Our project is situated in the Himalayas in north-west India, close to the border with Nepal. Work is at an average elevation of 5,000 feet (1,500 metres) in the lower reaches of this great mountain range.
Forest resources in the region are essential to local livelihoods – in particular for fuel wood and the browse and forage needed for livestock on which their agriculture depends. Destruction of the forest is causing erosion, soil impoverishment and interference with natural water courses.
The increasing pace of human intervention and deforestation in the Himalayas is potentially devastating. It could lead to the gradual choking off of the life support systems of local inhabitants and of millions in the Ganges plain below, who depend on the forest for the proper regulation of water flow and the containment of flash flooding. Our local partner is CHIRAG, a small but outstanding indigenous development organisation. We ourselves focus on the forestry aspect of the programme but CHIRAG is also involved in community health, education, agriculture and income generation initiatives.
Since 1997 we have funded the reforestation of around 2,500 acres (1,000 hectares) of degraded hillside together with providing adult training and environmental programmes in schools. Success has depended on motivating and inculcating new skills and attitudes amongst the villagers, especially the women who are the main user group. Villagers participate in all aspects of forest development – from initial project planning through to planting out the trees and their ongoing management. All tree seedlings are produced in small home nurseries to supply the 120,000 we need for outplanting each year.
All benefits from the forest such as wood collection and grass cutting are kept within the community and any payments are made to locals rather than to outside contractors. Bio-gas technology, which creates gas for cooking from cow dung, has been introduced to provide an alternative to wood fuel and so reduce pressure on the forest.
