Natural areas have enough capability to accommodate ecosystems which are vital for providing goods and services to human beings like pollution control, pollination, biological control of pests and insects and many others. However, with increasing human habitations and subsequent pressure on natural resources, the capacity of natural ecosystems to provide goods and services has diminished.
India, one of the mega biodiverse countries, has rich cultural heritage of compassion for all life forms and the longstanding tradition of conservation. To enshrine this tradition, India has been experimenting with participatory approaches for managing biodiversity conservation, ensuring security of bio resources and achieving sustainable development and has achieved global recognition through programmes like Joint Forest Management and Eco development. Over the years, a need has been felt to expand such approaches to larger landscapes with multiple land uses, so as to integrate the range of development and livelihood concerns with biodiversity conservation and recognition for the ecosystems.
The Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change, Government of India is implementing the World Bank assisted ‘Biodiversity Conservation and Rural Livelihood Improvement Project (BCRLIP)’ in India for managing large landscapes having conservation values because of their ecological importance. BCRLIP visualizes a multi sector and multi theme project on a landscape which will be executed in a time bound project mode.
Madhya Pradesh Forest Department is implementing the BCRLI Project in Satpura Landscape, MP. The Satpura Landscape for the purpose of this project comprises of an area of 1947.6 km2 demarcated as Satpura-Pench corridor and passes through five forest divisions namely; East/West/South Chhindwara and buffer zones of Satpura and Pench Tiger Reserves. The project will be implemented in 25 villages to encourage different models of participatory conservation for improving institutional capacity and provide better livelihood opportunities to people. Four major components have been identified as follows for project implementation as follows,
• Strengthening Biodiversity Conservation
Management
(Biodiversity Mapping, Workshops/ Consultations,
Site Level MIS, Field Research, Habitat
Management)
• Mainstreaming conservation and participatory
practices
(Supporting Participatory Conservation Activities-
Involvement of stakeholders, Mainstreaming
biodiversity in sector plans and programs,
Decentralized Planning and Research)
• Support to participation in learning networks
(Community Training, Staff Training )
•Communications
(Awareness Generation, Documentation of Best
Practices)
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