WETLAND CONSERVATION PROGRAMME
Team: Priyadarsanan Dharma Rajan, Siddhartha Krishnan, M. C. Kiran, T. D. Jojo, Deepak Dayanandan.
Wetlands are one of the most productive ecosystems on earth that also harbor high levels of biodiversity. Unfortunately, most wetlands are facing grave threats from various human activities. To understand and act upon such threats, ATREE recently initiated a community based wetland conservation programme around the Vembanad wetland in Kerala.
The Vembanad Lake is the largest humid tropical wetland ecosystem of the south west coast of India. Based on the rich biodiversity and socio-economic importance, the Vembanad Lake along with adjacent kol lands was declared a Ramsar site, a wetland of international importance.
The site is ecologically significant due to its mangrove patches and habitat for resident and seasonal migratory waterfowl. A large proportion of the 1.6 million people living on the banks of the wetland are directly or indirectly dependent upon this ecosystem for their livelihoods. Major livelihood activities include agriculture, fishing, tourism, inland navigation, coir retting, lime shell collection, shrimp/ crab farming and sand mining. The commercial nature of many of these activities leads to uncontrolled resource use and pose grave threats to the ecosystem.
The activities of different stakeholder groups are rarely mutually beneficial and conflicts of various intensities exist at several levels. The situation is made worse because control of various activities rests with different government departments and there is little or no coordination between these departments. Lack of mutual consultations coupled with inadequacies in governance (in terms of capacity and execution) and communities (in terms of awareness and ways to deal with known issues) create circumstances conducive for the deterioration of the wetland ecosystem.
ATREE's activities
The project has adopted an approach based on the four guiding principles/cross-cutting elements of CEPA programme of the Ramsar convention viz. Communication, Education, Public Awareness and Mainstreaming to promote conservation and sustainable use of the Vembanad Lake. Specifically, the programme seeks to achieve the following objectives:
- Assess the institutional, policy and information gaps which adversely affect the conservation and sustainable use of the Vembanad wetlands
- Facilitate discussions on long-term, effective and inclusive institutional mechanisms involving government agencies, academia, NGOs and local community groups with clear cut roles and responsibilities
- Increase environmental awareness among various stakeholders and enhance their capacity to address conservation issues pertaining to wetlands.
- Enable the local communities to participate in the design and implementation of the management plan
Current projects
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