markets and provide nutritional security to the indigenous communities. Few species of Machilus of the Lauraceae family are larval food plants for the caterpillars of moth species that yield the silk for the Muga silk. The Muga silk, the costliest and cultural Icon of the NE region provides a livelihood for a significant number of people from the NE region.
Ecologically the species of Lauraceae are distributed in the high rainfall regions and found in diverse forests ranging from low elevation to higher elevation broad leaved temperate forests. Lauraceae plants ecologically important part of the evergreen forest stands of India, pollinators and frugivores track the flowering and fruiting populations of Lauraceae across elevations.
SOLUTIONS
One of the major outcomes from the plant systematic study will lead to resolving the evolutionary relationship of plants grouped in the genus Machilus (crop wild relative of Avocado), larval food plant for Muga silk (costliest silk in the world) moth. This will also give a good lead-in understanding of the evolution of plant diversity in the NE region, which encompasses two global Hotspots of biodiversity.
We are exploring the evergreen forests of the Western Ghats and NE region to collect the Lauraceae plants to study systematics and phylogenetics. Molecular phylogenetic studies are in progress to understand the evolution of Machilus in WG and NE region.
OUTCOMES
Taxonomically curated plant names of Lauraceae and Species Pages for about 100 species. Curated herbarium collections for about 45 species of Lauraceae from Western Ghats and NE India. Molecular Phylogenetics study of Machilus species from NE region.
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PROJECT
Strengthening resilience and reducing vulnerabilities of rural communities of Africa & Asia funded by Norwegian Agency for Exchange Cooperation - NOREC by Sanjeeb Pradhan, Tshering Dorji Bhutia, Poonam Rai and Sarala Khaling.
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BACKGROUND
Firewood is the main source of energy and the people of rural Darjeeling Himalaya still prefer fuelwood over fossil fuels like LPG and kerosene due to the cost involved and challenges in access. Firewood requirement is not only limited to making meals, rather it stretches up to preparing livestock feed, space heating purposes, drying farm produces etc. Thus, the extraction of fuelwood from the forests is one of the direct drivers of deforestation and forest degradation in this region.
Further, most rural households use inefficient and poorly ventilated clay stoves that produces smoke, thus exposing them to indoor air pollution, particularly women and children. Simultaneously, agricultural activities create a number of waste products like dried leaves, branches/stalks, small twigs, feed waste etc. and the traditional practice of burning agriculture and livestock residue is also known to be harmful to human and environmental health.
SOLUTIONS
In order to minimise the dependence on fuelwood and reduce the impact of health hazard by reducing indoor air pollution, we initiated an efficient energy technology for domestic purposes. We worked with 9 Self-Help Groups through training and demonstration and thereby creating a pool of Master trainers to promote an alternative source of fuel through Improved Cookstoves (ICS) and Bio Briquette making (converting weeds and agri residue into energy).
OUTCOMES
Improved Cookstoves has brought a significant benefit to the rural population in Darjeeling which reduced time for fuelwood collection, and reduced indoor air pollution through the smoke. Further fuelwood consumption is also reduced as we experienced from previous projects.
The bio-briquettes provide an alternative source of clean fuel, reducing dependence on fossil fuel, and promotes a self-sustained mode of energy by converting waste (agri/feed) into energy.
We will be working with the Self Help Group Cluster (Sittong Latpanchar Multipurpose Womens’ Primary Co-Operative Ltd to develop an efficient energy-based enterprise to upscale the project across the region.
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PROJECT
Lantana and livelihood by Harisha R P, Siddappa Setty R, Sandeep H and Narayanan
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BACKGROUND
Apart from long-term engagement and facilitation towards training, and the establishment of LCCs in MM Hills, the MCCC team has coordinated training for 135 people in six different locations in three states (Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, and Karnataka) and they have become Lantana artisans. This training has been requested by NGOs and the forest department.
ECONOMIC IMPACT
More than 20 lakhs income has been generated from lantana craft activity in MM Hills and 145 families have got benefited. Lantana stick collectors are earning Rs.45000/-per year; Assistant craftsmen are earning Rs. One lakh/- per year; master craftsmen are earning Rs.2 lakhs/- per year by selling lantana crafts at four LCCs in MM Hills. Master craftsmen are receiving Rs.1.2 lakhs/- pre-year for conducting training outside MM Hills. Four life-size elephant sculptures were produced and livelihoods were created for about 150 youths and it generated 3.2 lakhs of income.
LANTANA IMPACTS STUDY AND MONITORING
Lantana harvest impacts studies have indicated that Lantana density has decreased significantly around the villages where artisans were active. This initiative has contributed to the regeneration of native species. It also helped to control forest fire, especially canopy fire that has been well observed by the local community and documented by the MM Hills research team. Lantana density monitoring for a better understanding of potential sources of lantana ATREE estimated lantana biomass in MM Hills and BRT by using stratified sampling. The study estimated that 47 percent of BRT forest is covered by lantana and 34 percent in MM Hills forest.
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PROJECT
Population status, extraction intensity and genetic diversity of Rhododendron arboreum in Eastern Himalayas and Western Ghats by G. Ravikanth and Pownitha K.V
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BACKGROUND
In this project an attempt was made to assess the distribution, population status, extraction intensities of Rhododendron arboreum across the Eastern Himalayas (Eastern, Central and Western Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim) and Western Ghats. However, one of the major aim of the project was also to investigate the disjunct distribution of this species across Eastern Himalayas and Western Ghats. This apparent absence of Himalayan low-elevation taxa such as Rhododendron arboreum and few other taxa in the central Indian region and resumption of their distribution in the Western Ghats has puzzled biogeographers. An attempt was made to investigate this pattern using molecular tools.
OUTCOMES
The study revealed a very recent split between the Himalayas and Western Ghats in the late Quaternary. The study indicated that the populations in the Western Ghats to be a relictual remnants of a once continuous distribution of R. arboreum.
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PROJECT
Training, Capacity Building, and Decision Support for Community Forest Resource Rights recognition and management in Bastar District, Chhattisgarh by Sharachchandra Lele (project lead), Shruti Mokashi, Atul Joshi, Venkat Ramanujam Ramani, Anubhav Shori and Ananya Rao
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BACKGROUND
Among the rights that the Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006, recognizes, is the right of local communities to forest resources and to manage them sustainably as a collective. Referred to as the community forest resource right (CFRR), it is the most potent provision of the FRA in terms of achieving the twin goals of sustainable livelihoods and forest conservation. A significant number of villages across central India have successfully claimed CFRR but remain in need of support for launching on the next step of community forest resource (CFR) management. In Bastar District, ATREE is engaged in a project to enhance capacities for the recognition of Community Forest Resource Rights (CFRRs) and the post-recognition management of sustainable forest-based livelihoods under the FRA. This is a year-long project that began in October 2021 and is supported by the Bastar District administration.
SOLUTIONS
ATREE’s CFR team is training a team of 18 FRA Coordinators chosen from Bastar District to work with Gram Sabhas for claim-making and for developing CFR management plans. We are also strengthening the capacities of the district administration to carry out a rigorous and fair claim-recognition process through training and the use of a webGIS. Finally, we are conducting policy research to support the convergence of CFR-based forest governance with existing government programmes and policies on non-timber forest products (NTFPs).
A downstream 21 km dammed section of the main Teesta River was analyzed for changes in valley bottom morphology to understand baseline sedimentary conditions after damming. Long-term modelling of sediment deposition was done to assess the lifetime of the dam-created reservoirs and the associated power generation facilities.
OUTCOMES
The following activities were undertaken and completed in order to build capacities for CFRR recognition and management:
- Recruitment and Training of 18 FRA Coordinators in CFR claim-making, and hand-holding subsequent work in the villages.
- Conducting workshops on CFR claim-making members of the District and Sub-District Level Committees, forest and revenue department field staff, and fieldworkers from NGOs.
- WebGIS: (http://cfr.atree.org/bastar/) Provides publicly browsable overlays of block and village boundaries, revenue (cadastral) maps, and forest compartment boundaries on Google/Bing Satellite base maps.
- Aamcho CFR Mapping app: This mobile app allows Forest Rights Committee members to upload CFR claim boundaries as part of their CFRR claim-recognition process.
- Conflict resolution: Developing strategies for village-level conflict resolution through a consultative process aided by the Chhattisgarh FRA manual and ATREE’s web-GIS.
- Training in CFR Management Planning: Imparting on-site training to selected FRA Coordinators in CFR management planning, and initiating CFR Management Planning in 5 villages.
- NTFP Policy Convergence: Carrying out field research to develop a policy brief for integrating Non-Timber Forest Produce (NTFP)-based livelihoods into CFR-based governance.
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The Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE) turns 25! ATREE’s growth, recognition and impact over the last quarter of a century will be celebrated at the JN Tata Auditorium, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru on 17th, 18th and 19th August 2022. The programme will be a combination of research talks, stimulating discussions, cafe-style debates, fascinating films and awe-inspiring cultural performances from the landscapes where the CCCs are located.
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You could create a huge impact, we look forward to your contribution
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ATREE, Royal Enclave, Sriramapura, Jakkur Post, Bangalore 560 064
Phone: +91-80-23635555 | www.atree.org | info@atree.org
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