Living Land

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watershed plans, to creating options for enhancing liveli-

hoods and institutional strengthening. The project was based

on a participatory and community-driven approach for the

planning, implementation and monitoring of activities. At

the micro-watershed level, the Gram Panchayats (GP) were

reinforced as local governance authorities and better armed to

endorse their responsibility for administration, management

and development of village resources. Building on economic

activities that addressed individual needs, GEF resources

helped to catalyse integration of the notion of ecosystem

services at watershed scale to:

• mainstream sustainable watershed management

approaches into GP watershed development plans

• enhance biodiversity richness at watershed level through

domestication and cultivation of threatened medicinal

and aromatic plants

• enhance the understanding of the impact of variability

and climate change impacts on the mountain ecosystems

and help devise adaptation and mitigation strategies.

The project approach also took into account the crucial link

between ecosystem services and livelihoods of women and

vulnerable groups in the fragile watersheds. As often, women

play a significant role in social and economic aspects, notably

around the use and management of forests and other natural

resources. The project focused on inclusion of women in

decision-making processes, using various tools and mecha-

nisms: ‘women motivating women’ for awareness and social

mobilization, empowerment of women in decision-making

processes, improvement of participation of women in various

committees and institutions, greater emphasis on women-led

income-generating activities, and promoting drudgery-reduc-

ing interventions.

The village communities actively participated in the entire

project activities from planning and implementation to moni-

toring and evaluation. Various participatory mechanisms and

tools, such as focus groups, were used to select and imple-

ment interventions, covering the aspects of community-level

development based on natural resources (such as water

management, land management to increase fodder, liveli-

hoods, agribusiness). The interventions financed by GEF

were an opportunity to add specific activities related to the

protection and management of ecosystem services (including

surface water protection, underground recharge, mainstream-

ing biodiversity in forest restoration and management, and

agrobiodiversity). Particular attention was given to equity and

vulnerable groups through self-help activities that generate

income and promote their empowerment.

The Uttarakhand SLEM project was designed to embody

multidisciplinary perspectives covering ecological, social,

economic and institutional priorities across multiple scales.

This was essential to ensure flexibility in applying the wide

range of interventions to treat the watersheds and restore

ecosystem functions based on demand-driven needs of the

communities. Interventions were defined through partici-

patory processes with communities, and drawing on local

Image: 0 Patrizia Cocca/GEF

Village motivators like Tulsi Devi have been key in encouraging women’s participation in the project design and decision-making in Uttarakhand

iving

and