This document provides an overview of the Foundation for Ecological Security (FES). It discusses FES's mission of ecological restoration and conservation through coordinated human and governance efforts. It outlines FES's presence in six eco-regions across India, working with over 5,000 village institutions and impacting millions of acres of land and people. It also discusses FES's focus on biophysical and social infrastructure, common resources, and policy advocacy. The document then provides examples of ecological improvements and livelihood impacts from FES projects. It discusses studies conducted by FES to monitor impacts and inform actions. Finally, it outlines the Community Resource Centers established by FES and plans to expand these for monitoring changes in common resources.

2. Outline
 About FES
–Briefly on our work and what it leads to
 Studies and CRC FES

3. Our Mission
We work towards ecological restoration and conservation of land and
water resources and establish processes of coordinated human effort and
governance to achieve this goal.

4. Our Presence
We are
 in six eco-regions of the
country
 with 5323 village
institutions
 reaching over 2.89 million
people
 on 1.18 million acres of
forest and common lands,
benefitting another 2.5
million acres of farm
lands.
 On half a million acres
under watershed
development programmes
 in 28 districts of eight
states
 with 32 field teams, 4
regional offices
 more than 250 staff
members

5. Cornerstones
Intertwining principles of nature
conservation and local self governance,
we work on systemic drivers that can
bring about a multiplier change:
•The biophysical rural
infrastructure - to improve the
ecological health and the social
and economic well being
•The social infrastructure –
Community institutions, the
positive expression of which tilts
governance towards more equable
arrangements
•Commons, both the resource
systems and property regimes, as
they are the only spaces left for the
poor to subsist on, and negotiate
the expression of their existence on
equal terms.

6. FES Strategic Ecosystem
Studies
&
Karyashala
Geo-informatics
Field Operations
&
Collaborations
Policy
Advocacy

7. Glimpses into impacts

8. Barundani, Rajasthan
2006
2002
2012

9. Charangam, Gujarat
1987
2003
2012

12. Valuation of the developed resource
Conventional Inflow A/c.
15
Annually
5
Cumulative
Rs. in Lakhs
10
2007-08
2006-07
2005-06
2004-05
2003-04
2002-03
2001-02
2000-01
1999-00
1998-99
1997-98
1996-97
1995-96
1994-95
60
40
Cumulative
Rs. in Lakhs
1993-94
1994-95
1995-96
1996-97
1997-98
1998-99
1999-00
2000-01
2001-02
2002-03
2003-04
2004-05
2005-06
2006-07
2007-08
Value/ha.=4.5 lakh
1991-92
1992-93
0
1993-94
1991-92
Annually
80
Value/ha.=0.55 lakh
1992-93
0
Inflow A/c. includes conventional, economic and environmental benefits
120
100
20

13. Impacts…
•
• Improved vegetation improving
water flows
•
•
Comparision of Fodder availability from Regenerated
and Other Commons
Improved Biomass Availability
Secure availability of water
Increase in agricultural double crop
area by 65-94% with improved
availability of water
•
Reduction in the risks of crop failure
in low rainfall years
•
Livestock holding in poor
households increased by 15%
•
Improved milk production
Improved resilience of rural
livelihoods
4
3.5
3.4
3
2.5
2
1.5
1
1
0.5
0
Regenerated Commons
Other Commons

14. Studies and IFRI

15. 
At FES we have been monitoring ecological, social and economic
changes over time in order to upgrade the effectiveness of our
work at the village and landscape-level.

The studies are designed to engage local communities in search for
appropriate solutions and build on their knowledge base for
informed community level actions for natural resource
management

Practice-Research and Policy Advocacy Continuum

16. Key Thematic Areas
The broad range of thematic areas covered includes:
• Analysing human and nature interactions in diverse social-economic-ecological
settings using the socio-ecological systems framework;
• Understanding and analysing institutional arrangements for local governance
of natural resources;
• Building economic evidence of material resources in general and its significance
for different production systems, in particular;
• Monitoring ecological health including biomass, water and energy audits to
assist communities in their conservation efforts, and capturing longitudinal
changes with biophysical and institutional interventions;
• Energy-Poverty Dynamics

17. Key Thematic Areas
• Areas of critical ecological importance (sanctuaries, wildlife habitats) to
understand ecological processes and aid evolution of conservation plans;
• Spatial and non-spatial analysis of socio-economic-ecological databases
to capture longitudinal changes in key variables over time with the aim to
prepare atlases on development trends;
• Assessing impacts of climate change on various natural and production
systems as well as understanding institutional processes of adapting to
vulnerabilities induced by vagaries of nature.
• Actionable social-economic and ecological agenda

18. CRC FES
• CRC in 2012
• 10 sites in Rajasthan and
Odisha ( if we include that
of SHODH around 30
sites)
• Internal capacity building
• Plans to undertake it
across different
ecosystems and integrate
it with ecological
monitoring sites and
biophysical assessments (
by 2013 in North East, MP
and AP)

19. CRC FES
• Align it with FRA and
other policy and
programme initiatives to
monitor changes
• Internally:
• Adaptation of protocols
to include other
commons
• Revision of formats in
FES institutional source
book and integration
• Byelaws ( and
integrating other
methods to feed to IFRI
• Ecological monitoring
framework and IFRI
protocols

20. Research Questions
1.
How do communities in different legal, environmental and political and
economic contexts engage to address collective action problems for
governance of common pool land resources?
2. What have been the social, economic and ecological outcomes of
decentralized governance of CPLRs?

21. THANK YOU