Project Duration – 2018-2020

Forest-PLUS 2.0 aims to improve management of targeted forest landscapes in India supporting enhancement of ecosystem services and increase in inclusive economic opportunities for forest dependent communities. The program was implemented across three forest divisions- Gaya (Bihar), Medak (Telangana) and Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala). IORA provided technical expertise to MoEFCC and State Forest Departments in improving management of forest landscapes. We contributed towards forest landscape planning, management and monitoring and development of Forest Working Plans. IORA finalised the development of two decision support systems (DSS), one each for forestry and non-forestry use. Our contribution also included the development of Van 3.0, an integrated system for collection of forest inventory and ecosystem data (mobile app), and automation of data storage and analysis (web portal) for Working Plan preparation for each selected state, using NWPC 2014. In conjunction with these, work was cemented on the development of Landscape Management Plans (LMP) and Incentive Based Mechanisms (IBMs) for the three landscapes. We also provided direction for inclusion of gender aspects across all project activities and tools.