SDM Project: Sustainable Intensification of Ecosystem Services for Conservation of Production Agriscape and Biodiversity in Community Conserved Forests of Western Arunachal Pradesh, India

01.02.2023

SUBMITTED ORGANISATION

South Asian Forum for Environment

PARTNER ORGANISATIONS

National bank for Agriculture & Rural Development, (NABARD) Govt. of India

Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), Govt. of India (KVK Dirang Arunachal)

DATE OF SUBMISSION

31/01/2022

REGION

Asia 

COUNTRY

India

KEYWORDS

Indigenous paddy, Highland Agriculture, Black-necked crane, Tourism, Livelihood, habitat restoration 

FOCAL POINT

Dr. Dipayan Dey, Chair (Research & Planning)

LINK

Summary Sheet

The summary sheet for this case study is available here.

SDM website

More information is available here

Abstract

The proposed intervention aims to achieve sustainable intensification of ecosystem services as a measure to conserve biodiversity in the production agriscape (agricultural landscape) of community conserved forests in Arunachal Pradesh, India thereby assuring food security and better livelihood of the agrarian indigenous communities of eastern Himalayas. The area has diverse agro-climatic landscapes and sustained immigration, with enriched agro-biodiversity nurtured in traditional farming. The core agriscape encompasses community reserve forests with varied ecosystems inhabited by five tribes with diverse linguistic and religious affinities practicing traditional slash-burn agriculture where fire re-shapes the production agriscape. Shifting of terraced fields to higher altitudes by slash-burn to escape warmer temperatures or clearing valleys has been nonviable adaptations and it radically modified ecosystem services of the production agriscape, as alterations in sowing season can only be done within a narrow window of time. Today, this demands adaptive framework planning for conserving the production agriscape which this proposal attempts to address by sustainable intensification of ecosystem services. The overarching objectives therefore intends to map the changing trends of indigenous farming practices on a geospatial platform to identify the drivers of change and as well assess its direct impact on local agro-biodiversity & ecosystem services and its tandem effects on local livelihood and wildlife habitat to prepare a place-based habitat conservation framework for adaptive agriscape management through demonstrated action-research and participatory planning towards sustainable intensification of ecosystem services

Community engaged in thrashing activity in SEPL of Western Arunachal
Community engaged in thrashing activity in SEPL of Western Arunachal White Rice (Indian Wet Rice) and Red Rice (Japanese)