DEVELOPING PARTICIPATORY BIODIVERSITY INFORMATION RESOURCE AND CONSERVATION NETWORK IN SINDHUDURG, MAHARASHTRA

 

SUMMARY

The wildlife and agro-biodiversity of India are among richest resources of the world.  Agro-biodiversity is a vital sub-set of biodiversity. Being the hotspot of diversity conservation actions are crucial part of natural resource management. This needs a complete knowledge of spatial and temporal distribution of various life forms at minutest possible scale. Recording data once from the field will not be able to provide the actual status of the biodiversity at the site at given point of time. This could be only achieved by continuous monitoring and data updating. This will be a Herculean task in Seventh largest country; which will need enormous amount of time, manpower and money. It was nearly impossible few years back to complete the task within practical time period. Here participatory approach is useful such as Citizen Science Program. Being in the era of ubiquity of information sharing devices where reporting could be done in few seconds from the incidence such enormous tasks could be completed within limited time frame. This will involve public trainings, mobiles, internet service, data management and scrutiny. The permanent network of trained volunteers, enthusiast and conservationist could be established to achieve continuous reporting from the field. Sindhudurg is inseparable part of World heritage “Western Ghats” and hot topic of several conservation & economic issues where conservation of bio-resources could not be plainly achieved by creating policies but public awareness and involvement are also required. I feel it’s a right place to start permanent networks of wild and agro-biodiversity monitoring in participatory way.

Img.1. Seed Bank

    India is one of the world’s ‘mega diversity’ countries. It is ranked ninth in the world in terms of higher plant species richness. At the ecosystem level, India is also well-endowed, with ten distinct biogeographic zones. It also contains two of the world’s 25 biodiversity hotspots, because of their extraordinarily high levels of species-richness and endemicity, and threatened status. India is considered to be the centre of origin for the following crop species pigeon pea, egg plant cucumber, possibly cotton and sesame. But for millennia, numerous other crop species have been introduced to India and adapted to localized conditions. As a consequence of both the diver­sity of these conditions and of the various eth­nic populations living in India, the country has become an important centre of diversity of a great many domesticated species, including vari­ous cereals, millets, legumes, vegetables, temper­ate and tropical fruits, fiber crops, medicinal and aromatic plants.

    Agro-biodiversity is the result of natural selection processes and the careful selection and inventive developments of farmers, herders and fishers over millennia. Agro-biodiversity is a vital sub-set of biodiversity. Many people’s food and livelihood security depend on the sustained management of various biological resources that are important for food and agriculture. Agricultural biodiversity, also known as agro-biodiversity or the genetic resources for food and agriculture, includes:

• Harvested crop varieties, livestock breeds, fish species and non domesticated (wild) resources within field, forest, rangeland including tree products, wild animals hunted for food and in aquatic ecosystems (e.g. wild fish);
• Non-harvested species in production ecosystems that support food provision, including soil micro-biota, pollinators and other insects such as bees, butterflies, earthworms, greenflies; and
• Non-harvested species in the wider environment that support food production ecosystems (agricultural, pastoral, forest and aquatic ecosystems).

    Many farmers, especially those in environments where high-yield crop and livestock varieties do not prosper, rely on a wide range of crop and livestock types. This helps them maintain their livelihood in the face of pathogen infestation, uncertain rainfall and fluctuation in the price of cash crops, socio-political disruption and the unpredictable availability of agro-chemicals. So-called minor or underutilized crops, more accurately, companion crops, are frequently found next to the main staple or cash crops. They often grow side by side and their importance is often misjudged. In many cases, from a livelihoods perspective, they are not minor or underutilized as they can play a disproportionately important role in food production systems at the local level. Plants that will grow in infertile or eroded soils, and livestock that will eat degraded vegetation, are often crucial to household nutritional strategies. In addition, rural communities, and the urban markets with which they trade, make great use of these companion crop species. The traditional farming in the mega diverse India involves cattle dung manuring supporting local insect fauna specially the dung beetles and worms useful for agriculture. But this practice has become less popular due to use of chemical fertilizers, which have shown promising growth in agricultural yield at the cost of loss of natural decomposers and biological pest controlling agents beneficial for agriculture with increased cost of farming. Also there is an adverse effect on other allied business and human health. Correct strategies and guidance to farmers about biological pest control will surely make farming sustainable.

     The recording of this immense data is a need of now. Compilation of data at possible minute unit area and long term monitoring is important. This will help to understand the ecological processes and impact of changing environment on it. But process of gathering such immense data will require huge amount of time, manpower and money. This makes the process colossal and impossible at first look. Such objectives could be achieved by a innovative technique used worldwide nowadays i.e “Citizen Science OR Participatory research programs”. Citizen science engages non-professionals in authentic scientific research, ranging from long-standing, large scale projects. The assembly of a large, dispersed team of observers creates opportunities for ecological research at unprecedented spatial and temporal scales. Dispersed data collection and the ability to record collect observations and connect with people, in places, and at scales that would otherwise not be possible, render citizen science increasingly important to environmental research. The internet and geographic information system-(GIS-) enabled web applications allow participants to collect large volumes of location-based ecological data and submit them electronically to centralized databases. The ubiquity of smart phones, the potential for digital photo validation of questionable observations and the development of infrastructure for creating simple online data-entry systems provide added potential for initiating projects quickly, inexpensively and with stringent criteria to ensure data accuracy. Because of its participatory nature, citizen science appears well suited to elevating public understanding of and support for science, the environment and Earth stewardship.

    The use of trained members of the public ('citizen scientists') to help monitor and collect data in science-driven environmental research projects is not a new concept e.g. The Custodians of Rare and Endangered Wildflowers (CREW) programme runs a network of custodians and eco-club volunteers in South Africa. CREW was established in 2003 to help in the conservation of threatened plants and habitats in the Cape Floristic Region, having since expanded throughout South African biodiversity hotspots. It works to achieve this by involving local plant enthusiasts in sampling priority areas, monitoring threatened plants and supporting the community to develop conservation livelihoods. Information collected by custodians has helped to priorities plant species that are in need of conservation attention. The project till 2007 could be able to assess 39 plant species of which 12 were rediscovered and 28 species were assessed for their redlist classification. The CREW Programme in 2017 has 35 groups across South Africa, comprising above 830 dedicated citizen scientists. Citizen scientists range from students to retirees, with some groups having been active for more than a decade.

    The recent successful example well set by Wetland Committee of Sindhudurg lead in the guidance of Mr. Sachin Desai, Syamantak, Dr. Balkrishna Gawade, their colleague experts and force of volunteers. The participatory monitoring system is the whole idea behind the work.

    The Sindhudurg district being inseparable part of Western ghats the different habitats right from evergreen to semi evergreen forest of Western ghats, mix type forest of plains, grass lands of rocky plateaus, perennial riparian network, mangroves and coastal habitat harbors great diversity of life.  The forests in the district cover an area about 1500 sq.km evidently harboring threatened plant and animal species. Many regions and species from Western Ghats are however not assessed for its conservation status, some species endemic to Sindhudurg and Maharashtra need immediate action for the conservation.

    The forests here also enwrap precious natural resources. The increasing demands for the wood and minerals have made these forests defenseless against the commercial greed. The absence of convincing documentation of Eco sensitive zones and threatened life forms endorsed hysterical massacre of forest for mineral excavation during last decade affecting economically, politically and socially. There is no guarantee of continuity in current legal backup in the near future unless people from all over district become aware and get involved in conservation of their precious forest resource. To bring about the change in local community the conservationists need the support of strong documentation of threatened species and habitats from the region. Apart from wildlife the agri-biodiversity is also reach in India local varieties of grain, vegetables and fruits are of immense importance as these species holds original genetic information of our modern crops. These original pools need to be protected to ensure the availability of natural resource and traditional knowledge whenever we will need it in distance future during time of catastrophe in agri-business.

    By establishing participatory biodiversity monitoring network of contributors in Sindhudurg District we could gather any information over vast area related to biodiversity and social aspects within tangible time frame and budget. This will not only be useful to study the current status but also to develop scheme to monitor it for longer durations.

Img.2. Sweet Air Yam

Interested Contributors (Researchers/ Farmers/ GOs/ NGOs) kindly write to  

Sachin Vijay Chorge,

sachinvch@gmail.com