Decentralization to the Centre Stage in Climate Governance

The first draft of the Green India Mission under National Action Plan for Climate Change was released on 24th May, 2010 by the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF). Public consultations on this draft were held in 7 cities across the country starting with Guwahati on 11th June ending on 5th July in Mysore.
The main objectives of the mission are ⁱ:

• Doubling the area to be taken up for afforestation /eco-restoration in India in the next 10 years, taking the total area to be afforested or eco-restored to 20 million ha.
• Increasing the GHG removals by India’s forests to 6.35% of India’s annual total GHG emissions by the year 2020 (an increase of 1.5% over what it would be in the absence of the Mission). This would require an increase in above and below ground biomass in 10 million ha of forests/ecosystems, resulting in increased carbon sequestration of 43 million tons CO2-equivalent annually.
• Enhancing the resilience of forests/ecosystems being treated under the Mission – enhance infiltration, groundwater recharge, stream and spring flows, biodiversity value, provisioning of services (fuel wood, fodder, timber, NTFPs, etc.) to help local communities adapt to climatic variability.

In the third public consultation held at Pune on 19th June, 2010 the MoEF minister Mr Jairam Ramesh said “We seek to bring about a change in the relationship between the people and the forest department. We will ensure transparency and a system of social audits”ⁱⁱ and true to his words some changes to this effect can be seen in the final draft of Green India Mission submitted to the Prime Minister’s Council on Climate Change on 11th October 2010.
The major points that repetitively came up in these public consultations were that only a half hearted attempt had been made to involve the people and civil society in the mission’s strategies and the need for a greater devolution of power to the institutions of local governance like Gram Sabhas.

Power of public consultations
At long last we can see that the ministry has reflected on the outcome of these public consultations at right earnest. So the biggest change from the first to the final draft is the inclusion of “Strengthening Institutions for Decentralized Forest Governance” as one of the mission strategy ⁱⁱⁱ.

The newest draft has mooted the idea of a village-level institution dealing with protection and management of forests to be set up by the Gram Sabha to act as a platform of convergence of resources and integrated planning at the village level. Also the final draft looks to the non-government organizations to take a lead along with government organizations to engage a diversity of institutions for larger landscape-level governance/management and make use of the learning gained from past successes and failures in this process.

Power to the People
Also one of the major criticisms of the first draft in the media was with regards to continued role/interference of the state bureaucracy in the form of institutions like FDA. For example in an article in the July issue of frontline the author argues that primacy of the gram sabha has not been taken this to its logical conclusion^iv and it would have made a real difference to decentralized governance if the local governance bodies like Gram Sabhas had been given more autonomy and power to plan and implement activities without the intervention of state governments’ representatives like the FDAs (Forest Development Agencies).

This mission now seems is being shaped to bring about long overdue reforms in many of the bureaucratic institutions of the state forest departments like FDAs. Greater representation to the elected representatives of Zila Parishad in FDAs has been proposed to ensure program convergence with Panchayati Raj institutions. A major revamping of JFMCs and FDAs is on the cards.

Looking at the positive record of JFMCs, Van Panchayats and SHG federations in the past at forest protection, conservation and livelihood activities a greater role for these have been envisaged in the final draft. As a result of this under the head of support activities the allotted budget for Livelihood improvement activities has taken a jump from 5% to 17% of the total mission target costs, to stand at rupees 5780 crores ^v. The pie charts depict this change. It further enunciates that the Mission will examine provisions of the Indian Forest Act to provide power of a forest officer to the JFM committee.

The apathy surrounding public hearings conducted during environmental clearance of industrial projects in our country is an open secret. Most often than not, they are mere exercises in public relations. Seen in this light and context, what the latest round of public consultations have achieved post the release of version 1.0 of mission document on National Mission for a Green India is momentous. Perhaps it would not be hyperbolic to say that it signifies the maturing of India as a democracy.

ⁱNational Mission For A Green India, Draft submitted to Prime Minister’s Council on Climate Change
ⁱⁱ Green India Mission is not business as usual, says Jairam, http://www.hindu.com/2010/06/20/stories/2010062062471700.htm
ⁱⁱⁱMission Strategy, National Mission For A Green India, Draft submitted to Prime Minister’s Council on Climate Change
^ivGreen goals, Frontline, Volume 27 - Issue 15, Jul. 17-30, 2010, http://www.flonnet.com/fl2715/stories/20100730271509000.htm
^vAnnex 1, TENTATIVE MISSION COSTS, National Mission for A Green India, Draft submitted to Prime Minister’s Council on Climate Change and Annex 1, TENTATIVE MISSION COSTS, National Mission for A Green India, DRAFT MISSION DOCUMENT, VERSION 1.0, 24TH MAY, 2010

Spanish Flamenco comes to a close

This is an ode to the Spanish lessons I was taking for the past couple of months. It is difficult to translate in English what it meant to learn Spanish!!! It is exhilarating to just sit in a class of 25 students with no baggage of past knowledge and wisdom just like a kindergarten kid to imbibe elementary nuances of a language.

Spanish is a true "romance language" and I realised that speaking Spanish with the right intonation, phonetics and orthoepy is like music to my untrained, non-native ears!!! Each class brought with it the excitement of learning new vocabulary, new rules of grammar, discovery of more and more common roots between English and Spanish words (Latin being the mother language of both). I must also confess all was not hunky dory during these months of literary adventure. Ensconced within those hours of joyous discoveries and learning were the moments of frustration on coming across the dreaded "exceptions to rules". At times there seemed to be more exceptions to rules than those confirming to these rules. For instance it nonplussed us that day is masculine (el dia) but night is feminine (la noche). Hence it is "buenos dias" and "buenas noches" for good morning and good night respectively.

On the upside Spanish is a very phonetic language, you read and pronounce what you write unlike English. Also once you get the grammatical agreement between masculine and feminine and singular and plural in place more than half the battle is won. But it is easier said than done is a different story altogether! Also the endless list of verbs to be mastered (of course, with the ubiquitous "exceptions") is no mean challenge. Each day of Spanish lessons for me has been an exercise in stimulating the tired and wearied grey cells and bringing them out of the rut of mundaneness. Even this task of writing about the entire experience has filled me with an enthusiasm and energy that is prodigious to say the least. I am just thankful for having gotten a chance to acquaint myself with this wonderful language.

Gracias a la vida!

B2B

B2B here has no connections whatsoever to the plebeian meaning of business-to-business transactions in the marketing sense of the term. It is a more personalized term here, referring to the newest happening thing of my life – “Back to B-school” (albeit for a shorter stint than I would have liked, I admit).

Since the time I started working I had been sorely missing the feel of being a student. The longing and wistfulness was addressed to some extent by the weekend Spanish classes. Not a believer of half-measures, I plunged head on at the first given opportunity to get back to a real classroom.

Now the subject I am learning might come as a surprise to many, even I surprised myself by deciding to study it. Econometrics was very much an elective which I could have opted for while pursuing my MBA in environmental management. But I decided not to opt for it owing to a multitude of factors at that time. Its utility in quantitative research can’t be denied. The current situation is overwhelmingly conducive to study this subject. I would say a lot of things happened which I can only term as sheer coincidences which goaded me to begin my journey in this applied field.

I learnt about the usefulness and practical value of this bailiwick while attending a practitioner’s conference on evaluation of developmental programs. There I learnt that the power of making time series estimations is not one to be underestimated (pun intended). Even as I was listening to erudite professors holding forth on econometric techniques in the development sector, a mail popped in my inbox announcing this opportunity to join the IFMR B-school to study econometrics for 25 hours flat! Hurrah!!! Now I would be able to fully appreciate the finer nuances of this science by intelligibly following the meat of all the technical discussions.

Hopefully Bikram, soon we will be on the same page when discussions veer towards propensity score matching (PSM), difference in difference etc. So here I am crossing my fingers to take my newest endeavour to its logical conclusion!

BP rising

The oil spill from a rig off the Mexican Gulf coast has been hogging the headlines for quite some time now. It is now being termed the biggest industrial disaster in the history of the United States, leaving the Exxon valdez incident looking like a minor fortuity. Let’s just look at the numbers to get a sense of the magnitude of the accident – Exxon Valdez spilled 40.9 million gallons of oil, and as per the estimation on 15th June, 2010 the BP oil spill has spewed 543 million litres of oil and the figures are rising by the day. What adds to the acuteness of the problem here is the nature of the accident itself. Exxon Valdez oil spill was confined to the surface of water whereas Deepwater Horizon is releasing oil 5,000 feet below the ocean’s surface.

It is all about business

While I worried and fretted about the environmental consequences of this spill on the marine biodiversity, a banker friend added his own 2 cents to the discussion. His primary concern was the impact of the spill on the crude oil markets in future and how the loss of so many gallons of oil will ever be compensated. Already the exercise of finger pointing has commenced with Anadarko Petroleum Corp. (a partner of BP and owner of a quarter of the Deepwater Horizon rig) dragging its feet from any liabilities and putting the blame squarely on the doorsteps of BP.
Some ingenious solutions have also been put forth. A scientist of Indian origin, Seshadri Ramkumar has created a special form of cotton fabric that can clean up crude oil up to 40 times its weight and Texas University suggests that this would be the best bet to clean up the mess. Kevin Costner the Hollywood star on the other hand proposes to put his 32 machines to work, which can separate crude oil from water at the rate of 200 gallons per minute. But this number pales in comparison to the amount of water that is to be cleansed of oil - 6.43 quadrillion gallons of water!!! Thus it would take approximately 60 million years if we solely depended on Costner’s machines.

British Petroleum or Beyond Petroleum?

What is in the name you may ask? Everything I say. The continued anti-British rhetoric by the U.S administration led by the supreme commander Obama himself has ruffled the feathers of the Britons. The whole situation is getting political overtones – with Obama giving his battle plans for the spill, attacking Britain tacitly owing to its British roots. But the oil giant is anything but British, it is a true blue MNC and has even changed its name to Beyond Petroleum long back. But I feel the reaction of the US is the typical “Uncle Sam behavior”. There is a sense of déjà vu as we see US plans to handle the situation and a parallel can be drawn to the issue of world terrorism. As long as the problem happens in the third world no one bothers and the moment the trouble crops up in your own backyard you shake the world. This irony is particularly stark as the oil spill comes at the backdrop of the delivery of sentence in the Bhopal gas disaster in which a callous US company is the main perpetrator of the tragedy.

I can’t stop myself from drawing vicarious pleasure to see the US fumbling to set its own house in order in the aftermath of a tragic chemical disaster that is bound to affect the biodiversity and livelihoods in the region for the decades to come.

**The MAST KALANDAR Effect **

When you wantsomething, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it- Paulo Coelho

"Take your akka-anna for chawal channa” went the tagline and for once the fare inside lived up to the tagline outside. You may wonder what this mast kalandar effect is all about. I will wax eloquent about all of it shortly. I am still reveling in the after effect of eating out at MAST KALANDAR – a north Indian eat out joint promising authentic desi combos. All the details of this place in greater granularity a little later.

I want to give the exact sequence of events that led up to my best gourmet experience in Chennai thus far. In retrospect, I would like to say that there was a positive aura when I set out from home yesterday. Let me list out all the “positive and good” things that happened en route-

• I was taking a walk after a long time (Yes, finally I can come out of the guilt trip)
• I was walking to the beach (yippee!)
• On the way to the beach bought a book for a good bargain (a real good omen, isn’t it?)
• First visit to a temple after coming to Chennai
• A quiet and peaceful half a kilometer trek along the serene coastline
• Sinful cup of chocolate mousse at a French bakery

Now the moment arrived! I was on the walk back home with the friend and we just spotted this funky and riotously colourful signage – Mast Kalandar, the name did it. We decided to check it out. I have to admit that I liked it from the word go, the spacious interiors, peppy colours of the walls, the comfortable seating, the LCD screen displaying the Italy-New Zealand fixture and the aroma of dal-makhni and paneer curry.

We ordered the quintessential North Indian fare – butter naan, dalmakhni, paneer – the food was lip smacking and along came the complementary raita, which had just the right amount of salt, sugar and spices and a smattering of coriander. After finishing the meal I had a beatific smile on my face. I didn’t know what I had been missing so sorely until I stepped into Mast Kalandar. Finally I can recommend a restaurant to my colleagues (up until now I was always bugging them to suggest decent places). Mast Kalandar, you surely have found a new patron!

Ecosystem based Adaptation – a new approach of adapting to climate change?

1. Environmental flow assessment (EFA) to evaluate the ecological, social and economic impacts of alternate flow regimes to build an evidence-base for water allocation decision options in Tanzania.
2. A systematic conservation plan on marine protected areas and mechanisms to support the development of communities based on explicitly modelled analysis of climate change at a local level in Papua New Guinea.
   
   These are instances of Ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA). International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) defines EbA as the use of biodiversity and ecosystem services as part of an overall adaptation strategy to help people adapt to the adverse effects of climate change. Ecosystem-based adaptation uses the sustainable management, conservation, and restoration of ecosystems to provide services that enable people to adapt to both current climate variability and long-term change.
   
   On the ground it translates among other things into diversification into sustainable livelihoods for communities which are currently solely dependent on climate sensitive resources. This would in turn discourage the unsustainable exploitation of natural resources and concomitantly increase the environmental resilience and thereby the ability of the environmental system to adapt to climate change.
   
   For the developed countries and even developing countries to a great extent, adapting to climate change has so far meant retrofitting of built environment, climate proofing of coastal infrastructure etc., but the EbA approach strives towards increasing the climate resilience of communities by decreasing their vulnerability to climate variability and climate change by strengthening the ecosystems. A functionally robust ecosystem with its allied ecosystem services can itself prove to be a bulwark between potential future climate disasters and the humanity. According to the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment study the ecosystems provide us with a multitude of services classified as provisioning, regulating, cultural and supporting services.
   
   Already we have many projects being piloted in different parts of the country by many non-profits and research institutes which can be classified as EbA. Ecosystem restoration taken up by Green Coast through the plantation of 3,45,000 saplings of tropical dry evergreen forest species, economically important species and mangroves in 125 hactares, and the conservation of 15 hactares of sand dunes in Manakudi estuary, sustainable agriculture through System of Rice intensification (SRI) and concept of coastal bio-villages promoted by M.S.Swaminthan Research Foundation (MSSRF) to name a few. International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) with its partners has developed tools like CRiSTAL and SLED to help Community based Organizations (CBOs) and communities to plan, strategize and implement EbA. What is required at the moment is a more planned approach and institutionalization of the concept. EbA should be a process rather than a fragmented project based activity occuring in different temporal and spatial scales. It has to be a concerted effort between the multiple stakeholders viz. the state, the private sector, the civil society and above all the communities to realize the true potential of EbA.
   
   The draft on Green India Mission (a part of India’s National Action Plan on Climate Change) released recently by the Indian government extensively talks about eco restoration and the importance of holistic improvement of ecosystems rather than greening per se. This Mission could be a great precursor on our path to a new systems thinking called the “ecosystems approach”.

New (& single) girl in the city!!!

Lots of newspaper columns and blog posts have been filled in the past about the trials and tribulations of single (working) women in the big bad cities - well, this one is different. For me relocating to Chennai has been a pleasant and smooth transition. I had heard horror stories about how haunting the house hunting expeditions could be. My first day of Mission House Hunting henceforth referred to as MHH was hilarious to say the least.

Just walking across the road from the office guest house where I was temporarily put up, I sighted this small sticker on the wall advertising “decent furnished houses for rent” with a contact number. That’s it! No name, no information on the location of those “decent furnished houses” on the ad sticker. With all the enthusiasm of a person freshly into MHH I immediately punched the contact number.

A Tamil voice responded from the other side, very businesslike. Yes, he was a real estate guy he said and asked me how I had gotten his number. I tried to explain to him my exact coordinates (with my dubious knowledge of Chennai roads and streets) to the best of abilities and with each of my attempt he grew happier and told me that he was somewhere nearby and asked me to reach a prominent landmark of that locale within 15 minutes as he had just the perfect place for me. Now came the sticky part, how were we supposed to identify each other. He said he was wearing this orange shirt with white stripes and a black trouser. I reached the mutually agreed upon place much before him and while waiting had a panic attack. Should I get onto the bike or car of this stranger to go and see this “perfect place”? Hadn’t I been foolhardy in my rush to find a place? But thankfully “the perfect place” was just round the corner and we walked to that place.

The house was fine though the building was tellingly old. Most disappointingly the landlady had stuffed the place with all the unwanted stuff from her house and the place looked like a humongous godown. Muthu (the real estate guy) read the disappointed look on my face and started making placating noises and I decided to keep this place as a backup if the worst came to worst. The MHH ended on a happy note a week later with me finding a house in a locality near the office. The icing on the cake was I didn’t shell out a penny on the brokerage, as the house was discovered by me through an online advertisement.

Getting my own place in the city was really a big relief. It was nothing short of cathartic, what with MHH taking a toll on my nerves and trying to figure out a decent and pocket friendly eating joint everyday (remember this is was before I got my first pay cheque) was turning into a pain. With managing a household, came along the responsibility of stocking it with the minimum essentials, buying groceries etc. The first week went off in a blur. But the location of my new house I must say is really strategic, on the one side are these really big houses with well tended lawns and gardens and the adjoining road leads up to this market place with all the big shops with swanky brands and on the other side are the modest houses and they too have their own small market to serve their requirements. I like to call these the BoP (Bottom of the Pyramid) markets that serve everything from salt to sugar and tamarind to all kinds of spices in quantities customized to cater to the customers’ needs. This market has been my mainstay in the past two months. I like both of these markets. The former for its huge “window shopping” value and my occasional buying sprees and indulgences and the latter for its high utility value in my day to day routine.

Now a word on the attitude of Chennai people. I found them very forthcoming especially when it came to helping me with directions whenever I lost my way in the city. I remember one of the Reader’s Digest surveys some two years back ranking cities by their friendliness to strangers etc. Chennai surely gets my vote on this one.

But it is not all goody goody though. On the downside I can’t bear the humid weather here. Worst, it stays the same all through the year. Two minutes out of the door and you are sweating buckets! I also have a huge issue with the city public transport system – the bus stops just aren’t marked / named, how is a person supposed to know where to get off?

Still the overall Chennai report card is in the green for me and I hope it stays so for the remainder of my stay in the city. Amen!

Inane chatter...

Only the self absorbed and the self obsessed narcissists blog. Not me, NEVER. Those were my thoughts not long back. Understandably things have pretty much changed since then. But still this needs lot of "getting used to". I will keep my first ever blog post short and sweet. My course of work these days involves lots of reading and this set me thinking that I should share my reflections on what I read, with the larger world out there. This is the raison d'etre for Gaia Gander.

The story behind how this blog came to be named is interesting. I had sent in "Gaia Gander" as a competition - title entry for the new office newsletter. But fortunately my carefully thought out gem lost in the rat race and as a consolation today I hereby, christen this blog "Gaia Gander". Now a little bit of gyan on the etymology. Named after the Greek goddess of the earth and the innate desire to visually perceive things that happen in the surroundings, through this blog I will strive to put forth my humble views on all and sundry with special focus on all issues "green and blue".