Programme Update

The year 2006 saw many new, interesting and challenging developments in the WWF-India conservation programme. While we continued to consolidate our existing landscape conservation initiatives in Assam, the Nilgiris, the Terai, Sikkim, the Satpudas, the Sunderbans and in Western Arunachal, we also initiated a new landscape conservation programme in the Southern Western Ghats including the setting up of a programme office in Coimbatore.
Our programme in the Eastern Himalayas continues to be one of the cornerstones of WWF-India's conservation strategy, bringing together work on species, forests, freshwater, climate change, toxics, livelihoods, GIS and education. This is also a major focus of the WWF network's support to this region and, along with WWF Nepal and WWF Bhutan, we have initiated the development of a Programme Implementation Agreement (PIA) for the Eastern Himalayas. The PIA will lead to enhanced coordination between the three countries and the donors and to more effective implementation as well as impact assessment of the overall Eastern Himalayas Conservation Programme. As a part of the development of the PIA, detailed long term strategic plans were developed for each of the five landscapes in this region that WWF-India is focusing on.

WWF-India's conservation programme has also evolved over the course of this year to embrace the larger environmental challenges that are emerging both nationally and globally. These include an enhanced focus on “footprint” work, on engaging with the private sector to influence the behaviour of industry towards the environment and on exploring market-based economic instruments as conservation incentives as well as emerging programmes linking climate change and freshwater ecosystems.


WWF-India is one of the few conservation organisations in India that is examining the feasibility of Payments for Environmental Services using specific case studies and stakeholder consultations. We are also in the forefront of attempts to understand and quantify the impacts of India's forest footprint on tropical forests in Southeast Asia. WWF-India's “thirsty crops” programme which addresses the linkages between freshwater and agriculture is now entering a crucial implementation phase. A new regional programme that focuses around research on the impacts of climate change on glaciers and river basins in order to develop appropriate mitigation and adaptation measures has just been initiated.

The current scope of the WWF-India conservation programme is broader than ever before, without losing its primary focus on ensuring that our forests, wildlife and ecosystems are protected and managed for posterity.