Sustainable Management of Forest Ecosystem Services


Sustainable Management of Forest Ecosystem Services

Commissioned by Lead Executing Agency
German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC)
Lead Implementing Agency Duration
Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH 2021 - 2024

SITUATION

Forest ecosystems play a significant role in our survival, apart from being a timber source. Water is a critical ecosystem services for sustaining life, and is amongst a wide array of other services from forests. Forests are intrinsically linked to water as forested watersheds and provide 75 percent of our accessible freshwater resources (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, 2005).

 

Restoring degraded forest lands and maintaining forests to regulate stream flow will improve the accessibility of water resources. However, despite its importance, forest and agroforest management is not yet sufficiently oriented to integrate the forest ecosystem services (FES) approach.

Thus, the FES approach must be considered while making forest management decisions so that forests and agroforests are managed in sustainably and steered towards enhancing the flow of FES, especially water.

India is one of the countries most affected by climate change. According to a report by the state-owned think tank, National Institute for Transforming India (NITI Aayog), water supply from almost 50 percent  sources in the Indian Himalayas is decreasing; partly due to climate change. Those strongly affected include the marginalised, and the forest and agro-forest resource dependant people, particularly women in rural areas who assume the foremost responsibility of family care.

OBJECTIVE

The project is being implemented in four Indian states: Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. It aims to strengthen forest and agroforest management to integrate the Forest Ecosystems (FES) approach with emphasis on water availability. 

The orientation towards sustainability in the FES concept serves both directly to the sustainable availability and protection of natural resources. The project supports increased orientation of forest and agroforest management twoards FES, with a focus on water availability.

It also contributes to climate resilence since climate change is endangering the availability of ecosystem services.

 

APPROACH

  • Institutionalisation and up-scaling of the FES approach through coordinated action by actors at national, state, and local level
  • Implementation support through demonstration of the feasibility of cross-sectoral FES approaches
  • Knowledge management for sustainable management of forest ecosystems.
  • Improving the operational conditions for ecologically and economically sustainable value creation from agroforestry systems in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.

Sustainably secured FES is a central prerequisite for the economic development of rural and mountainous areas in India and decisive for small-scale farming, the production of forest products and the tourism sector. Sustainable forest management for water has a positive impact on the availability and quality of water, on slope and soil stability, and biodiversity. It also has a positive impact on ecosystem services such as air quality, temperature stability and cultural assets i.e. cultural and religious values of nature.

CONTRIBUTION TO AGENDA 2030

The HIMFES project directly contributes to the SDG 15 Life on Land, especially to subgoal 15.2 "Sustainable Forest Management" and 15.4 "Conservation of Mountain Ecosystems".

RESOURCES

All publications of this project can be accessed via the Resources section on this website

  • To learn about the project activities visit our News from the Projects and Media Coverage section and selecting the topic "Sustainable Management of Forest Ecosystem Services in the Western Himalayas".
  • Link to project page on GIZ website
  • Find out more about our project sites visit our Where We Work section.
  • Find our Partners and our Team under the Who We Are section

 


RECENT NEWS

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RECENT PUBLICATIONS

Hindi Factsheet for FES Project

GIZ

2023

English Factsheet for FES Project

GIZ

2023

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