In the heart of West Bengal and Jharkhand, India, a transformative initiative unfolds, seeking to restore 4,000 hectares of barren uplands. This visionary project, poised to benefit 15,000 smallholder farmers from marginalized tribal communities, aspires to not only breathe life back into the land but also to foster sustainable livelihoods and empower communities. The project intervention is built around the leadership of local communities, especially the women. Women Livelihoods Committees (WLCs) at the village level are the drivers of the project. Women from the project villages, especially the tribal women, constitute the WLCs. They have been oriented at the beginning of the project to enable them for better participation during the planning and implementation of the project. Women community leaders have been identified among the WLCs together with Community Volunteers who helped in carrying out intensive ridge to valley integrated natural resources management (INRM) planning at the village level. They used various Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) tools and techniques such as wealth ranking, social mapping, vision building, livelihood, and watershed planning in the villages to make the plan inclusive and prioritize the needs of the marginalized communities based on gender, age, ethnicity, religion and social status. Priority is given to poorest of the poor families, single women, destitute, elderly, schedule caste and schedule tribe, minority groups etc. PRASARI and HUCWARM staff facilitate the entire process together with the community leaders and volunteers to ensure that the concerns and aspirations of the marginalized communities are considered and addressed through the project interventions.

The project opts for the following interventions:
Intervention type: Protection and Community participation
Project Intervention: Under the project intervention, Women Livelihood Committees (WLCs) will be formed. They will ensure protection of the project area as well as community participation during the planning and implementation processes. The team from HUCWARM and PRASARI, with the help of WLCs members and leaders, will conduct intensive ridge-to-valley integrated natural resources management planning processes using various PRA tools and techniques such as, social mapping, vision building, livelihood, and watershed planning in the villages. This process is already ongoing in some of the participating communities. A biodiversity baseline will also be taken up and included in the planning process to assess the biodiversity benefits sought in the project. After completing the planning process, WLCs will approve and prioritize various works depending on the project intervention. The WLCs, with the facilitation of the field team from HUCWARM and PRASARI will prepare resource maps. The entire planning and monitoring process will be led by the WLCs. This includes decision on land where soil and water conservation activities will take place. Poor families are given priority and preference. The WLCs also ensure that the project sites are protected from grazing and any untoward incidences. They assume complete responsibility and have designed a such system that two women, in turns, protect the project area specially after the plantations have been undertaken.
Expected Benefits: A participatory planning with the community specially led by the women Livelihood Committees will be undertaken where Resource maps of the entire region will be prepared. The soil and water harvesting activities that will be undertaken will be mapped out in the resource maps based on slope and extent of degradation. Also, the plantations will be undertaken according to the resource mapping plan.

Intervention type: Improved Management
Project Intervention: Undertaking Soil and water conservation activities in the barren uplands. Due to slopes and high and erratic rainfall there is heavy soil erosion in the upland areas. It will be taken up in convergence with MGNREGS.
Expected Benefits: The soil and water conservation treatments will help in restoring the uplands by checking soil erosion and recharging ground water. It will also help improve the soil and moisture content in the medium and lowland areas, reducing run- offs during monsoon. The increase in soil moisture content will lead to green cover. The treatment of the upland areas has also a direct bearing on the agriculture productivity on the low land regions. Another benefit of this intervention will be the convergence with MNREGS. This government scheme will provide 100 days of employment to the participating households who otherwise migrate for wage laborer in search of work.

Intervention type: Restoration
Project Intervention: After implementing the soil and water conservation activities, the moisture and green cover in the area begins to improve, then pit digging for tree plantations are undertaken. Once it’s time for the tree saplings to be planted, the WLC members begin the tree plantations.
Expected benefits: The plantation of trees in uplands would help in carbon sequestration in the long run while the community would benefit from sericulture being supported by Asana and Arjun, and from consumption and selling of mangoes. The Sonajhuri tree which is a tall tree, growing to the height of 12 meters, is mostly harvested after a period of 13 to 14 years. The harvested tree is then used to manufacture furniture. Each tree is sold for Rs 8,000, which is a good added income to the farmers. The planted trees will improve the ecosystem of the region, impact biodiversity and provide livelihood opportunities to the beneficiaries. More than 15,000 farmers would earn an additional annual income. Revenue from carbon will be an additional income for the poor communities.

There will be farmers’ producer organizations (FPO) at the block level to take care of the forward and backward linkages of livelihood activities such as marketing of horticulture produces, Tasar and other related livelihood activities. Local youths will be identified, groomed, and hosted in the FPO as service providers or entrepreneurs who will earn their livelihood by providing various services to the community for ongoing livelihood-related activities. These FPO’s are groups of farmers who belong to the economically backward communities and have been economically and socially excluded for a very long time. Through interventions of this project, the aim is to build the capacities of the FPO’s through various training and capacity building programs and link them to ongoing government schemes etc that will bring about a substantial impact economically a swell as socially.

There will be two different implementation strategies. In West Bengal, initial capital investment for the plantation activity will be mobilized from MGNREGA however the maintenance cost for two years will come from the carbon fund where the investors will invest into the project. PRASARI’s role in West Bengal will be to engage with the MGNREGA cell and influence the state government officials and the Panchayati Raj Institutions to implement the plan prepared by the Gram-panchayats and releasing of payments for the work done under MGNREGA. However, in Jharkhand, all the investment will come from the carbon fund. In this state, PRASARI’s professionals will be engaged directly with the community and their institutions to ensure on-time quality implementation of the project.