Description and objectives:

India's forest ecosystems are life support systems for millions of people residing in the uplands and lowlands of the Indo-Gangetic plains. Restoring degraded forest and agroforest lands and maintaining them to regulate stream flow is needed to improve the accessibility of water resources. Among others, accessibility of water resources decides over women's time budget in providing their families with water, fuelwood and fodder.

The Sustainable Management of Forest Ecosystem Services module runs up to the Himachal Pradesh Forest Ecosystem Services project (HP-FES), which operated until 2020. The FES project supports the increased orientation of forest management towards FES, with a focus on water availability. ECO Consult assists the project in safeguarding its sustainable impacts.

Our contributions:

In collaboration with India's Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) and Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand Forest Departments ECO Consult supports GIZ along three methodological lines:

1) Institutionalisation of IbM 2) Sustainable Management of FES 3) Framework for Landscape Approach

ECO Consult designs feasible and scalable Incentive-based Mechanisms (IbM) for sustainable flow of ecosystem services at demonstration sites for local communities. Based on an analysis of international and national best cases on IbM and consultation with main stakeholders in Himachal Pradesh (H.P.) and Uttarakhand (U.K.) recommendations for IbM are elaborated as an intersectoral convergence tool for forest conservation at district and state level.

By way of stakeholder analyses roles, mandates and potentials are identified. Capacity building is provided to the Forest Ecosystem Services (FES) project team. Forest-related IbM best practices are compiled, together with a set-up of toolkits and development of a monitoring framework for assessing particular and overall project impacts.

The monitoring framework for the measurement of indirect benefits and beneficiaries is based on a review of existing indicators and methodologies, classification of FES project interventions and design of sampling, data collection formats and procedures.

Finally, to safeguard prioritised ecosystem services of the Western Himalayas by way of a operational Forest Ecosystem Services management, the GIZ FES project and the State Forestry Departments rely on ECO Consult to set up a framework for practical implementation of the landscape approach. To safeguard prioritised ecosystem services of the Western Himalayas by way of a operational Forest Ecosystem Services management ECO Consult develops criteria and indicators for the selection of two representative landscapes in H.P. and U.K, identifies best practices and elaborates proecdures for cross-sectoral institutional collaboration. In parallel, an awareness strategy is developed and awareness raising events conducted with prime target groups.