Short description of the best practice

The village has a lot of degraded area and also follows the practice of annual burning of grazing lands for maintenance. In this initiative, the community members have been trained to remove the young saplings (mostly of Rhododendron arboreum) first and collect the seeds before fire is set. These saplings and seeds are maintained in the community nursery and then planted in a 2 hectare degraded area patch. This area has been declared as a new sacred grove (locally called nge), through a village resolution and the Rinpoche will perform the ceremony, in accordance with the Buddhist traditions, in the month of September 2012. The community has now been trained in sustainable extraction of timber and other forest resources. The nursery which is maintained by the community is not just a source of saplings for planting in the degraded area in the village, but is also now providing the community members with additional livelihood benefit through sale of the saplings.|

Location

Arunachal Pradesh

Brief description of the natural environment within the specified location.

The soils of this district is classified as under:- 1. Rocky and loamy skeletal texture with soil depth shallow to medium. 2. Sandy skeletal, Loamy, Fine loamy textured with soil depth medium to deep.|
The region is well known for its climatic variations. Tawang District has a geographical area of 2172 km2 with a population density of 28 inhabitants per km2. The altitude ranges from 1800 to 22000 meters from sea level. The district is divided into three sub divisions – Lumla, Jung and Tawang. The mean minimum temperature is -5.50C and the mean maximum temperature is 290C. Average rainfall is 2760 mm.|
The topography of the district represents:
1.The snow covered Himalayan ranges from 11,000ft.to 22,000 ft. which mostly include bare mountains and are mostly uninhabited.
2.The high altitude mountainous belt from 6000 ft. to 11000 ft., which contains plateau and narrow valleys and are sparsely, populated.

Prevailing socio-economic conditions of those living in the location and/or nearby

There are three types of lands existing in the village:
1. Private Land
2. Community land under lease
3. Community land
The major sources of income in the village are:
1.Labour
2.Agriculture
3.Contractor work
4.Carpenter work
Labour activities are the chief source of livelihood, with income of around Rs.60000 per family per year. Agriculture is carried out on a minimal level, for meeting some of the daily requirements|

On the basis of which criteria and/or indicator(s) (not related to The Strategy) the proposed practice and corresponding technology has been considered as 'best'?

The initiative has been proposed as the best practice as it involves:
1.Restoration of degraded areas in the community forest
2.Sustainable extraction of resources
3.Development of nursery
4.Declaration of a new sacred grove- first time in more than one hundred years in the history of the state.
5.Imbibing of the practice of conservation and sustainable utilization into the lives of the community members through integration with their religious practices.
6.Livelihood benefits being drawn by the community from the initiative.
7.Replicability of the initiative in other areas.

Main problems addressed by the best practice

1.Degradation of forest lands
2.Unsustainable resource extraction
3.Resource unreplenishment
4.Non-sustenance over the years of any conservation initiative

Outline specific land degradation problems addressed by the best practice

The village had a lot of forest land that had got degraded over the years. This was mainly due to the practice of unsustainable extraction of timber and annual burning of forest areas to create fresh grazing lands. Due to the receding forests, the community had to travel to increasing distances for timber and firewood and the land closer to the village was becoming degraded. Conservation initiatives, not woven with economic benefits for the community and intermingled with their culture were found to be unsuccessful. All these problems were addressed by the present initiative.|

Specify the objectives of the best practice

Impart training for initiation of restoration of degraded sites by planting indigenous and endemic species at a pilot scale.|Generate awareness on significance of forest landscape restoration for ecological services and sustainable livelihoods.|Fine tune the seed germination techniques of Rhododendron arboreum in order to attain better germination rate.|Develop a demonstration plot of (1 acre) in the area for degraded forest land restoration.

Brief description of main activities, by objective

Develop a demonstration plot of (1 acre) in the area for degraded forest land restoration.|1.More than 3000 saplings have been planted by the trainees in the community land of the village Sakpret as part of the trainings. 2 acres of land was selected for plantation training, which is a degraded forest land due to intensive firewood consumption and grazing. The saplings were planted at a distance of 1.2 meters. The plantation established as part of the training will be maintained as the model plot of the participatory restoration of degraded forest land. |2.Regular monitoring of growth parameters is being carried out and fresh plantations are regularly taken up. The parameters studied include: a) Height of the sapling; b) Number of branches and c) average length of the branches.
Impart training for initiation of restoration of degraded sites by planting indigenous and endemic species at a pilot scale.|1.Community representation for participation in the project finalized.|2.Consultations on indigenous species, conservation threats, traditional usage undertaken in 10 villages.|3.Training on pre-restoration requirements, nursery development and plantation techniques undertaken at Sakpret, Thembang, Sangti, Brokenthang, Panger and Socksten.
Fine tune the seed germination techniques of Rhododendron arboreum in order to attain better germination rate.|1. Rhododendron seeds were initially raised using growing medium of Sphagnum moss and coarse sand at the ratio of 50:50 by ensuring constant supply of moisture inside poly tunnel.  During the stage where the seedlings have 2-4 true leaves in addition to cotyledons, they were transplanted.  |2. Germination success using varying ratios of cowdung and soil were studied so as to develop the best practice to be followed for maximum seed germination by the local community.
Generate awareness on significance of forest landscape restoration for ecological services and sustainable livelihoods.|1.Awareness generation activities undertaken at Sakpret, Brokenthang, Sangti and Thembang.|2.Military and paramilitary forces and the political leaders in the region have also been made aware of this initiative. Seeing the success of the project, IVth Battalion of Indo –Tibetan Border Police Force has also initiated a silviculture programme in the remote border villages through their Civic Action Plan. |Through this programme, the participation of more villages has been marked and the villagers are also deriving a livelihood option from the programme, wherein they are paid for each sapling they have raised through the programme of ITBP. These saplings are then planted in the degraded forest areas along the international border.|The local MLA of the area has also shown interest in this project and has now planned to extend these activities to more villages (particularly to the very remote and non-motorable villages like Mago and Thimpu) so that the villagers can derive livelihood benefits as well as help in restoration of the degraded forests of the area. The Indian Army Brigade in the region is also initiating a similar programme soon for livelihood enhancement and restoration of the degraded areas.

Short description and technical specifications of the technology

The community members have been provided trainings on different aspects of restoration and monitoring. Germination experiments have been conducted in order to develop the best site- specific technique. Plantations, using saplings raised in the nursery have been carried out in degraded forest land and regular monitoring of the same is carried out.|

Name and address of the institution developing the technology

InsPIRE Network for Environment|S-212, Second Floor; Panchsheel Park
New Delhi-110016

Was the technology developed in partnership?

Yes

List the partners:

1. Local NGO-Yuva Arunachal
2. Village Cooperative Society- The Sakpret village community food processing unit – administrative committee

Was the participation of local stakeholders, including CSOs, fostered in the development of the technology?

Yes

List local stakeholders involved:

1. Local NGO-Yuva Arunachal
2. Village Cooperative Society- The Sakpret village community food processing unit – administrative committee

For the stakeholders listed above, specify their role in the design, introduction, use and maintenance of the technology, if any.

This committee maintains the nursery and looks after the restoration work, under the guidance of Inspire Network for Environment. As a withdrawal strategy, a local NGO – Yuva Arunachal has been involved in the program, who have taken initiatives recently to carry out afforestation in the landslide hit areas near to Tawang Monastery using the saplings raised in the community nursery in the village.|

Describe on-site impacts (the major two impacts by category)

Saplings raised in the nursery are being used to protect the historic Tawang Monastery from landslides.
The nursery is providing the community members with additional livelihood benefits through sale of the saplings. The MLA of the region has purchased 1500 saplings and another order is on way from the neighboring forest division.
Declaration of a new sacred grove (locally nge), in accordance with the Buddhist tradition in order to blend conservation with conservation and combating degradation of forest lands.|
Involvement of the entire village in the initiative, thus helping them to bond closer to each other.|
Establishment of a community owned nursery for raising saplings and germination of seeds of native forest species.
Establishment of 2 hectare restoration plot with more than 3000 saplings planted from the nursery.

Describe the major two off-site (i.e. not occurring in the location but in the surrounding areas) impacts

Restoration activities to combat degradation are being initiated by other villages as well.
Awareness on need for restoration of degraded forest areas and sustainable utilization of resources has spread to the neighbouring villages.

Impact on biodiversity and climate change

Explain the reasons:

The initiative has long term benefits on the biodiversity of the region and will also play a role in climate change mitigation. The degraded forest areas are getting afforested by plantation of native forest species. To keep the initiative going and replace the dried up saplings and carry out plantations in other degraded forest lands, the community is actively maintaining the nursery. This initiative of plantation, coupled with enforcing the practice of sustainable harvest of natural resources is now spreading to other villages in the region and the paramilitary and military forces as well in the area are wanting to take up more of such work so that the biodiversity profile of the region as a whole will show improvement and play a significant role in climate change mitigation.|

Has a cost-benefit analysis been carried out?

Has a cost-benefit analysis been carried out?

Yes

Was the technology disseminated/introduced to other locations?

Was the technology disseminated/introduced to other locations?

No

Can you identify the three main conditions that led to the success of the presented best practice/technology?

Community involvement at all stages- from conceptualization of the initiative to ground level implementation (replicable elsewhere with some level of adaption)
Community deriving economic benefits as well from the initiative (replicable elsewhere with some level of adaption)
Integration of the initiative with conservation initiatives of the religion followed in the area (replicable elsewhere with some level of adaption)

Replicability

In your opinion, the best practice/technology you have proposed can be replicated, although with some level of adaptation, elsewhere?

Yes

Related to human resources

For ensuring success of any community based initiative, the community members should be involved in it, right from the planning stage.|Implementation should be carried out in accordance with the traditional human resource sharing practices in the area. The community should be made to sit together and in a participatory manner decide who will carry out the work and in what manner.|Any village level committees which are formed for any initiative should be done in a participatory and democratic manner wherein all the families of the village are provided a platform to voice their opinion and then arrive at a consensus decision.

Related to technical aspects

Site-specific technology needs to be developed for the success of any initiative.|Traditional knowledge should be incorporated while designing the technology.