Forests and Biodiversity
From NTFP to Biodiversity : Using, Interacting, Conserving and Restoring
Abstract - In a (soap)nut shell...
“Keystone’s work in community based conservation started from the action research on non timber forest produce (NTFP) viz. through understanding adivasi people’s use and interactions with forest products like wild honey, gooseberry, soap nut, broom leaves etc. The forests are home to the NTFP and the adivasi. The forest also houses biodiversity – protection of which is a shared responsibility – it’s our local, national, regional and global heritage. Living close to biodiversity rich areas has many tradeoffs – there can be positive interactions (eg: ecosystem services) or negative interactions (eg: wildlife crop raiding). Adivasi people have traditional knowledge which helps them interact with biodiversity and manage it to a certain extent. Anthropogenic climate change is bringing in uncertainty to the environment through rising temperatures, and disruption in rainfall availability. With increasing and unregulated development activities demand for natural resources is increasing. Forest composition is changing drastically with more invasive alien species taking over native plant habitat. Restoration and management of biodiversity is becoming imperative both for the health of the forest, wildlife and human well being. How can we respond rapidly and innovatively to the pressures combining traditional and scientific knowledge; experiential and theoretical approaches and involving diverse stakeholders? This is our shared challenge.”
NBR – forests and people
The Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve (NBR) is part of the Western and Eastern Ghats chain of mountains of the Indian peninsula, and lies between 100 45’N to 12 0 N and 760 E to 770 15’ E with a total area of 5520 km2 spread across the three southern states of Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Altitude varies from 250m to 2650m, and at least four of the major rivers of south India originate in this region - the Bhavani, Moyar, Kabini and Chaliyar rivers. The western ranges of the NBR receive higher precipitation (up to 4600 mm) while the eastern parts fall in the rain shadow, receiving less than 800 mm rainfall annually (Prabhakar, 1994). This range of topography and climate has resulted in sharp gradients of vegetation composition, ranging from thorny scrub forest dominating the north-eastern region and intergrading westwards into dry and moist deciduous forests and wet evergreen forests towards the Wayanad western parts. The NBR comprises 0.15% of India’s land area and has 20% of all angiosperms, 15% of all butterflies and 23% of all vertebrates. Of the 285 endemics in the Western Ghats, 156 (55%) are in the NBR (Daniel 1993). More than 70% of the reserve is under protected areas.
Like many biodiversity rich areas across the world the cultural diversity of the NBR is as rich as its biodiversity. There are more than 30 distinct indigenous or adivasi groups, like the Kurumba, Kattunayaka, Irula, Paniya, Bettakurumba, Toda etc who depend on the forests of the NBR for their livelihoods. With the advent of the British, lands were taken by the state and `worked’ for revenue in different ways and the ancestral domains of adivasi people were not taken into consideration. The process of land alienation has since only become more intense, with increase in population of migrants and settlers. Further changes in the forests, with the advent of commercial forestry and logging, changed forever the landscape and the status of the adivasi’s lifestyle. In recent time’s unpredictability of weather conditions, proliferation of invasive species, unplanned urbanization and increased wildlife sightings in urban landscapes are perceived to be on the increase. Phenological patterns of many plants have been changing and this has direct impacts on pollinators, bees and on fruit production. The erratic monsoons have been a cause of great concern for many of the subsistence farmers and they are forced to migrate to cities in search of work or abandon their lands and take up wage labour in nearby large farms.
Keeping sight of the trees while looking for the fruit...
From our forays into wild honey collection, honey hunters and honey bees we always asked the question where the honey is coming from. How many hives, tree or cliff, which tree, where do the bees collect nectar and pollen from? It seems these have been the questions we have always asked of all products from the forests. The answers to these questions have taken us on highways, mud paths, along stream banks, scaling steep slopes and sometimes sliding down also! We found that everyone was able to tell us about the yield – in terms of how many kilograms of a fruit or nut could be expected from a certain type of forest. But when we asked the question but how many trees were there in the forests or how many bees were there in an area the answers were not forthcoming. So while our first report on NTFP – Biodiversity and Livelihoods gave us a sense of the kinds of products and their economic values and trade routes we were still left wondering about the trees, bees and forests.
NTFP resource assessments were undertaken in the villages of Kotagiri, Coonoor, Sigur, Pillur, Nilambur, Wayanad, Bandipur, Chamrajnagar and Sathyamangalam. We would always start out by making resource maps with the whole village participating, sometimes just the NTFP collectors and we started to understand that it was not just NTFP that people collected from the forests. Many would insist we make a note of the sacred sites, water holes and rock pools, wildlife resting areas besides the NTFP plants. The forest was a provider of several services not just for human but also wildlife and NTFP was just one among the many. Even within the NTFP it was not always the economically important ones that were prioritised most often those which were for food or rituals or construction were talked about more. Immediately after the mapping we would make reconnaissance surveys into the forests and on these walks which were not less than 10-15 kms one learnt more about what the forest meant to the adivasi people. After approximately 300kms of walking the forests from elevations of 1200m to 60masl we had explored the forests which people shared with the wildlife of the region. This ground truthing of the resource maps helped us identify areas where we could study populations of NTFP species and thus began our now famous NTFP plots. Long yellow ropes of 100m were hauled into the forests and one hectare plots were marked out. Each tree, sapling and seedling of the NTFP were counted – some plots had less than 50 but some had 350. It was not just the counting but the measuring of the girth and also making notes that became a part of the protocol.
These resource assessments gave us an idea of the density and distribution of the NTFP species. It also helped us locate suitable areas for our value addition units based on resource yields and access for several villages. The resource assessments opened a world of biodiversity to us at Keystone and we knew we had only scratched the surface of conservation. The database on the flora of the region, documentation of the traditional knowledge of the forest users, and understanding the ecological functions of the surveyed forests were outputs of these assessments.
“Once coming back from an NTFP plot in the forests of Samaigudal, we meet up with another group of harvesters out for nellikai fruits. We sit in the shade and talk of several things. When we enquired if any of them had seen Kadukai seedlings, as if on a cue they all got up and started scanning the forest floor. Minutes later they come back and talk about how they never thought about this but have a gut feeling that there are no seedlings to be found. We explain how a healthy population of trees needs large number of seedlings and they understand what we are saying. From these exchanges starts a relationship of over 15 years and even now when we meet they like to talk about the seedlings they have not seen in the forest ever”
We started to ask more questions about healthy populations of NTFP, healthy forests and under what conditions could NTFP harvest be considered sustainable. Our experiences from talking to people, observing NTFP harvesting practises and studying NTFP forests were developed into a practitioner’s manual for NTFP harvest, which then became the backbone of several NTFP harvesting training programs that we conducted.
Take our knowledge but also give it back to us so that our young can learn from it...
We will always be grateful to the adivasi people of the NBR who shared with us their knowledge about the forests and its ways. They shared freely and with trust that this will one day be used for their benefit as well as the benefit of the forests. The seed cupboard in Bidurhode was a memorable starting point, every Saturday when people from the villages came in to collect the wages due to them from the Land development project, they would also bring seeds from the forest. The name of the plant, forest area of collection and use of the plant was recorded. Then we started to have workshops with different groups using the seeds as a point of conversation to understand more about the plant. At one such conversation Veeraiah thatha encouraged and not the least bit tired of our questions looked up and said “ I wish one of my own children would be as interested in knowing about plants as you all are”. From this came an idea that we were to take forward for years on – the village elders program. Elders like Veeraiah wanted to share their knowledge to make sure that their children also benefit from it. Taking children from the villages out to the forest accompanied by an elder from their community and village became popular and practised in all our working areas and villages.
We were also questioned when we brought out the first field guide to the forest plants – “what use is this to us, it is in English”. When we responded asking but how do we make a book in your language when it has no script, the solution was also given by the people, use the tamil script! And everytime a field guide was compiled for a region, the community members agreed upon a topic that would be the focus of the native language book. Therefore Kotagiri has a medicinal plants of the Kurumbas, Sigur has a greens from the forest, Pillur has wild fruits and vegetables, Chamrajnagar has wild foods etc as a separate documentation for the community. As one of the elders told us long ago – ‘our children can read and write but they don’t have any books to read about our community and its ways’.
Taking traditional knowledge into our resource assessments and our ecological studies became an important part of our methods. Our action research projects rely greatly on participatory methods and involve community members at all stages of the project.
Charismatic species – Cycas circinalis and Canarium strictum
Conservation has relied heavily on charismatic species to get messages of protection, preservation, web of life, illegal crime etc out to wide ranging audiences. In our experiences with adivasi people of the NBR we have realised that one person’s charismatic species may be another person’s most feared species. Wildlife especially megafauna like tigers and elephants instil fear in the minds of many adivasis since they have come into contact with them atleast once in their life. Encounters that have been fatal to their family members have left them in fear of these animals and not necessarily in awe.
Many years ago during the Biodiversity and Livelihood incomes study we saw large chunks of the pith of the Cycas drying in the yard of an NTFP trader. This sight lead us to enquire about the tree – its endemic and endangered status, people’s dependence on it, illegal trade in its parts, and mutualistic associations of other lesser know species on Cycas circinalis. So also with the resin of the Canarium strictum, a very important NTFP both sacred and medicinal to the adivasi people and their neighbours. We knew that the harvest levels were quite high judging by the demand but since it was banned for collection we were told by the authorities that we should not study it. That seemed strange and a bit of Ostrich policy, burying one’s head in the sand and thinking the problem will go away.
Over the years our work on the ecology, harvest, trade, tenure of these two species has taken us places we never imagined. Our Cycas work is now a part of the Non detriment findings of the CITES protocols and much of our conservation education work. We had village cycas conservation centers which were important points for conservation outreach. Our Canarium work is pushing the boundaries of our understanding of sustainable use and trade. The enterprise wing of Keystone pays a higher price for the sustainably harvested resin and we have seen the improvement in the status of the tree populations as a result of this.
Stories of Cycas and Canarium have all the spice of a charismatic species – Cycads are from the Jurassic period; Canarium trees are also ancient and have a complicated gender; Cycas parts are taken out through illegal wildlife trade routes; they are both endemic and endangered. These species have an added charisma – the people understand them and can relate to them. They can see how their actions can be harmful or beneficial to the plant. When the resin is carefully harvested through traditional methods, incisions heal and trees also attain large sizes. When the Cycas populations are subjected to harvest of pith and roots the populations are dying but when the harvest is restricted to leaf and fruit only the populations are thriving.
Will the Forest department claim our land saying there are forest trees on it?
L.Rajendran our nursery man was fondly called ‘NTFP’ by the people of the 25 villages and more where he worked as a single man army to raise native plants. The forest nurseries program had upto 100,000 plants with more than 100 species. A manual on nursery techniques and raising forest saplings were part of the outputs of this program. Rare endangered plants like the Cycas and Canarium were given priority in many nurseries and also the NTFP species.
When we started to raise these forest plants it was a big question mark in our minds – who will buy them, who will plant them? The adivasi people took the plants and planted them in their abandoned lands along hedges and borders. But they were not convinced – the big question in their minds was – will the Forest department claim these lands belong to the forest since they have forest trees on them? We suggested we could tag them and promised that we will keep records for every tree that was outplanted. Well the trees have grown, they are yielding fruit but the idea that native trees are not only for the forest was a big part of the message we sent out.
Today tree planting programs at local schools and other institutions are asking for native plants and there is much more awareness on the need to grow native trees. In more recent times, urbanites who are making the Nilgiris their second homes are very keen to reforest some of their lands. They have been actively seeking out our nurseries and form an important part of our nurseries.
In Sigur we experimented with making our nursery a commercially viable operation, by leasing out a piece of land and organising the raising and supplying of forest plants. But like many good ideas this one too did not sustain when the champion left.
Doing biodiversity research the Keystone way..
Our mixed method approach brought together social, ecological and economic methods after all we were trying to understand how conservation, livelihoods and enterprise were linked!
Complementing field observations and studies with local information has been an integral part of our research method. Research questions stem from the ground and are based on real time challenges. We have also emphasised on research outputs being shared with communities and presented in innovative outputs. Our implementation is driven by the results of the applied research.
Our research has been strengthened by our academic collaborations with University of Hawaii –USA, East Anglia-UK, Reading-UK, Pondicherry-India, TNAU-India, Cornell-USA. Collaborations have worked well when we have taken and built upon each other’s strengths and built on mutual respect for each partner. Its challenging when a field based NGO collaborates with an academic giant!
Keystone’s work on wild bees is fairly well recognised and we have been at it since 1993. And until 2006 we still didnot have an answer to the question – what is the bee density in the forests of the NBR? Actually there was no answer to this question for any region of the world either. With our collaborators from the UK, and Pondicherry supported with funds from Darwin Initiative we set out on this unchartered course. From designing a methodology and implementing it in the forests across a 5500sq km area we learnt more than we had set out to. Our studies on the life stories of honey hunters helped us understand that more than 40% of their income comes from honey under certain conditions of course. We did 100 1mX1m plots in each of our 16 sites of the region across wet and dry forests. There were days when the team was jubilant when they could find more than 50 colonies of bees in the 100 plots. But other days the searches yielded less than 10 and one questioned the method. But such is research, when one is in the field work one cannot see where it is leading to. The effort was well worth the while and in a year’s time we had a sense of bee densities across four species in all the forest types of the NBR. No small task this. It was also the first time that we hired a number of local people and put them through an intensive crash course in social and ecological research methods. Some left but of the ones who have remained they continue to be the backbone of our action research projects in the organisation. These research teams continue to bond in a special way within the organisation and even though they work in different programs memories of those days in the field are a strong bond!
Since 2009 onwards we also started to be aware of the rising awareness about human wildlife interactions and increased wildlife presence was often given as a reason for abandonment of agriculture. In partnership with wildlife researchers we undertook an assessment of 80 villages across the NBR to understand the nature of these conflicts. The baseline helped us gather detailed inputs about perception on conflict and extent of losses. This helped us forge new methods to understand emerging issues with wildlife in urban spaces an as yet less studied issue. Stakeholder meetings with affected groups gave us an insight into the range of issues and meeting with wildlife researchers and forest managers assured us that there was a lot of methods being tried out. Our work on human wildlife interactions has built our understanding that conservation should be addressed as a social issue which engages science rather than as a scientific problem which engages the public.
Opening up our research to Masters level and PhD students has brought a lot of richness to our own studies, whether it was the students of IIFM studying value addition and marketing of NTFP or from IRMA looking at the management systems in our organisation or from the Forest College at Mettupalayam studying vegetation dynamics and inventorying NTFP species. When students from the ecological sciences started to intern with us they were studying birds, butterflies, otters, stingless bees, cycads.. all of which though not directly related to our work were in many ways related also and this opened up the larger world of biodiversity research for us at Keystone. Today we keep our doors open to students who want to come and work on their dissertations with us. These students keep in touch with several of us who were their mentors and we know that they have a piece of Keystone with them where ever they are.
Telling stories based on research findings
The books on honey hunting and Kota pottery were our first publications that set the tone for sharing research findings. The very first posters on Canarium strictum, Cycas circinalis and NTFPs of the NBR started us off on a method of sharing our findings in English and Tamil. Team members who had an interest in photography and filming started to make small documentaries on the stories from the forest. In 2008 when we worked as a team on setting up the Bee Museum we started to explore science communication and how to make it informative and attractive. Training our team members in communicating telling the story on the poster was also a part of the process. The Bee Museum in Ooty stood as a testimony to the kind of information we had and our capacity to make information centers. Very soon we had forest department asking us to undertake setting up of their information centers and revamping old ones. We had the opportunity to work on the information center at Sathyamangalam, Mudumalai, Point Calimere and Wayanad. It was our opportunity to share stories of forest people, bees, flora along with the usual stories of mega and charismatic fauna.
Our academic collaborators encouraged us to get into the world of peer review and publishing internationally. These publications took a long time and drove us up the wall – but those of us who got into it enjoyed it to the hilt and understand how much time it takes and maynot be something we can do regularly with the pace of our work on the ground.
Where the Kurinji blooms is our environment education module – a resource book for teachers that explores the NBR in its forests, rivers, mountains, people and natural resources. The collaboration with environment educators, wildlife filmmakers and teachers during this process strengthened our work on conservation education even more. The module comes with a map and a film on the NBR.
Way forward – Strengthening community based conservation..
Keeping a pulse on the changes to the environment with our team of Barefoot ecologists – who are essentially community members trained in ecological methods or observations, recording data and processing information. This team is spread across our working regions and monitors the forests, wetlands and rivers for quality, changes and status. We see this as an important component on including communities in conservation. The Barefoot ecologists are also being trained to manage plant nurseries and conduct conservation education programmes. Very often we discuss how traditional knowledge is getting eroded and give less thought to the interactions that are reducing between people and nature and that knowledge cannot be generated without this. Today the Forest Rights Act which ensures access to communities to the forests and methods like Barefoot ecology will go a long way in restoring the relationship to the forests and communities capacity to respond to the changes they are seeing inside the forests.
While national figures may show that forest cover in our country is on the rise, the quality of these forests is another matter altogether. It is in this scenario that restoration activities are imperative if we are to have healthy forests. The removal of invasive species, the planting of native plants and protection of smaller pockets of biodiversity are components of restoration that we are engaged in. A wetland inside a rapidly urbanising area is prioritised and various stakeholders from the Panchayat to local residents to local schools and other institutions participated to restore a 1 acre patch of forest. It was probably not significant on the forest cover map of India but had high impact for conservation in the local area, since ordinary people came forward to plant and protect native trees, the springs were recharged and the stream discharge was constant even in the peak of summer. Restoration of functions of landscapes and forests and the services they provide is a key to getting more buy in for restoration efforts.
Creating responsible stewardship of natural areas and the resources that they hold has always been a mainstay of our efforts. Today as we get into conservation agreements with communities who live close to biodiversity rich areas we are entering a new method of working on conservation. A farmer agreeing to use only natural farming methods is also contributing to conservation as much as a wildlife researcher who is studying a rare endemic species. The conservation agreements are creating an opportunity for us to re think conservation and to include more definitions and approaches to achieve our collective goal of improving and protecting biodiversity.