IEMaC

PROJECT OBJECTIVE

Innovations in Ecosystem Management and Conservation (IEMaC) is a conservation innovation project aimed at developing replicable tools that promote sustainable fuelwood and NTFP management. The broad goal of the project includes developing innovative models for reducing pressure on India’s forests through alternative livelihood creation and alternate technology deployment for fuelwood abatement.

PROJECT APPROACH

Project aims to develop and demonstrate the following in its two landscapes – Sirsi in Karnataka and Mandla in Madhya Pradesh:

• Tools and techniques for deploying sustainable harvesting practices; viable gender sensitive NTFP enterprises; certification and private sector engagement for market linkages
• Tools and techniques based on a holistic systems approach that enable affordable, user friendly and gender sensitive fuelwood management practices
• Community based forest monitoring systems operated by JFMCs and SHGs in villages

PROJECT CONTRIBUTION TO ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY AND ECONOMIC GROWTH

The project sites were chosen after taking into parameters that ensure long term economic growth along with environment sustainability. Some of the main parameters included:

• Area of Forest Cover along with dependency on Forest for fuelwood and NTFPs
• Intervention activities to strengthen and enrich lives of communities by considering their socio economic strata to deploy better interventions
• Areas where government schemes and public funds can be channelized into. This will greatly help in ongoing economic growth and facilitate leverage to take interventions to scale