SACReD, Majuli

PROJECT OBJECTIVE

The project is located in Majuli, the biggest River Island in the world within river Brahmaputra in Assam. It has been declared a district in September 2016. Given the sudden increase in developmental activities, the project aims to integrate Sustainable Actions in Majuli’s development that would enable it to become Carbon neutral by 2020 while building climate resilience of the Island and maintaining its socio-cultural-biodiversity heritage. The acronym SACReD stands for Sustainable Actions for Climate Resilient Development.

PROJECT APPROACH

• Develop GHG emission base line for Majuli for the year 2015
• Project BAU emissions till 2020 factoring in the declared development programmes
• Develop action plans for Government departments towards implementing strategies for enabling Majuli to become a Carbon neutral district by 2020
• Develop a SACReD registry that estimates the BAU Carbon emissions of the development projects, allows choice of emission reduction technologies and assesses their respective emission reduction potential while suggesting afforestation action to combat residual emissions with respect to base line emissions.
• Develop a project to fund pilots to show case ecological approaches for controlling river bank erosion and climate resilient approaches to natural resource based livelihoods in Majuli.

PROJECT CONTRIBUTION TO ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY AND ECONOMIC GROWTH

Majuli is a natural repository of unique faunal and floral diversity and natural wetlands (beels), surrounded by the mighty Bramhaputra.  In December, 2016 the Assam Biodiversity Board has declared Majuli as a biodiversity heritage site. Majuli till now has a rural landscape and more than 95% of the households pursue farming as the chief livelihood activity. The Island is also the hub of Assamese neo-vaishnavite culture since 15th century and about 36 Sattras therein help retain and spread this culture across the world.  The island is annually flooded extensively during monsoon and is subjected to severe river bank erosion as a result its area has gone down from 734 sq km in 1914 to 502 sq km in 2004. Restoration efforts since 2004 has marginally increased the area by 22 sq km.

The current project will enable Majuli chose developmental projects to retain its socio-cultural, ecological and biodiversity heritage. This includes deployment of:

• Disaggregated renewable energy generation projects to cater to the increasing energy demands of the island,
• A green sustainable integrated transport system,
• Green norms for  buildings and surrounding landscapes,
• Waste recycling mechanisms leading to zero waste emissions,
• Water use efficient and carbon neutral packages of practices in agriculture,  and
• Afforestation across Majuli landscape amongst others

All these actions are also envisaged to enhance as well as throw up new livelihood opportunities and hence lead to overall economic development of its people and that of the district as a whole.