Giant Trees for Climate Change Mitigation in India

Dear Supporter,

Greetings from India!

In the last quarter  our field team from Alibaug block situated on the west coast of Maharashtra India spotted a large colony of Asian open billed stork- a big wetland and migratory bird on large remaining trees in village Dhokawade situated very close to the coast. We were quite surprised by these findings. While it takes common sense to understand an eternal connection between trees and birds but in this case it was a wetland bird and thus we thought they would ideally prefer mangroves for their breeding and roosting. After visiting the site and thinking much deeper, we realized that Giant trees play critical role in coastal areas too and that mangrove associate species such as large trees of Calophyllum innophyllum have disappeared from this region. As a result, the birds have chosen commonly found , a tree very much liked and used by the local communities- Tamarindus indicus for breeding. After talking to the local communities about the history of these birds visiting these trees, they affirmed that these birds have been regulary visiting the trees for several years. Importantly, though the birds excreta creates a foul smell in the village, the locals do not trouble the birds and understand their needs. Besides tagging the trees and understanding the ownership of these trees, AERF team members also distributed improved cook-stoves in the village for reducing the pressure on remaining vegetation and trees for meeting their energy requirements. 

Besides this, we also handed over the certificate of appreciation to 40 Giant tree owners in Sangameshwar block and thus completed partially the process of rewarding the custodians of giant trees. All the owners of giant trees had interesting memories of giant trees to share with us and we are planning to bring out a story book of giant trees over the next two quarters. 

After reflecting on the peculiar case of breeding of Asian open billed stork on giant trees further, we realized that local communities have in the past removed coastal forests and planted coconut trees for monetary reasons and thus all the large birds face the difficulty of finding large trees for breeding in coastal regions. It is also resulting in a conflict situation when birds such as vultures decide to establish a nest on large coconut tree and in process spreading foul smell through its excreta which may not be likened by the owner. In order to solve this human induced crisis, some conservationist are providing incentives to the coconut tree owners so that they do not poison the vultures. The solution actually lies in protecting native large tree in every ecosystem in the first place.

We draw satisfaction from the fact that we do not have to shift the goal post of conservation and have taken up the cause of saving giant trees. 

Your continued interest in and support to this campaign motivates us constantly to broaden the horizon of our understanding of this wonder of nature- Giant trees and make committed efforts to save them.

Thank you.

Dear Supporter,

Greetings from the Western Ghats of India!

We are glad to share that our field team did a splendid job as regards searching for the giant trees in the last quarter. They mapped total 131 Giant trees comprising of some 25 different species in four blocks of Sindhudurg and Kolhapur district in the northern Western Ghats. More importantly the team engaged with local community members to understand the reasons behind healthy state of these trees. It turned out that about 70% of the mapped trees were standing tall and healthy due one single reason- these trees were worshipped by the local community. It is understood that some of the trees represent a local god or a spirit and hence will not be touched and will be never harmed. 

After going through the dataset we found out that many of the trees species mapped are endemic to the Western Ghats and are also globally threatened. Moreover these trees contribute to conservation of other threatened species such as endemic birds and bees. All this helped us realize one thing very clearly and that is - very limited role of money in saving these wonders of Nature. It is a fact that unless local communities who are often the primary stakeholders in conservation are convinced about the importance of protecting nature and it becomes part of their cultural practice, it is very difficult to sustain conservation over generations. Giant trees provide the necessary and clear evidence for this hypothesis.

Having said this, it is equally important to reward these little known stewards of conservation for recognizing their contribution in conservation of this natural heritage. We came up of an idea of giving them certificate of appreciation for keeping this important tradition alive. The certificate will help the younger members of the community understand the importance of the giant trees and make them feel proud about these old but very important traditional practice of conservation- worshipping nature.

Your support was very useful as without that our team could not have travelled to the remote corners of the Western Ghats and meet these inspiring individuals - both stalwarts and the Giants. 

Thank you very much

Jayant Sarnaik

• Certificate of appreciation (PDF)