The IDRC reports / International Development Research Centre = Le CRDI informe / Centre de recherches pour le développement international, Jan 10, 1996
Restoring forests is a key step on the road toward sustainability Tackling deforestation and seve... more Restoring forests is a key step on the road toward sustainability Tackling deforestation and severe water shortages in southern India, a Delhi-based NGO harnesses new methods for assessing sustainability Over the course of the 40-year period since India nationalized its forests, the traditional conservation methods that had long kept the forests intact were largely abandoned. In the last three decades, forest cover had become very sparse, hampering the capacity of soils to hold water. This degradation in turn caused increased runoff and erosion, further reducing the amount of soil moisture. In Tumkur, a district in the southern Indian state of Karnataka, the devastating consequences of deforestation had become apparent by the mid-1980s. Surface water could only be found during the wet seasons. During the dry season, people were forced to rely on ground water that was too deep to reach in some places due to the rolling terrain. As the situation worsened, people spent more time searching for water farther from home. Action-oriented programs Today, however, change has begun in the Tumkur district. Starting in mid-1994, a field centre of the Delhi-based NGO Development Alternatives (DA) initiated efforts to build local capacity and encourage action-oriented programs for wasteland development, sustainable agriculture, and community management systems by self help groups. The program builds upon a joint IDRC/IUCN (World Conservation Union) project to develop, test, and refine ways of assessing sustainability in Asia, Africa and Latin America. In a setting such as Tumkur, people's need to draw on natural resources for their livelihoods is quite urgent. The paradox is that sustaining these resources is a long-term proposition. "The difficulty with sustainability is that one has to try to think two or three generations down the road. But that is hard to do when you are dealing with an immediate crisis," says Fred Carden, an IDRC program officer. The idea behind the project is to find ways to assess progress toward sustainability and show communities how they can monitor this on an ongoing basis. "... one has to try to think two or three generations down the road ..." Development Alternatives began working in Tumkur in 1994, with the goal of helping to reclaim degraded lands. Around the same time, it began preparing a District Resource Atlas with the support of IDRC. The Government of India then chose DA to coordinate its Integrated Mission for Sustainable Development (IMSD) in the Chiknayakanhalli taluk, an area of approximately 100,000 hectares in Tumkur. Chiknayakanhalli is divided into 28 smaller administrative areas, of which five were chosen as a starting point for research. The selection was based on a simple criterion: the willingness of the villagers to help themselves. Community-level mapping A key step in the assessment was community-level mapping one of several tools developed by the IUCN/IDRC project. Since maps can be easily updated, they are useful for monitoring and evaluating change. Residents helped draft simple village maps to illustrate the terrain, position of houses and where water was being drawn from the ground. Community discussions followed to make everyone aware of the issues involved. Through this process it became evident that water had become the de facto property of the rich [who have money to dig wells] and that the poor had no access to it, says Ashok Kumar of Development Alternatives. These same maps are now being used to find ways to fairly distribute the water. Using strategic negotiation methods developed by DA in the IUCN/IDRC project, residents eventually decided to charge money for excessive use of water, a revolutionary idea for people who traditionally had access to unlimited free water. Water shortages However, the problem of water shortages remained. Wells had to be dug deeper and deeper as the water table sank lower and lower. The solution, which was reached by a consensus of community members, was to restore the forests, regenerate water storage ponds and revive, in some form, traditional systems of conservation that had long proven their effectiveness. Development Alternatives initiated community tree planting programs, alongside its afforestation program. Soil and moisture conservation programs were also carried out. Between 1995 and 1996, half a million trees were planted on 370 hectares of wasteland. The planting program also introduced tropical legumes such as Stylosanthus hamata as part of the ground cover. This type of legume will provide fodder for livestock in the years to come. Barrages and check dams have replenished the ground water and now provide water for a small part of the dry season, especially when rainfall is good. Vegetable farming has taken root and the produce is being used to generate income. These tangible results seen in less than two years have encouraged people to plant more trees. As with the water, all produce from these forests will be shared equitably. Communities taking control Meanwhile, other areas not originally included in the program are now eager to start their own projects. Even more encouraging is the fact that two of the pilot areas are refusing grants. To ensure that control remains in their hands, the residents prefer loans that are to be paid back over 10 years. "The best part is that the people identified the problems and found the solutions themselves," says Kumar. "And very little money was put into the project before people began to realize that they don't necessarily need money not charity money, at least."
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