- green-spots
- reforestation
- India
- The Khasi Hills Community Project, India
Problems
Rapid deforestation throughout the East Khasi Hills district threatens upland watersheds, household livelihoods while releasing substantial quantities of carbon. Additionally, cyclonic air masses churning in the Bay of Bengal during the summer generate storms that slam into the Meghalaya Plateau, which rises sharply from the flood plains of Bangladesh. These weather events create torrential monsoon rains that make the Khasi Hills one of the Earth’s rainiest places. Located between 150 and 2,000 meters, the 27,178-hectare REDD+ project area is on a gently rolling plateau that slopes steeply along the Umiam River.
Solutions
The Khasi Hills Community REDD+
Author: PLAN VIVO
Initiated by Community Forestry International (CFI), the project is located in the Umiam. River Watershed boasts one of the highest recorded annual rainfalls in the world. Despite abundant rainfall, the communities in the project area are experiencing increasing dry-season drought due to accelerating dense forest loss at an annual rate of 2.7% between 2006 and 2010. The REDD+ project seeks to demonstrate how communities and indigenous governance institutions, coordinated through their own Federation (Synjuk), can implement REDD+ activities that control drivers of deforestation. The initiative is designed to restore forest cover and improve watershed hydrology while facilitating transitions to climate-resilient agricultural systems. The Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council has approved the project with the encouragement of the Chief Secretary of the State of Meghalaya. This project is designed to create capacity within the Federation or Synjuk to plan and implement a thirty-year climate adaptation strategy for their upper watershed. CFI, an INGO working with indigenous communities in Northeast India since 2003, has provided technical and financial support to this new community institution during the project development phase 2010-2012, providing training in resource management, including designing, certifying, and marketing carbon credits on private voluntary markets. Impact The project has established a long-term income stream to support the Federation and participating communities. Based on initial projections and a revision of the technical specifications in 2017, 364,616 tCO2 emissions will be reduced between 2010 and 2021 through community-based forest management, helping to finance the project. Forest cover and conditions are improving throughout the 23,500-hectare Project within the Umiam Watershed as community awareness has heightened village forest protection activities. This, in turn, has resulted in improving hydrological function with increased stream and spring flow through the dry season. The biodiversity of flora and fauna appears strong (as represented by the number of sightings of rare species). However, given the data, the team cannot provide conclusive evidence of any increase in biodiversity at this point. Now that data is being collected through camera traps, the team can use the information as a baseline for continued monitoring at the precise location. Key variables to be monitored over the life of the project include changes in carbon stocks, forest condition, and forest growth rates, as well as other environmental indicators, including biodiversity and hydrology. Socio-economic performance indicators to be monitored by the participating communities include institutional capacity, community development grant performance, and household transitions to cleaner energy technologies, including fuel-efficient stoves and LPG cooktops. The project is significant as it is one of the first REDD+ initiatives in Asia to be developed by indigenous tribal governments on communal and clan land. If successful, the project has the potential for broad-based replication among northeast India’s 240 ethnolinguistic tribal communities.
Gallery
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Timelines
2022
The socio-economic team initiated a three-day training session conducted by the assistant director of the horticulture office for beneficiaries in food processing. This is a way to add value and shelf-life to the goods the beneficiaries produce. For example, the beneficiaries can make excess produce into pickles and sauces using the hygienic methods they are taught. With the addition of marketing assistance, Project participants can increase their economic status.
The area of forest impacted by fire was heavily reduced as forests were protected by community-driven action of fire lines, pre-controlled burning, and the use of fire watchers who quickly notify the community to keep existing fires from spreading. The Project has also assisted in household transition from fuelwood to alternative energy sources by distributing LPG cooktops and cylinders to a total of 2,537 beneficiaries throughout the Project years, including 220 units.
2020
The Project achieved or exceeded its targets. While forest fire impact areas increased due to a longer dry season, delayed monsoons, and high winds, the Project still reduced the annual burn area from an average of 86 ha per year from 2011 to 2014 to 35 ha per year. There was a 59 percent reduction.
2011
The Federation is registered under the Meghalaya Societies Registration Act as “Ka Synjuk Ki Hima Arliang Wah Umiam, Mawphlang Welfare Society” of Meghalaya. Carbon benefits arising from the project are wholly owned by the Synjuk Federation. They are used to cover the costs of mitigation activities and management, with the balance distributed to the 62 villages within the ten hima through annual development grants.
2010
Ten indigenous Khasi kingdoms of the Umiam watershed formed a United Federation or ‘Synjuk’ to manage and protect their shared watershed. The small Khasi kingdoms on Meghalaya’s upland plateau have governed the land for centuries. Dozens of small hamlets are scattered across the rolling landscape. Khasi indigenous governments (hima) and village councils (dorbar) function as democratic institutions that manage society and the natural environment.