Welcome To ATREE

World Biodiversity Heritage Program for India

The biodiversity and ecosystems of India even inside Protected Areas (PAs) are threatened because of detrimental changes around them. These include increased pressures and degradation due to local and market driven forces, civil strife, ad hoc and unaccountable management, inadequate or inappropriate investment, poor public profile of these PAs and their managers and increasing hostility and conflicts. There is an urgent need to professionalize the management of these areas with wider and active participation of the civil society partners. There is also a need to ensure transparency, financial stability and accountability in decision making process.

A new initiative funded by the United Nations Foundation (UNF) and United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organizations (UNESCO) and coordinated by the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India initially covering four existing and six proposed World Heritage Sites in India has been initiated to address the key conservation and management issues within a single new framework. This framework referred to as the World Heritage Biodiversity Programme for India (WHBPI) has been developed through a collaborative planning process by the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) and the ATREE. The WHBPI includes capacity building of PAs and local communities with better infrastructure and training; enhancing the role of local communities; providing livelihood support; enhancing habitat connectivity; improving protection measures; research and monitoring; advocacy and communications; and policy and governance. The WHBPI has been developed through participatory site and national level workshops, literature review, field visits and consultations. WHBPI envisages the formation of a World Heritage Biodiversity Trust Fund (WHBTF) with an initial endowment and will solicit corpus funds and disburse them to the sites through a broad based site management committee that will oversee the professionalization and accountability at the level of the site.