The report presents a mixed picture. Over the past 25 years, there have been notable improvements in child well-being in the group of countries examined in this report: steady decline in child mortality, overall reduction in adolescent suicide and increase in school completion rates. But the last five years have …
The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) is the first international instrument to deal with issues of ethics and equity with regard to the sharing of benefits derived from genetic resources between those who have conserved them and those who exploit them. This study uses an analytical framework to take a …
Who were the first Indians? Were they the chocolate-hued Dravidian southerners or the dark-skinned tribals that inhabit East India and the Andaman islands? Was the relatively fair Indo-European population of the North the original settler? Or did the Mongoloid-featured Tibetan-Burmans beat the rest to it? When and how did the …
Using examples of work taking place throughout the developing world, the report argues for a stronger role for civil society and community organisations in the global response to climate chaos, and the need for rich countries to foot the bill via a new funding body.
Thimphu dzongkhag administration yesterday handed over the Genekha forest to the community to manage the Sangay shamu (Matsutake) rich forest. The community must protect the forest as if their lives depended on it. For, to a large extent, it does. The Genekha community, which earns between Nu 50,000 to Nu …
A green backdrop in the wake of the recent monsoon fails to hide the stumps of fullygrown Sagaun trees that once stood on Kashiram"s fields in Dadudhana village of Betul district. The septuagenarian Dalit, along with his son Ramcharan, still awaits payment from a dodgy contractor who logged 200 trees …
This report identifies ten risk reduction practices which were successfully implemented in the pilot communities and are replicable elsewhere. Its objective is to encourage knowledge and experience sharing among communities, organizations and other disaster risk reduction (DRR) stakeholders for the benefit of all those vulnerable to natural disasters, especially floods. …
This document presents the three-year Andhra Pradesh Relief to Development project which aimed to improve the capacity of target communities to better manage in times of disaster. This project took place in the immediate aftermath of the tsunami, in December 2004, to restore the livelihoods of affected communities. At the …
The GOI-UNDP Disaster Risk Management (DRM) Programme envisages accelerating capacity development for disaster reduction at the national level and in some of the most-vulnerable regions in the country through community-based and gender sensitive approaches. It is designed to assist some of the most multi-hazard prone states such as Arunachal Pradesh, …
In spite of the widely accepted success of Community Forestry in reviving degraded land, it is still seen as being unable to provide tangible benefits to the poor. This paper illustrates that through continuous sharing, deliberation and negotiation among the poor and non-poor members of Community Forest User Groups (CFUGs), …
Drawing on the experience of Livelihoods and Forestry Programme in Nepal, this paper makes the case for community-generated planning, selfmonitoring and evaluation for adaptive learning and good governance in community forest user groups (CFUGs) in Nepal. These processes, conceptualised as Adaptive Learning and Action (ALA), have enabled CFUGs to identify …
The narrow, gravelly road leading to Ranavade village has a surprise at the end: clean streets, well-planned houses and colourful rangolis greet you inside the village. Located about 120km from Mumbai, this village in Raigad district is an oddity in modern India. Nobody here takes a loan from a bank …
The Federation of Drinking Water and Sanitation Users Nepal (FEDWASUN) is a people-based umbrella organisation of drinking water and sanitation users' groups in Nepal. It facilitates the provision of drinking water and sanitation (WATSAN) services to communities, advocates for water and sanitation rights (water for all and forever), brings people's …
The Government of India (Ministry of Tourism) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) are implementing the Endogenous Tourism Project - Rural Tourism Scheme across 36 sites in the country, to set up alternative models of tourism which would serve to create sustainable livelihood opportunities among low-income communities living in rural …
The first monitoring was undertaken on August 22, 2008. When the farmers group visited the CETP for sampling, they observed bypass of untreated effluents and the district administration and the pollution control board was informed of the same. On the complaints of the community, the regional officer, Rajasthan State Pollution …
The coastal marine environment provides enormous value in fishery and other products and in ecosystem services including coastal protection, water purification, and appropriate locations for ports, harbors, urban centers, tourist destinations, and numerous recreational pursuits. Current management practices are ineffective and to continue them will endanger coastal economies and ecosystems …
Joint Forest Management (JFM) is an organic process targeting the regeneration of degraded forests by involving the local community and operates on the interaction between the Forest Department and the local community. Successful formation and functioning of Village Forest Councils (VFCs) is the key factor that decides the success of …
Faced with 25,000 landless people from across the country marching up to parliament on October 29 to register their protest, the United Progressive Alliance (upa) government announced the creation of a committee on "State Agrarian Relations and the Unfinished Task in Land Reforms'. The union minister of rural development, Raghuvansh …
Some 15 years ago, pine-covered hillsides were the typical images of Karsog in Himachal Pradesh's Mandi district. But pine provided little fodder for cattle. People in its villages preferred broadleaved species, so they started planting oak and other fodder trees. Over the years, pine monoculture in Karsog has been replaced …
