Nagpur: Tigers and people at large in the Vidarbha landscape will get a boost with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in Switzerland shortlisting wildlife wing's mega project titled 'Integrated habitat conservation and ecodevelopment in Vidarbha tiger landscape'.
The IUCN has asked Meyipokyim Aier, additional principal chief conservator of forests (APCCF) for wildlife, Nagpur East, to prepare full joint proposal with the involvement of Wildlife Trust of India (WTI). The full project is expected to get a grant of Rs20 crore from the German government.
Besides the forest department, WTI executive director Vivek Menon too had submitted a concept plan to the IUCN. "As both the proposals were from the same region, IUCN programme advisory committee and programme council asked the department and WTI to work jointly. The selection process was tough and challenging," said a senior forest official.
The proposal by WTI had a number of strengths, especially with regards to community engagement and development. Hence, IUCN wants wildlife wing to collaborate with WTI on this project with more focus on livelihoods and infrastructure. The NGO has been asked to take a lead on socio-economic issues, community engagement and livelihoods.
The project will fund conservation of tiger populations, their habitats and sustainable development of livelihoods to communities living in and around key tiger habitats. The programme seeks to invest in projects that involve improving the management of tiger habitats, tackling man-animal conflict, increasing anti-poaching and law enforcement efforts and engaging & actively involving local communities in tiger conservation.
The first call for concepts was launched in October last year, and resulted in a number of concepts being received from across the nine countries eligible for funding under this programme. These included India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao, Myanmar, Nepal, & Vietnam.
The concepts were submitted by some very strong partnerships between NGOs, government departments and local communities and were innovative and of high quality. Competition was fierce and unfortunately not all proposals could be funded.
The average duration of individual projects is expected to be 3 years, with an anticipated start date in the first quarter of 2016. Projects will need to be completed by the end of 2018.
