Odisha is rapidly industrialising and de-forestation is increasing to make way for factories, roads and reservoirs.More than 12,840 hectares of forest area has been officially diverted for non-forest use in just 10 years since the year 2000. There are often legal disputes over forest ownership because many communities have been living within or nearby forests for years but do not have legal documentation to support this. Furthermore, many people living within forests are very poor, have a little or no education, and have limited livelihood options available to them in an increasingly market-driven world.

Various resolutions and policies of the government, such as the Forest Rights Act (FRA) 2006 and the Panchayat Extension to Schedule Areas Act (PESA) 1996,are designed to give autonomy, authority and the right to communities to own and manage forest resources. However, implementation is slow and uneven. Odisha is leading the way on FRA implementation, yet it is still to come out with a Rule to implement PESA; in the absence of that, governance of forest and other local resources continues to be under control of the government.

We believe that people dwelling within and nearby forests are best placed to manage this natural resource themselves - a belief that is supported by the knowledge, understanding and statistical evidence we have gained through around two decades of work in this field. By maintaining and augmenting the quality of forest resources is crucial for safeguarding and improving the livelihoods of forest-dependent communities, as well as stabilising a rapidly degrading environment.

RCDC has emerged as one of the pioneers in advocating for CFM, not only at national level,but also at international level. For instance, we played an important role in the establishment of an exclusive unit on community forestry at the International Union of Forest Research Organisation.

In our early days we made an attempt to bring together forest protecting villages and groups at the cluster, block and district levels to share their experiencesand challenges and to further evolve collective interventions for strengthening CFM. We adopted multifaceted approaches which emphasised appropriate land management and agriculture development in order to bring together communities to initiate forest protection and managment.

In recent years we have taken CFM to a different level by encouraging communities to develop productivity and income potential in the forests that they manage through Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) practices, and also to adopt a more holistic and integrated approach in view of biodiversity conservation and climate change readiness. We have also piloted a concept Bio-resource Governance (BRG) that has used CFM as a key intervention tool in its all-embracing arena of natural resource governance.

We work in several ways to improve CFM across Odisha and India Our grassroots CFM work aims to encourage communities to govern their forest democratically and sustainably, reducing chances of conflict and ensuring their adequate protection.

Our CFM advocacy activities aim to hold government to account, digest local, national and international forest policy and promote community forest causes across the media.

Indeed, today our CFM activities include : For more please go through the following links
Publication & films, Research & Advocacy, Collaborate, Case Studies

Due to poor education, people do not always have the right information about clean water and sanitation, nor do they know how to access relevant government schemes that are available to them. RCDC aims to increase understanding and effect behaviour change through educational activities in schools and the community. We understand that in order to bring long-term change education has a great impact, so we promote comprehensive schools’ water education programmes.

Our objective is to establish and scale up tried and tested models of community-based drinking water, sanitation and water resource management. When there have been successful examples of community management of water resources, this knowledge and learning should be promoted and disseminated – we make this happen. Communities are best placed to manage their own water resources and are able to advocate for ownership and management of water resources, so we support and encourage them to do this through our field activities.

Fluoride, a hazardous compound is being detected in large quantities around Odisha. We have tested water sources and installed de-fluoridation technology in villages that have needed it, and trained the community in its management. Furthermore we promote sustainable mechanisms of water harvesting and support community networks to encourage linkages, cooperation and knowledge sharing for integrated water harvesting.

We have been carrying out this programme to enhance access to clean water by addressing the problem of water contamination, lack of mechanisms for operation and maintenance, and also educating communities on water safety measures.

This programme has used school children as change agents. It has been carrying out advocacy initiatives on drinking water and sanitation through workshops, seminars, and mass media networking. School water education has been promoted through competitions, classroom teaching and demonstrations on water purification for safe drinking water. The programme has covered 115 villages, distributed over 48 GPs of 18 blocks, representing Balasore, Balangir and Nayagarh districts. While intensive focus has been on ensuring safe drinking water and hygienic environment, ensuring 'water rights' and 'water security' are the core objectives.

For more please go through the following links
Publication & films, Research & Advocacy, Collaborate, Case Studies

Industrial projects, disputes over legal status, farmers’ indebtedness, and outright illegal land grabbing are some of the key threats to vulnerable populations in Odisha.

But it remains underdeveloped and productivity levels (in relation to cultivable land) are among the lowest in India. There are problems with quality and erosion of soil, as well as increasing vulnerability to climatic changes.

Women’s land rights have often been subsumed as those of her husband’s. She is not counted as an owner in her own right and this makes her disproportionately vulnerable to losing her entitlement over land.

While working on forestry issues in Balangir district, we realized that there existed an intimate correlation between the depletion of forest resources and recurring drought in that district. Our research showed that the decline of traditional land and water management practices was largely responsible for the recurring droughts that in turn resulted in poor people resorting to forest felling as a survival measure.

We made an attempt to document the traditional practices in land and water management in that district and worked with several community institutions in that district to help them manage their land and water in the traditional way. Steps were taken to revive the traditional water bodies and institute efforts for their management, such as :

- mobilising communities (as well as the District Administration and PRIs) to focus on treatment of farmers’ land (especially upland)
- developing appropriate water management, land management and cropping patterns through participatory and consultative processes
This led to the revival of traditional mechanisms such as upland bunding, cultivation of minor crops (such as millet), use of traditional, drought–resistant varieties of seeds, mixed farming and less water-intensive crops.

These small changes brought about a big impact by increasing the viability of agriculture as the main source of livelihoods. These measures have now spread to different parts of Balangir and Nabarangapur districts. Now in Nabarangapur, the work on land and water management has evolved to include more focus on land alienation and tenurial insecurity.

To find out more about our work on Sustainable Agriculture and Livelihoods, click here .