We are happy this month to share one of our recent case studies from The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) in India. The case study is titled “Mainstreaming Community-Conserved Areas (CCAs) for biodiversity conservation in SEPLS – A case study from Nagaland, India”, and was also included as a chapter in the Satoyama Initiative Thematic Review vol. 5.

According to the case study, in Nagaland, traditional conservation practices have helped protect biodiversity, and there are records of Community Conserved Areas (CCAs) being declared in the early 1800s, especially in response to forest degradation and loss of wildlife. Thus, the revival of traditional conservation practices through the creation of CCAs offers hope for conservation and ecosystem resilience, as communities set aside parcels of forests within productive, shifting cultivation landscapes. A pilot scale project was initiated in three villages in Nagaland, which aimed at creating and linking CCAs across the landscape and supporting conservation through livelihood creation. The model adopted aimed at strengthening the resilience of these mountain communities and their forests by rejuvenating traditional conservation practices and providing supplementary livelihoods. The positive impacts of the project activities were evident at the end of the project as communities reported increased protection of natural resources after the formation of a joint CCA and improvement in management of common resources of SEPLS.

For the full case study, please see the IPSI website here.