Report of the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel - Part II : Actionable points for the WGEA : 3. Towards Multi-centred Governance in the Western Ghats : Direct Payments to People, Communities and Companies for Conserving the Biodiversity of the Western Ghats :-

Opinion
       21/12/2018
                    1616.

Sub : Report of the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel - Part II : Actionable points for the WGEA : 3. Towards Multi-centred Governance in the Western Ghats : Direct Payments to People, Communities and Companies for Conserving the Biodiversity of the Western Ghats :-

Ref : Direct Payments to People, Communities and Companies for Conserving the Biodiversity of the Western Ghats :-

Forest ecosystems provide a wide range of provisioning, regulating, supporting and cultural services broadly termed the ‘ecosystem services’ (MEA, 2003). A key goal of creating a Western Ghats Ecology Authority is to maintain the existing forest cover as well as increase the tree cover in other areas including degraded lands and privately held lands so as to promote ecological sustainability. At the same time, the large human population in the ghats, the highest population density of any of the ‚global hotspots of biodiversity‛, also makes it imperative that people meaningfully participate in the conservation of this region. We think that this would be best achieved under the present circumstances through a system of incentives and payments for ecosystem services to people, communities and even corporate (such as plantation companies) for maintaining or increasing tree cover as well as facilitating the presence and movement of wildlife.

In addition to the role of forest cover in conserving biodiversity and regulating the hydrology of the region, we may also add the following positive ecological roles of increasing the tree cover of the region :

a) Provide alternative sources of biomass-related products to people who may otherwise depend on protected areas and other forest areas for their needs.

b) Promote the overall ecological resilience of the region.

c) Improve habitat connectivity across the ghats in order to facilitate migration and adaptation of plant and animal species to future climate change.

d) Contribute to reducing the country‟s greenhouse gas emissions through sequestering carbon into biomass.

There are a number of ways in which incentive-based approaches to nature conservation have been experimented with globally (Somanathan 2010). These could be either in the form of deterrents for activities that are seen as inimical to biodiversity conservation (prohibition on entry into and extraction from land declared as ‚protected areas‛, imposition of taxes on undesirable land-use) or incentives of a positive nature as listed below :

1) Allocation of rights to revenue generated from use of biodiversity to local communities who at the same time nurture and protect this biodiversity. Examples of this would include the Van Panchayat system in the Kumaun region of Uttarakhand Himalaya that began in 1930 (and has expanded considerably since then) and the Joint Forest Management experiment in the country that began in the 1990s.

2) Subsidies to activities which are complementary to conservation. An example of this is a suite of actions broadly classified as ‚eco-development‛ in which loans or small amounts of capital are provided to people living in the fringe or within forest areas to help them start non-forest related businesses. Subsidies for cooking gas or solar cookers to reduce the dependence of people on fuel wood collected from forests are another example of such incentives.

3) Direct payments for conservation. Economists have recently favoured the direct payment of incentives to land-owners and communities for their demonstrable achievements in conservation (Ferraro and Kiss 2002). This approach, also known as ‚payments for ecosystem services‛, has never been tried in India but is being implemented both in developed (e.g. U.S.A., Australia) and developing (e.g. Mexico, Costa Rica, Colombia) countries. The draft eco-tourism policy for Protected Areas posted on the website of the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Govt. of India, on June 2, 2011, also makes a mention of financial incentives to private land owners near Protected Areas for maintaining forest cover.

Here the panel makes a case for using the third mechanism, namely, that of judicious direct payments for conservation for promoting the ecology of the Western Ghats. While the framework for such a scheme to operate in the Western Ghats has to be worked out in detail, some examples are provided of the context of such direct payments as well as the financial mechanisms available to implement such a programme.

Context of direct payments for conservation :-

i) Payments to people: Considerable land area of the Western Ghats region is under private ownership of individuals. This would include the large number of settlements, cultivated areas and other privately-owned land under other forms of land-use. Increasing the tree cover in some of these lands that are strategically located would help fulfil some of the positive ecological roles mentioned above while also increasing the income and promoting a positive conservation outlook among land owners. While the choice of tree species perceived by people as profitable seems to be most important determinant of success of tree planting programmes in the country (Hegde 2010), this limitation may be partly overcome through incentives for planting native species, irrespective of profitability, as well as permitting economically valuable species to be planted and harvested in a regulated manner.

ii) Payments to communities: Unlike the northeastern region where a major part of the land is under the control of village communities, a much smaller proportion of the Western Ghats is vested under community ownership. Examples would include community grazing lands, traditional Toda community patta lands (in the Nilgiris), betta lands in Uttara Kannada district and perhaps Kovikam lands in Kerala. Some of these lands could have considerable value for biodiversity if they are not transformed into other land uses, or there may be scope for bringing these under forest cover. Although the option of declaring these as Community Reserves exists under the Wildlife Protection Act, this concept has not really caught on because of the lack of incentives and of clarity on community rights. Payments could be made to communities for maintaining such lands in a favourable state for biodiversity.

iii) Payments to companies: The proposal to make payments to the corporate sector for conservation of biodiversity may seem too radical at first, but we think there is a specific context in which such incentives could be explored. Large areas of the Western Ghats are under commercial plantations of tea, coffee, cardamom, rubber and other species. Plantation lands may be under private ownership (i.e. patta lands held by companies or individuals) or under long-term lease from the government. Many of these plantations are embedded within existing protected areas or about the boundaries of protected areas; as such they have considerable potential for conservation of biodiversity as well as providing passages for the migration/movement of animal species. The importance of bringing plantations within the ambit of direct payments for conservation thus lies in their strategic location and the considerable area they can provide for biodiversity conservation.

Plantations can be brought under a conservation programme under two situations :

a) Plantations on private lands: Many plantations maintain a certain proportion of their land under natural vegetation cover. These areas may be important not just for the biodiversity they hold but also for providing habitat connectivity. Examples of this would include riparian habitat of tea estates in the Valparai plateau and the thorn forest of Singara estate (coffee plantation) in the Nilgiris where specific parcels of land are identified as corridors for elephants [Baskaran et al. 1995; Anand Kumar et al. 2010]. Both regulatory orders (prohibiting the conversion of such lands to other use) as well as rewards (payments for the ecosystem services provided) should go hand-in-hand to achieve conservation goals. Another example would be the importance of evergreen forest patches within land owned by plantations in the ghats for maintaining populations of the endangered and endemic lion-tailed macaque. Plantation companies who maintain private lands under forests or other forms of natural vegetation such as montane grassland should also be rewarded for the intrinsic biodiversity values they preserve. Such rewards need not be solely in the form of direct payments; these could also be indirect recognition through a process of ‚certification‛ that would enhance the prestige of the company and the value of their products; certified coffee for example fetches premium prices in the international market.

b) Plantations on leased lands: The issue of incentives to plantations on leased land may be contentious, especially when conservationists would argue that all such lands should revert to government control upon expiry of the present leases. We do not have statistics on the precise extent of plantations in privately-owned versus leased lands but the latter is expected to be much smaller than the former category overall in the Western Ghats [T.R. Shankar Raman, pers. comm.]. The plantations have a large labour force whose future employment will have to be factored into any transition plans; it would be both socially unacceptable and politically a very difficult decision to render a large work force idle. The potential of such lands for biodiversity conservation can only be realized if these are brought under native tree cover. The private sector is more likely to more achieve this in a cost-effective manner, a task that should perhaps be carried out in a phased manner. A mixed strategy of forest restoration and regulated nature tourism along with reduced area under the original plantation could perhaps provide the necessary economic viability for sustaining the land-use of such areas.

Financial mechanisms for direct payments for conservation :-

Several national policies and programmes have been formulated and are being implemented to maintain and enhance the green cover of India. There are also emerging international mechanisms which provide opportunities to provide financial initiatives for afforestation, reforestation and forest conservation. Such programmes could provide the needed finances for enhancing the role of people, communities and companies in protecting, managing and regenerating the forests and biodiversity of Western Ghats.

a) Green India Mission: The National Mission for a Green India is one of the eight Missions under the National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC). Green India Mission (GIM) acknowledges the influences that the forestry sector has on environmental amelioration though climate mitigation, food security, water security, biodiversity conservation and livelihood security of forest dependent communities (GIM, 2010) and puts ‚greening‛ in the context of climate change adaptation and mitigation. The Mission aims at responding to climate change by a combination of adaptation and mitigation measures, which would help: enhancing carbon sinks in sustainably managed forests and other ecosystems adaptation of vulnerable species/ecosystems to the changing climate, and adaptation of forest-dependent communities.

The Mission envisages a clear role for local communities and promotion of decentralized governance. The Mission aims to bring primacy to Gram Sabha as an overarching institution to oversee Mission implementation at the village level. The committees set up by the Gram Sabha, including revamped JFMCs, CFM groups, Van Panchayats, Committees set up under Forest Rights Act; Biodiversity Management Committees etc., will be strengthened as the primary institutions on the ground for nested decentralized forest governance in rural areas. Likewise, the Mission will support revamping/strengthening of the Forest Development Agencies to support the field institutions. GIM is a large programme and with appropriate incentives including financial could ensure the participation of people and communities in forest regeneration in the Western Ghats.

b) CAMPA: The ‚State Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority‛ (State CAMPA) is intended as an instrument to accelerate activities for preservation of natural forests, management of wildlife, infrastructure development in the sector and other allied works. CAMPA seeks to promote: Conservation, protection, regeneration and management of existing natural forests Conservation, protection and management of wildlife and its habitat within and outside protected areas including the consolidation of the protected areas Compensatory afforestation Promotion of environmental services. Research, training and capacity building.

The large funding available under the CAMPA programme could be utilized to provide incentives to local communities to undertake compensatory afforestation on degraded forest lands as well as increase tree cover on private lands in a cost-effective manner.

c) National Afforestation and Ecodevelopment Board (NAEB): The National Afforestation Programme (NAP) was formulated by merger of four 9th Plan centrally-sponsored afforestation schemes of the Ministry of Environment & Forests, namely, Integrated Afforestation and Eco-Development Projects Scheme (IAEPS), Area Oriented Fuel wood and Fodder Projects Scheme (AOFFPS), Conservation and Development of Non-Timber Forest Produce including Medicinal Plants Scheme (NTFP), and Association of Scheduled Tribes and Rural Poor in Regeneration of Degraded Forests (ASTRP). This was done with a view to reducing the multiplicity of schemes with similar objectives, ensuring uniformity in funding pattern and implementation mechanism, avoiding delays in availability of funds to the field level and institutionalizing peoples participation in project formulation and its implementation. The NAEB is responsible for promoting afforestation, tree planting, ecological restoration and eco-development activities in the country, with special attention to the degraded forest areas and lands adjoining the forest areas, Protected Areas as well as ecologically fragile areas. One of the important roles of NAEB is to create general awareness and help foster people's movement for promoting afforestation and eco-development with the assistance of voluntary agencies, non-government organisations, Panchayati Raj institutions and others and promote participatory and sustainable management of degraded forest areas and adjoining lands.

d) Clean Development Mechanism (CDM): CDM is one of the funding mechanisms under the UNFCCC (UN Framework Convention on Climate Change). Both afforestation and reforestation activities are included under CDM. The carbon revenue derived from afforestation under the CDM is largely transferred to the local communities and farmers. CDM is therefore a ‘win-win’ strategy, providing local benefits (to communities) as well as global benefits, contributing to the stabilization of CO2 concentration in the atmosphere. The forest dwellers and rural communities will be rewarded for providing global environmental benefits. A large number of forestry projects, particularly JFM under CDM, implemented in different regions of India, incorporating innovative technical, institutional and financial interventions, could lead to a large positive impact on forest conservation and regeneration, degraded land reclamation and socio-economic development of rural communities, in a participatory way. CDM is also suited for large scale reforestation projects such as conversion of monoculture plantations to a more natural forest cover. Currently four CDM afforestation projects have been approved in India and are under implementation.

e) REDD+: Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) have agreed to mitigate climate change through several activities, namely, Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD), Forest Conservation, and Enhancement of Carbon Stocks and Sustainable Management of Forests, collectively known as REDD+. The Cancun agreement encourages all countries to find effective ways to reduce the human pressures on forests that result in degradation and greenhouse gas emissions. This would require addressing drivers of deforestation and forest degradation and inclusion of local communities in protection, management and conservation of forests and carbon stocks, linking REDD+ with sustainable development and poverty reduction. Although India has traditionally been characterized a ‚Low Forest - Low Deforestation‛ country, there is significant scale small scale deforestation and forest degradation in India. Consequently there is potential for REDD+ activities in India after due care is taken with rights of local
people. The Western Ghats would be a logical starting point for seeking finances of these activities.

Conclusions :-

India has realized the importance of involving local communities in forest protection and management, and has developed several policies and implemented large programmes such as Joint Forest Management programme. India has multiple institutional approaches to forest protection and management. However, in spite of its rich experience in forest management through traditional initiatives, JFM, social forestry and farm forestry, the genuine involvement and empowerment of local communities is limited. It is necessary to use this vast experience and existing policies to formulate and implement appropriate policies, including transfer of financial powers, and institutions to promote sustainable and participatory forestry under the emerging programmes and mechanisms. Some potential recommendations could be as follows :

1. National programmes such as Greening India Mission, CAMPA and NAEB should include not just intentions of involving people and local communities but aim for genuine and effective transfer of powers and funds to local institutions for implementing the programmes.

2. Similarly, international mechanisms such as CDM and REDD+ could be tapped to provide adequate financial resources for larger scale efforts (such as on plantations) to regenerate forests. These international mechanisms already have arrangements to ensure transfer of all financial returns from carbon credits to local communities.
3. Guidelines should be developed to ensure transfer of funds from these large national programmes, as envisaged under the international mechanisms, to local communities and not mere pronouncements of involvement of communities. Local community led initiatives with financial resources and powers could provide a cost-effective way of implementing the programmes, which has not been attempted so far.

These national and international mechanisms, with adequate financial resources and powers, could be deployed in the Western Ghats for effective participation of local communities.

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