Foundation for Ecological Security

URL = http://www.fes.org.in

Description

"Purposefully managed commons play an important role in reducing vulnerability and act as reserves on which people can fall back for subsistence and income generation during times of hardships. Efforts for improving productivity and health of the commons do help in stabilizing and improving the agriculture based livelihoods and an effective and encompassing strategy would be to supplement this effort with an array of livelihood choices geared towards helping the marginalized and women to have better control over their lives.

We promote the conservation and sustainable management of natural resources, forests and water in particular, through local self- governance institutions. The crux of our efforts lie in locating forests and other natural resources within the prevailing economic, social and ecological demands at the level of villages and village conglomerates, and amalgamating principles of conservation and local self governance to safeguard the natural surroundings and improve the living conditions of the poor. In essence, we see the role of our organisation in centre- staging an ecological agenda in an economically dominated world view, reorienting progress with a conservation and social justice perspective and presenting local visions and voices at local and global levels.

FES presently works with 1402 village institutions in 26 districts across six states, and assists the village communities in protecting the 96,933 hectares of revenue wastelands, degraded forest lands and Panchayat grazing lands (Charagah lands). Outside the Government FES is probably the only organization that works on Commons at this scale.

Areas of interest are:

• Establishing institutional design principles and mechanisms that provide space for the poor. Developing linkages between village level institutions and the umbrella institution of Panchayats, and integration of natural resource management plans by Panchayats.

• Improving rural livelihoods particularly of the poor and marginalized so as to meet the subsistence requirements and increase household incomes from agriculture, forests and other allied livelihoods.

• Reviving the criticality of forests and other common lands and locating inter-linkages with the associated production systems, thereby highlighting the value of forests and water for the sustenance of farming and safeguarding subsistence livelihoods.

• Strengthening platforms for discussion at a village and inter-village level by inviting government functionaries, academia and larger civil society"