Giant Trees for Climate Change Mitigation in India

Greetings!

In the last quarter, the AERF field team chartered into an unknown territory for saving giant trees- insurance.

Our experience and interactions with local communities have made one thing clear- a very convincing arugment behind felling a giant tree is that it will cause serious damage to the owner's property and potential harm to his life.

The fact that such incidences are very uncommon is often overlooked. In order to deal with this formidable challenge, AERF team discussed the idea of insuring the house of the giant tree owner against damage to his property from the tree. This was additional support offered by us in addition to the incentive for his decision to keep the tree standing. That seem to have worked wonders!

The owner didn't anticipate that we would go that far to save a tree . It all happened in village Vanzole in Sangameshwar block in Ratnagiri district where a marginal farmer and a giant tree owner- was all set to chop down his tree for it would cause damage to his house and harm to his family.

AERF team has thus not only saved a giant tree of Terminalia bellirica but also pilot tested the use market based mechanism- insurance for biodiversity conservation through this initiative. This could be first of its kind of an effort where an insurance scheme is directly contributing to conservation. This approach needs to be further explored and more evidence needs to be created for its promotion on larger scale. 

In addition, a group of students from Earth Expeditions India program of Miami University, Ohio visited the Key biodiversity Area from village Kirbet in Sangameshwar block to see a population of giant trees currently being saved through GlobalGiving project. Some 6 participants of Earth Expedition India program 2016 have supported the Giant tree campaign. Thus it was reassuring for the Earth Expedition students and instructors to see the work that is being done to save the giant trees on the ground in the Northern Western Ghats.

While we are making slow but steady progress on the ground for saving the giant trees, we would truly appreciate your further support to this high impact initiative. As the initial enthusiam in the campaign in terms of support wears out, we want you to make your commitment stronger.

Best regards

Jayant Sarnaik

AERF team carried out community surveys and habitat study of 50 giant trees from Sangameshwar block in Ratnagiri district in Northern Western Ghats. The study clearly shows the immense ecological value of the big trees. As many as 82 different bird species were documented that are using these trees as habitat, 20 species of butterflies were also documented.

Some of the trees documented were as old as 300 years! The social surveys revealed that quite few owners were understanding the importance of these giant trees while some of those are bit uncertain and were thinking of selling the trees. Through rewards and incentives the project will be able to deal with those confusions and misunderstandings effectively.

In the next quarter we will approach the community representatives and individual owners for felicitating them for keeping those trees standing over generations. Your small support will prove yet again vital to keep those giants standing for ever. Thus do consider supporting this campaign as we have a target of saving 1000 trees.

Last but most important, 3 of our individual donors - Mr.Shyam Kane, Mr. Eduard Niesten and Ms. Ann Armbrecht all of them from USA visited our project region and actually saw the Giants and understood first why we need to preserve them.

• Habitat study of giant trees (DOCX)