Why are sustainable practices targeted for watershed regions?

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Why are sustainable practices targeted for watershed regions?

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The Importance of Watershed Projects in India: Water Conservation Why are sustainable practices targeted for watershed regions? Content source: Barua and Hubacek ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Why are sustainable practices targeted for watershed regions?

1
The Importance of Watershed Projects in India
Water Conservation

Why are sustainable practices targeted for
watershed regions?

2
The Importance of Watershed Projects

Is water a limiting factor for economic
development in India?
What is the relationship between water
availability and agriculture?
How do ICRISAT and other organizations propose to
use watershed projects as a way to solve these
issues?

3
Environmental Challenges Water Quantity

Quantity
The water resources of India considering both
ground and surface water as one system is about
1869 km³
However- due to topography and uneven
distribution of water resource over space and
time only about 1122 km³ is available for use
Demand for water exceeds supply in India by as
much as 30 (2003)

Content source Barua et. al., International
Journal of Ecological Economics and Statistics,
2008
4
Environmental Challenges Water Quantity

Agriculture, industry, and domestic uses are
competing for the limited supply
Agriculture sectors contribute 26 to the
national GDP and dominate water use with 84 of
total water consumption
Industrial production contributes 24 to GDP and
demands 12 of total water consumption
The remaining 4 is left for the domestic sector

Content source Barua et. al., International
Journal of Ecological Economics and Statistics,
2008
5
Environmental Challenges Water Quantity

Water resources are being overexploited by the
rapid growth of the population
This has reduces the per capita availability of
water

Content source Barua et. al., International
Journal of Ecological Economics and Statistics,
2008
6
Environmental Challenges Water Quantity

The water availability issue is amplified by the
monsoon season
Levels of precipitation vary from 100mm/year in
the western parts of Rajasthan to over
9,000mm/year in the northeastern state of
Meghalaya
Some regions are subject to severe droughts and
others are frequently flooded

Dennis, Operation Blessing International
Block, Worldwatch Institute
Content source Barua et. al., International
Journal of Ecological Economics and Statistics,
2008
7
Water and Agriculture

Irrigation was emphasized during the Green
Revolution, and now accounts for over 80 of
Indias water consumption
Ground water is diminishing, and the productivity
gains in cereal production achieved in certain
areas during the Green Revolution are now showing
signs of decline or stagnation

Reema, The Langarhall
Content source Shiferaw, et. al., ICRISAT
Working Paper Series no. 17
8
Water and Agriculture

Projections indicate declining trends in
irrigation investments and growth rates for areas
under irrigated agriculture
Reasons high costs of new water development,
inter-sectoral competition for water,
environmental degradation
Growth opportunities in more favorable zones are
exhausted, and the need to improve the
productivity of less-favored regions is
increasingly important

Content source Shiferaw, et. al., ICRISAT
Working Paper Series no. 17
9
Importance of Watershed Projects

Watershed development as a means to increase
groundwater availability
Proposed as a viable strategy for improving
productivity in drought-prone and water-scarce
rainfed areas
Studies have been conducted by government
organizations, as well as NGOs (for example,
ICRISAT)

Content source Shiferaw, et. al., ICRISAT
Working Paper Series no. 17
10
Importance of Watershed Projects

Lets look at a case study of watershed programs
in the villages of Andhara Pradesh

11
Importance of Watershed Projects

Methods of retaining groundwater/reducing runoff
water by increasing the percolation of rainwater
to recharge groundwater
Check dams
Percolation tanks
Ponds
Water-harvesting structures
Soil-conservation (harvesting)
techniques

Content source Shiferaw, et. al., ICRISAT
Working Paper Series no. 17
12
Importance of Watershed Projects

The depth of groundwater in wells is the most
widely used parameter for estimating the level
and ability of groundwater

Although groundwater levels continue to
diminish, treated watersheds show higher
groundwater levels than untreated watersheds
Content source Shiferaw, et. al., ICRISAT
Working Paper Series no. 17
13
Importance of Watershed Projects

Watershed development by ICRISAT and other
organizations help to conserve and manage
resources, while economically boosting
communities
These programs are especially important in
semi-arid regions, where crops are rainfed

14
Common Property Resources

Why are common property resources important in
rural India?
What are some ways to manage common property
resources? Do they work?
How do common property resources tie into
watershed management?

15
Common Property Resources

Many people in rural India depend directly on
Common Property Resources (CPRs) for their
livelihood and welfare
These resources can be managed under
state/common/ private property regimes
Resources are often managed at the interface of
different property regimes

Content source Marothia, Dinesh K. Common
Property Resources Managing the Unmanaged,
Watershed Management Challenges Improving
Productivity, Resources and Livelihoods, Ed.
Wani, et. al. International Water Management
Institute, Indian Council of Agricultural
Research, and ICRISAT. Malhotra Publishing
House, New Delhi, 2005 157-172.
16
Common Property Resources

In India, nearly 40 of rural poor largely
depend on CPRs
CPRs contribute about 12 of income to poor rural
households
Much of the 143 million ha of net sown area in
India becomes a CPR after the harvest of a crop
until the next crop is sown-- Local people have
rights to collect specified forest product from
them

CPRs of land, water, forest, fisheries, wildlife
and agriculture constitute an important component
of community assets in India and significantly
contribute towards the peoples
livelihoodhowever, CPRs are declining in area
and physical productivity

Factors responsible for decline of CPRs
demographic changes
fragmented land holdings
land holdings in the vicinity of forests
small farm size
acquisition of common lands by developmental
agencies
increased pressure of outsiders on common lands
disintegration of social and institutional
arrangements evolved and enforced by rural
communities to manage CPRs

DryWell, IWMI Drought Information Center,
lthttp//www.iwmi.cgiar.org/drw/info/gallery.aspgt
Aug. 18, 2009
Content source Marothia, Dinesh K. Common
Property Resources Managing the Unmanaged,
Watershed Management Challenges Improving
Productivity, Resources and Livelihoods, Ed.
Wani, et. al. International Water Management
Institute, Indian Council of Agricultural
Research, and ICRISAT. Malhotra Publishing
House, New Delhi, 2005 157-172.
19
Common Property Resources

Jodha (2002) Erosion/collapse of social
capital leads to decline of CPRs
Local social groups design informal institutional
arrangement for managing CPRs collectively
Over time, these lose effectiveness and voluntary
participation in resource management declines

Due to introduction of elected village councils
and de-recognition of traditional social
arrangements and customs, the community loses
collective stake and control over CPRs
Culture of group action was replaced by
individualistic tendencies
Development programs undertaken by the government
to restore/conserve CPRs largely focused on
financial and technical support without
recognition of local perceptions and traditional
knowledge

Resources managed under common property rights
are often degraded due to weak property
rights/inadequate institutional
arrangements/breakdown of the authority system
Solutions privatization or state control?
In recent years, local communities/resource user
groups and the state or local government shared
the responsibility of managing CPRs
Combined skills of local resource
users/committees and resources available with the
states, research organizations, and NGOs

Encroachment is often an issue
Key element of common property rights
enforcement
Grazing areas may become degraded due to high
costs of establishing/enforcing individual or
group rights
Some theft of resources/encroachment may be
tolerated due to high costs of enforcement
relative to the benefits
Gradual encroachment results in the gradual
transfer of property rights from the community to
private individuals

Content source Robinson, Elizabeth J. Z.
Indias Disappearing Common Lands Fuzzy
Boundaries, Encroachment, and Evolving Property
Rights. Land Economics, Board of Regents of the
University of Wisconsin System. Aug. 2008, 84
(3) 409-422.
23
Common Property Resources

Also common Land regularizationthe ex post
granting of permanent and transferable property
rights to the encroacher (similar to squatters
rights)
In some states, there was a cut-off date to allow
for the regularization of certain types of
encroachment only if it occurred before the date
If authorities cant prove whether the
encroachment occurred before or after the cut-off
date

Most encroachment is done by farmers who have
land adjacent to commons
They slowly move farm boundaries onto common
properties
To evict a farmer through formal channels, the
authorities must first prove that the boundary
has been moved, which requires the land to be
surveyed and compared with the records of the
village accountant, which in turn may not exist
or may not be sufficiently detailed. Pressing
for a conviction is a time-consuming processa
court case will often take over ten years,
allowing ample time for the farmer to assimilate
the encroached land, and even for the land laws
to change in his favor. (Robinson, 2008)
Because of this, village-imposed punishments are
sometimes used

Institutional Mechanism to Manage CPRs
Various structures have been used over the past
three decades
Coordination of CPR management plan incorporating
concepts of equity and sustainability with plans
of departments engaged in agriculture/rural
development at national, state and field planning
levels (Gupta, 1995 Agarwal and Narin, 2002)

Community Participation in CPR Management
Traditional rural Indian communities had
integrated nature into culture
Natural resources were/are associated with
community customs
Resources were shared among villagers
Village communities maintained sacred groves
where harvest of timber/forest products was
banned or restricted
Helped preserve biological diversity

Content source Sawhney, Aparna. Community
Participation in Natural Resource Management,
The New Face of Environmental Management in
India. Ashgate Publishing Co., Aldershot 2004.
pp. 114-115.
27
Common Property Resources

Social/institutional changes have affected the
management of CPRs
Increase in population pressure, poverty,
integration with the market, change in farming
practices (Green Revolution)
Failure of traditional and centralized systems of
natural resource regulation prompted the Indian
Government to promote community-based government
management of ecological resources
Local population partners with the government,
NGOs, or international agencies (or a combination
of all three)
Example International Crop Research Institute
for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) conducts
research on watershed management systems

In several states, the watershed management
approach was adopted in villages on degraded
common lands
For example, ICRISAT constructs experimental
watershed structures and observes changes in the
livelihoods of Indias rural poor
Objectives optimize land use to conserve
soil/water resources through controlling erosion,
manage land and other biological resources to
control land degradation, recycle runoff water,
improve economic conditions of village
communities, increase agricultural productivity
Targeted to especially help small and marginal
farmers in drylands
Productivity is low
Agricultural income is often supplemented by
employment outside of farming

Watershed management programs were first launched
in the mid 1980s under the National Watershed
Development Program for Rainfed Agriculture
1994 Watershed Guidelines emphasized the
participation of women and marginal groups
A 2002 review of 36 watershed projects across
five Indian states identified characteristics
essential for mainstreaming watershed management
across the country
Choosing a village rather than a watershed that
spans several villages as the basis for operation
Consensus-based decision-making that involves
locals rather than centralized decision-making
Sharing costs with farmers to increase their
stake in the project (as well as reducing overall
project costs)