Restoring forests for restoring community health

Dear supporter,

Last year, we hosted a few bright minds from the media and marketing department of a multinational company who urged us to consider changing our forest conservation narrative to a 'species-specific' appeal. They cited the reason that we humans tend to relate better to them instead of forests. It got us wondering why it is that we cannot look at forests as higher living organisms on whom our very lives depend! Well, COVID-19 and its linkages with the health of our forests has left us little choice but to acknowledge this - which may be the only silver lining to this entire situation. Our focus through Conservation Agreements has never been to save the forests in the name of a single species because we believe that every species has a distinct role to play in the ecosystem. More importantly, through this role, they maintain the very delicate balance in nature of give and take. Furthermore, irrespective of the inhabitants themselves, forests provide numerous ecosystem services which are essential to our very existence.  Therefore, our core mission has been to simply bring maximum forests under protection with the very valid and basic premise that the forests are better left standing for our survival.

However, in a strange coincidence of sorts in Feb - March 2020 when the world was already headlong into the COVID crisis and 'Pangolins and Bats ' were being discussed among origin theories, we brought 100 acres of community forest under conservation management - which happened to be a critical wildlife habitat not just for pangolin and bats but for many globally threatened species  in the Western Ghats of India- a global biodiversity hotspot!  Conservation of these 100 acres will be part of the first community reserve in Maharashtra in the Tiware Ghera Prachitgad area - supported by the RainForest Trust (RFT), USA. Our field team members have documented as many as 341 flora species and 298 fauna species - many of whom appear in the IUCN RedList at this site. 

Another impact of this campaign can be seen in the sheer number of people who have approached us with willingness to volunteer and intern to take the cause ahead! Along with bringing vital financial resources, it is impacting sensitive minds to work together and reconnect with nature more appropriately and impactfully.

Though small, your support to this initiative at this point is critical in spreading the message about vital link between our health and the forests' health among many diverse communities.

Thank you very much!