CFR Management training in Bastar

The learnings from the Pachgaon visit were leveraged to conduct a workshop on CFR management planning for our team of FRA coordinators in Bastar during 8th and 10th March. The workshop was conducted by Sharachchndra Lele, Shruti Mokashi and Atul Joshi and drew on a management planning template jointly prepared by ATREE and TISS that was notified by the Government of Maharashtra in 2017. The FRA coordinators were taken through the objectives of management planning, the process of structuring a plan, and methods for conducting social and ecological baseline surveys. The template that was used breaks down the task of management planning into six basic stages; outlining the current status of the CFR area, needs from the CFR, threats to the CFR, a plan that addresses the threats, the support that is needed from the state, and a timeline for the plan. These six prompts can be used to help a village develop a simple understandable and practical plan in the form of their main concerns and challenges, and solutions for tackling them. Trainees were divided into groups to work on villages familiar to them and to use the template to draft very preliminary plans.

The classroom training on 8th March was followed by a hands-on experience in village Nagalsar in Jagdalpur block of Bastar district on 10th March. Nagalsar has recently submitted its claim for CFR rights and wanted to move ahead with preparation of a CFR management plan. ATREE’s team led by Anubhav Shori, Puran Kashyap and Somaru Baghel handled the logistics of getting more than 60 villagers together and dividing them into focus groups (women, FRC members, younger members, male elders, etc.) to discuss the questions raised in our template. Each group also traversed different parts of the CFR landscape to build some common understanding of the condition of the forest and threats being encountered. The process of helping Nagalsar come up with a full-fledged plan will continue with the ATREE team of Shruti Mokashi, Atul Joshi Yugal Joshi, Naresh Kumar Sahu, Puran Kashyap and Phulsingh Nag working with the core team from Nagalasar over the next few months. [Look out for more news on this front soon.]