RBS FI mission is to build resilience of India’s ecologically critical landscapes and the vulnerable communities which reside within these. With this view, RBS FI has been supporting its partner CSO – FES since 2010 in the KPC landscape.

Overtime, RBS FI recognized that KPC is facing threats that hamper its functionality as a wildlife corridor, carbon sink, watershed, and livelihood source. These threats are multi-dimensional and to address these there is a need to get relevant stakeholders together and working towards a common goal. (esp. in absense of a single leading legal framework)

Multiiple stakeholders with varying interests and orientations exist and influence a landscape, including the community that resides within. It is thus critical to create a balance within these stakeholders. Getting stakeholders together requires a driving force - it can be an individual/ group /organisation/a set of organisations - they can be a public/private or a civil society.

RBS FI took a lead role in getting all the stakeholders together, including Forest Department, CSOs and other government agencies. Contributed self funds of USD 2.12 million and leveraged another USD 2.56 from UN Climate Adaptation Fund. RBS FI continues to contribute with time and resources towards the well being of KPC

 The project is being implemented by four CSOs.

FES 

Core expertise/ issues addressed: Commons governance

Institutional Development; Eco Restoration; Invasive species management

7,500 families in 87 villages in Mandla and Balaghat Districts

www.fes.org.in/

PRADAN

Core expertise/ issues addressed: Gender issues; Women self-help groups; Women centric livelihoods; Small enterprises – poultry, goat rearing.

10,000 families in 136 villages in Balaghat District.

www.pradan.net/

WOTR 

Core expertise/ issues addressed: Watershed treatment; Agricultural development; Agro advisories using local weather stations; disaster risk reduction, Knowledge Management

4,000 families in 132 villages in Seoni District.

www.wotr.org/

BAIF

Core expertise/ issues addressed:- Livestock management; Selective breed improvement; Feed and disease management; Dairy value chains

BAIF has livestock expertize, working in all three districts and supporting all 3 partner CSOs on livestock management. 

www.baif.org.in/

The CSO partners work in tandem. They undertake regular cross-learning & best practices sharing to ensure that the threats to KPC are addressed holistically. The CSOs form an important building block of the larger "working together" concept.

The project includes a multi layered - governing and implementing framework. The Project Steering Committee forms the highest level of this framework. The PSC is chaired by the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife) Madhya Pradesh Forest Department, and co- chaired by the Head, RBS FI. Other members of the PSC include:

Representatives from the Indian Forest Services; ( the Field Director of Kanha Tiger Reserve, the Field Director of Pench Tiger Reserve, and the Chief Conservator of Forests of the Mandla, Balaghat and Seoni Districts);

A representative of the National Bank of Agriculture and Rural Development, Government of India;

Concerned government agencies from the State Govt. of Madhya Pradesh comprising the Farmer welfare and Agriculture Department, the New and Renewable Energy Department and the Animal Husbandry Department;

The Regional General Manager of the Forest Development Corporation;

The Chief Functionary/ representatives of Implementing CSO partners as well as the Civil Society Organisations (including the ones implementing the project)

The PSC meets every 6 months. It provides supervision for the implementation of the project activities. It facilitates collaboration among its diverse membership for intensifying project impacts. It resolves any challenges.

Under an ecosystem approach, efforts seek to improve the livelihoods and resilience of ecosystems in order to reduce the vulnerability of local communities to the challenges of erratic rains, changing pf seasons, storms and consequent loss of crops. The EbA measures promoted are:

• Restoration of riverbank forests to prevent river bank erosion during extreme storms and flash floods. This is promoted with annual Binational Reforestation Days and guided by a Restoration Opportunities study in river banks. 
• Agrodiversification was undertaken with local farmers to increase the number and varieties of crop species, fruit and wood trees in their plots, while combining with animals. This aim to improve the resilience of the system against erratic rainfall and changing seasonal patterns. The model is locally named as "integral farms".
• Learning and exchange through a network of resilient farmers with knowledge on EbA.
• Organization of agrobiodiversity fairs for the promotion and rescue of endemic seeds.

The model used a "learning by doing" approach and the adoption of iterative decisions that identify short-term strategies in light of long-term uncertainties. Learning and evaluation allows new information to be considered and inform policies at different levels. 

The Binational Commission for the Sixaola River Basin (CBCRS) needed to diversify participation in the basin’s governance. Although it brought together actors from different sectors and levels of government (national and municipal), some actors were still missing (such as the Municipality of Bocas del Toro, Panama, which joined in 2016). The CBCRS management was not yet consolidated, because of its complex composition and that it had neither a binational territorial planning tool with which to articulate efforts on both sides of the border, nor its own budget. Through an extensive participatory process, the CBCRS drafted a Strategic Plan for Transboundary Territorial Development (2017-2021) and expanded its project portfolio. Encouraging participation in this process, and in bi-national activities, has created conditions for civil society and municipalities to take an active role in the implementation of the plan and adaptation actions. Providing a space particularly for women, youth and indigenous people, usually marginalized of decision making. CBCRS plan also urged greater equality in the access to and use of natural resources on which local communities depend, thus favouring those groups most vulnerable to climate change and creating a sense of ownership.

The Binational Commission of the Sixaola River Basin (CBCRS) functioned as a multidimensional (multisectoral and multilevel) governance platform for the basin. The CBCRS brings together representatives from different levels of government and sectors (including indigenous peoples and the local private sector of both countries) but needed to attain more effective vertical and horizontal integration. The preparation of the Strategic Plan for Transboundary Territorial Development (2017-2021) had the effect of fostering inter-institutional and inter-sectoral coordination and cooperation, forging dialogues on national frameworks and local needs, and promoting EbA.

At the local level Eba measures such as agricultural diversification with integral farms and reforestation actions were implemented. The aim was beyond individual impacts, to scale up lessons to the basin scale, such as: 

• the CBCRS´s project portfolio
• the coordination of binational activities, such as Agrobiodiversity Fairs.
• the Biological Corridor Association of producers, which facilitated the  exchange of experiences and peer-to-peer contacts (producers, municipalities)

To be effective, governance for adaptation must be multidimensional and participatory, which entails involving farmers, municipalities, ministries and other public institutions in the area, community leaders, public health units and educators, in water management and adaptation processes. In the Sumpul River, this was achieved particularly through "action learning" processes and the revitalization of the Binational Community Committee of the Sub-basin. The work and local legitimacy of the Binational Committee was enriched by the inclusion of community bodies that for years were disjointed and lacked participation, such as the Water Committees, which are important entities in each community. New management instruments were also generated, leadership and the active participation of youth and women was promoted within the Binational Committee, and training and exchange of experiences were carried out for collective learning. Other contributions to governance came from producers who implemented EbA measures on their farms (and are now spokespersons for the benefits derived from such measures) and from municipalities (La Palma and San Ignacio) that integrated the EbA approach into their policies through the formulation of Local Adaptation Plans.

For effective implementation, It requires highly skilled and experienced facilitator to work with various stakeholders like pupils, teachers and community members.

This is an inclusive and participatory process that school communities use to develop whole school land design and food forest to meet their needs.

It involves working with all school community/Stakeholders( pupils, teachers, parents, surrounding and local leaders}

This block addresses the work of revising the management plan so that it integrates aspects related to climate change resilience.

It was agreed during the National Validation Workshop held in December 2017 in Lusaka between the Department of National Parks and Wildlife and the Lake Tanganyika Development Programme (the funder of the GMP review) and other key stakeholders that the Nsumbu GMP will be reviewed in 2018 to include climate change aspects by pulling together information from the approved climate change strategy. Further it was agreed that the Park Climate Change Strategy will be annexed to the revised GMP.

As of March 2019, the review of the GMP is ongoing and expected to be completed towards the end of this year.