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Author: Ravi Deshpande, WOTR
Various systems have been developed by local communities in their attempt to address common needs particularly that of food and water security. The design of these takes the local socio-ecological space into consideration. Simultaneously, exogenous development interventions are widely promoted by external agencies. These, in one way of the other, affect the endogenous systems. Many useful traditional systems get lost, while some systems adapt and continue to function.
The paper highlights and concludes that recognising and anticipating the unintended though unavoidable impacts of a development or adaptation intervention on different local systems, it is necessary to weigh the benefits, blend with the strengths of the endogenous systems and integrate the newer learnings of the planned exogenous intervention.
Author: K. Bhavana Rao, WOTR
The concern for many today is to have an improved understanding on vulnerability of the communities and the ecosystems in the face of climate change. The present paper illustrates the study findings on shifts/changes in livestock systems in Mhuswandi watershed located in Ahmednagar district, of Maharashtra, India.
This paper is part-1 of WOTR’s working paper series on livestock development and climate change adaptation. The paper illustrates the improved understanding of current livestock systems being followed by communities in watersheds; the drivers and pressures that have induced these changes; impact on the environment (watershed) due to these changes; and the consequences on the environment (watershed) and the communities. It also brings out what the responses of the communities in the face of climate variability and the risks being experienced by them currently.
The study is being done by applying the DPSIR (Drivers-Pressure-State-Impact-Response) framework a process of the GEO approach to Integrated Environmental Assessment.
Author: Dhanashri Brahme, on behalf of WOTR
Substantial past work and documentation exists on gender and environment issues, but there is little explicit research on the gendered impact of climate change. Women being the poorest in the world will be most vulnerable to the impact of climate change, exacerbating existing inequities in health status, access to food and clean water. While women and other marginalized groups are more in need of adaptation strategies, they are least able to access opportunities for negotiation and mitigation planning. In fact, prevailing gender relations within the community determine the impact of climate change on men and women. And so also conversely, climate change is likely to deepen existing gender inequities owing to its link with individual access to resources such as information, skills, and technology that will determine ability of groups to cope with circumstances.
With this objective of understanding the general community view on climate change, this exploratory study was undertaken to gather specific perception and experiences of women and document any existing coping strategies being employed to deal with climate change.
The Carbon climax: End of HydroCarbon Legacy
Author: Mihir Mathur, WOTR, Pune
Oil is finite; someday we will run out of oil, because the timeframes over which it regenerates itself is not useful for human consumption. But not before it has put the climate cycles out of its dynamic equilibrium. Climate Change and resource depletion are the twin challenges which will change the current structure of industrialization. And it will change rapidly. Are we prepared for these changes? How rapid would these changes be? Do we have a consensus of them? These are some of the questions which come to our mind, and I am sure they will come to yours too. This paper is an endeavor to throw some light on the potential causes and impacts of Peak Oil (plateau in oil production, generally followed by an irreversible decline). It is an endeavor to develop a foresight and not to provide any prediction. We see challenges today which we will face in the time to come. This is the decade where we may approach the End of HydroCarbon Legacy.
What are we in for?: A look at rural ahmednagar district and climate change
"What are we in for?" is an outcome of 8 studies conducted on different topics like agriculture, women in PRI, migration, wood needs of a village, community perceptions of climate change, incidental learning among children etc. in the context of Climate Change Adaptation.
Many technical studies are being conducted across the country related to the scientific aspects of Climate Change and its impacts – eg. the impacts on the various crops, capturing the trends on warming, the changing rainfall patterns, and the impending food insecurity, water scarcity and so on. Simultaneously, “scientific” data is being provided to farmers so that they can obtain agro-advisories to avert negative impacts. Studies are being conducted to assess vulnerability at macro levels to help the governments plan for appropriate measures. At the same time we are aware that the poor in the rural areas will be most affected. They hold the key to our survival. Our basics – food, water and clean air come from rural areas.
Hence, while planning for a project on Climate Change Adaptation (which we have initiated in 29 villages in 2 clusters), we began with the key question and went on to understand some aspects of this question: What is specific to Climate Change Adaptation that is different from just implementing watershed development / NRM?
WOTR ANNUAL REPORT OF THE YEAR 2009-10
WOTR's annual report for the year 2009-10.
WOTR ANNUAL REPORT OF THE YEAR 2008-09
WOTR's annual report for the year 2008-09.
There is a continuous effort on the part of policy-makers to evolve systems and mechanisms to enable PRIs to perform and deliver their newer roles more effectively. The vision for Panchayat Raj is realized only to the extent to which it is translated on the ground. This report is the outcome of a study that was conducted primarily to understand these concerns.
.MAKING SANITATION A CLEAN HABIT
Good habits, especially those related to hygiene and sanitation, need to be inculcated at an early age. This being an accepted theory, it is important to see how well it translates into reality.
It has been believed that practices coupled with voluntary local initiatives will be instrumental in leading to two things - (a) bring foreword newer models of local governance, and (b) create a strong basis for making appropriate policy and legal changes at state level to support 73rd amendment. These tools are a modest effort to begin with primary work systems for Gram Sabha sub-committees PARTICIPATORY NETPLANNING:LEARNINGS & REFLECTIONS FROM THE FIELD
In 2005, a decade after the PNP was introduced, WOTR decided to conduct a study in 4 watershed villages where PNP had been undertaken, with the broad objective of documenting and analysing the perceptions and experiences of the key stakeholders, namely, the farmer couples, women, the landless, the Village Watershed Committee and facilitating NGOs, with a view to drawing lessons, best practices and improving the process.
MICRO FARMING EXPERIENCES (HINDI)
This eBooklet is collection of practical oriented experiences on Micro-Farming being conducted by WOTR in field. Our aim is share our experiences with individuals/ institutions working in the field of sustainable agriculture practices and get their feedback. We feel that such type of experience sharing would bring in more value to sustainable agriculture practices.
PDF [1008 KB]INDO-GERMAN WATERSHED DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM
This ebook gives history of the Indo-German Watershed Development Programme in Maharashtra (IGWDP-M), a large bilaterally funded program, completes 20 years of existence.Initiated in 1989 and operationalised in 1992, the overall goal of the programme is poverty reduction
through people-managed environmental regeneration and resource mobilization along watershed
lines.
Despite significant challenges and uncertainties in the initial years, the program has grown to include 88 NGOs working in 442 villages covering over 221,000 hectares (553,000 acres) and impacting around 310,000 people in Maharashtra. Its success has led it to spread to 3 other states- Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan and Gujarat.Articles/Papers/Presentations
ADAPTATION FOR LIVELIHOD SECURITY
Adaptation for Livelihood Security - strategic imperatives and Practical Solutions, a Presentation by Dr. Marcella D'Souza, Executive Director, WOTR at the TARAgram Yatra, Orchha, 20th September 2010.
The IGWDP (the Indo-German Watershed Development Program )was the first large-scale program in the country which made village self-help groups (VSHGs) as the direct implementers of watershed measures with NGOs acting only as facilitators. It also established the precedent of giving funds directly to these VSHGs to plan, organize, implement and maintain the watershed measures in their villages. This pattern has now been routinely adopted in other programs in the country.
PDF [53 KB]ARTICLE 2: REDUCING RENT SEEKING AND DISSIPATIVE PAYMENTS: INTRODUCING ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISMS IN WATERSHED DEVEKIOMENT PROGRAMS IN INDIA
This paper describes the processes, instruments and mechanisms that have been successfully deployed to bring about greater transparency and accountability in a large-scale watershed development effort in the Indian state of Maharashtra.
PDF [200 KB]ARTICLE 3: WATERSHED DEVELOPMENT, WATER MANAGEMENT AND THE MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS
This paper argues that in rural semi-arid and resources fragile regions, watershed based environmental regeneration through community mobilization is a promising and proven approach to poverty reduction and to building up social capital and capacities. These latter are crucial to ensuring that people who escape poverty continue to stay out of it. Based on over a decade of field experience and several completed (treated)watershed projects, the authors marshal evidence that indicate that if d
PDF [403 KB]ARTICLE 4 : PARTICIPATORY NET PLANNING
The sustainability of high cost land based interventions such as watershed development has been a challenge. Active involvement of the primary stakeholders - the land owners and the watershed dwellers - holds the key to its success.
PDF [237 KB]ARTICLE 5: WATERSHED MANAGEMENT: A SUSTAINABLE STRATEGY FOR AUGMENTING WATER RESOURCES AND MITIGATING CLIMATE CHANGES
It is generally accepted today that changes in climate patterns are well underway globally. The Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in its Third Assessment Report predicts that the global temperature will rise by about 1.4 - 5.8°C by the year 2100. These changes will significantly impact (irreversibly, in most cases) the environment as well as livelihoods and quality of life. This article highlights watershed management as an adaptive measure to climate change.
PDF [200 KB]ARTICLE 6: FACILITATING CHANGE – CREATING INSTITUTIONAL AND POLICY SPACES: A CASE STUDY OF THE INDO-GERMAN WATERSHED DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME (IGWDP)
In Germany, during the 1980's, German developmental cooperation policy came under review as it was realized that, with very few exceptions, official aid reached the poor largely by way of exception. It was decided to launch a worldwide study to assess and determine the conditions under which official aid could directly reach the poor in a manner that empowered them to free themselves from poverty. The IGWDP is an outcome of this study.
PDF [123 KB]ARTICLE 7: SLAKING THIRST - RETREIVING DESERTIFIED LIVING SPACES: The Developmental Agenda for the Millennium
It is a problem that spans all continents, affects all nations and impacts upon the lives and livelihoods of communities everywhere in the world. The problem of access to water and to productive habitable living spaces. This indeed is the challenge of the millennium. Availability of water as well as hospitable life and livelihood supporting environments is declining rapidly all over the world. The article profiles eco-systems development along watershed lines as a viable, ameliorative respon
PDF [250 KB]ARTICLE 8: POVERTY REDUCTION THROUGH NATURAL RESOURCES REGENERATION : The Indo-German Watershed Development Programme
Poverty alleviation through natural resource regeneration and management is the primary objective of IGWDP. Soil and water conservation work improves the soil moisture regime and increases the water level in the wells which helps the farmers in cultivating at least 2 crops (kharif and rabi) and in certain cases even a third crop in summer months.
PDF [125 KB]ARTICLE 9: SCALING UP: THE EXPERIENCE OF THE INDO GERMAN WATERSHED DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME (IGWDP)
Natural resources regeneration and management along watershed lines provides a framework and strategy for rural development. The IGWDP exemplifies and validates this thesis. A Watershed can be defined as the drainage basin of a catchment area of a particular stream or river. Simply put, it refers to the area above any point on a defined drainage channel, which feeds water into it.
PDF [302 KB]ARTICLE 10: GENDER AND WATERSHED DEVELOPMENT
This paper focuses primarily on the impact WSD measures have on the lives of women and on the relationships between men and women, namely, gender impacts. A subsequent paper (see article 19 below) explores a possible approach aimed at mitigating some of the negative impacts of WSD while capitalizing on the possibilities and opportunities it offers for building up the capabilities of women, namely, empowerment.
PDF [171 KB]ARTICLE 11: WOMEN AS PRO-ACTIVE PARTICIPANTS IN ENVIRONMENTAL REGENERATION
For watershed to succeed, not only should the people be mobilized and organized, but they should understand the WHY, WHAT and the HOW of the effort of regeneration and and maintenance of their natural resources.
PDF [122 KB]ARTICLE 12: INSTITUTIONAL ARRANGEMENTS AND IMPACT OF PARTICIPATORY NATURAL RESOURCES MANAGEMENT
This Paper attempts to outline the circumstances and reasons that led to the initiation of the Programme (IGWDP), the underlying assumptions and beliefs, the issues involved, the institutional and administrative arrangements arrived at and impacts or results obtained.
PDF [464 KB]ARTICLE 13: WATERSHED DEVELOPMENT: CREATING SPACE FOR WOMEN
This paper focuses on how to mitigate the negative impacts of WSD and works out approaches to capitalize on the opportunities offered to make women more self-reliant, develop a positive self- image and insert themselves in a meaningful and effective way into the fabric of the society they live in.
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