|
VASUNDHARA
Welcome to VASUNDHARA's eco-tent. Our
presence in this online trade show organized by "Network of Indian
Environment Professionals" gives people and organizations around
the world an opportunity to interact with us and know more about what
we have to offer. In our eco-tent you can find about our services that
we are providing to a sample list of organizations. Here you can know
more about our projects that we completed and which we are now implementing.
You can browse through some of our free publications, articles and white
papers and download them at your will.
About us
Vasundhara is a non-governmental,
not-for-profit organisation, working primarily in Orissa with natural
resources management focused on sustainable rural livelihoods. Vasundhara
has been extensively involved in the forestry sector, trying to improve
community-State collaboration and facilitate policy changes in the direction
of sustainable community based forest management systems. The main areas
of work have been policy advocacy, research and documentation, capacity
building and networking. It has been instrumental in initiating coordinated
action and response from the civil society on forestry issues, and contributed
to the process of alliance building and networking amongst forest protecting
villages and forest users in various parts of Orissa.
Vasundhara has also played an extremely
relevant role in the documentation of community forestry initiatives and
in establishing the richness and diversity of their experience. This documentation
has rendered visible internationally the self-initiated forest protection
efforts in Orissa as important examples of sustainable resource management
systems.
Contact us
Vasundhara's main
office is located at Bhubaneswar additionally there are two field offices
in Nayagarh and Sundergarh districts in Orissa. The staff are from diverse
educational and experiential backgrounds that include forestry management,
economics, development planning, rural development, environmental sciences
and environment resource management. The total staff strength (as
of December 2000) is 18, consisting of 12 programme staff.
Head-Office:
Mr. Ashok K. Babu,
Director
VASUNDHARA
14-E Gajapati Nagar
P.O. Sainik School
Bhubaneswar - 751005, Orissa, India.
Phone: 91-674-300190 / 300235
Fax: 91-674- 509237 / 519237
Email: vasundharanr@satyam.net.in
Achievements
Vasundhara's areas of
focus include Forestry,
rural development and livelihood, policy advocacy, gender and equity,
community based institutions and their arrangements, recovering traditional
and indigenous knowledge, NTFPs and livelihood
of the forest dependent poor, watershed management, inter-community interface
and training, biodiversity mapping, common pool resources planning, access
and rights to natural resources, forestry-agriculture-rural development
integration, management and monitoring, forest policies and public lands
reform and tenurial rights.
The main activities include:
RESEARCH AND DOCUMENTATION: Research
is focussed on supporting our efforts to improve access and control of
"eco-system people" i.e people who depend on their immediate
eco-system for sustenance, on
their natural resources esp. forests. Some of the key research issues
include NTFPs, NTFP Policies, Institutional Issues relating to Community
Forest Management (CFM), Ecological and Economic aspects of CFM, Biodiversity
Conservation etc.
NETWORKING AND ALLIANCE BUILDING: Networking
and alliance building amongst local communities has emerged as a major
requirement especially for creating a pressure group for policy changes
for devolution of power to local communities for resource management.
Vasundhara has been actively involved in federation building processes.
Vasundhara
has also been actively working for bringing individuals and organisations
working on forestry and natural resources management together for collective
advocacy efforts, experience sharing and chalking out strategies for advocacy
etc.
CAPACITY BUILDING EFFORTS: We have also
been involved in capacity building of village institutions, especially
in two field locations. The capacity building efforts include strategies
for:
· Information generation and dissemination
· Networking and alliance building
· Training Workshops and meetings
Books and Publications
We have published a wide range of books and
publications that are down to earth and closer to the ground. Check
them
|