Forest-PLUS 2.0: forest for water and prosperity, a five-year program funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in partnership with the Government of India’s Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), is demonstrating that an ecosystem-approach to forest management increases ecological and socioeconomic sustainability.
The program’s purpose is to provide technical assistance that supports the Government of India (GoI) and other stakeholders to manage forest landscapes as a critical component of inclusive and sustainable economic growth that meets local needs and addresses global environmental challenges. The program’s overall goal is to improve the management of three targeted landscapes in India for enhanced ecosystem services and increased inclusive economic opportunities. These goals aim to show that an improved ecosystem approach to management will in turn lead to improved ecosystem services and contribute to sustainable and inclusive economic growth in the country.
The program is being implemented in three forest landscapes chosen for their attributes (biodiversity/biological, geological, economic, cultural, and historical) in the following areas: Gaya Forest Division (Bihar), Medak Forest Division (Telangana), and Thiruvananthapuram Forest Division (Kerala).
In addition, the program is contributing to a deeper understanding of forest ecosystem services in each landscape. This knowledge supports the development and institutionalization of methodologies and tools that support the sustainable management of those services and balances sustainability with the need for inclusive economic growth.
Forest-PLUS 2.0 builds on the success of a previous USAID-funded program: the Partnership for Land Use Science, known as Forest-PLUS, implemented from 2012 to 2017. Forest-PLUS 2.0 is working in close collaboration with forest departments in targeted states, academic and research institutions, private sector entities, and forest-dependent communities. Forest-PLUS 2.0 is also channeling resources to address barriers to women’s participation in forest management decision-making (women forest managers and administrators) and ensuring greater access to more varied economic opportunities for women in their communities.