Major Goals

1. Identify and analyze prospective economic opportunities among forest-based value chains
2. Strengthen enterprises within selected forest-based value chains and
3. Encourage investment in viable economic opportunities by private and public sectors.

Livelihoods and a Thriving Forest

In addition to supporting human survival, forest landscapes play an important role in the economic development of a country. For those societies living in and around forested areas, these ecosystems provide food security and livelihoods for vast communities. Forests provide the raw materials that are the foundation for many industries. To support sustainable economic growth, Forest-PLUS 2.0 is supporting the targeted landscapes to develop forest-based economic value chains. In addition, the program is mobilizing stakeholders across the private and public sectors to make conscious contributions to the economies of forest-dependent communities. The program has identified and analyzed prospective economic opportunities and forest-based enterprises that show promise. Some of these value chains include:

1. Community-based ecotourism

2. Moringa

3. Honey

4. Sustainable extraction of non-timber forest products (food, medicine, crafts)

5. Custard apple

6. Neem seed

Forest-PLUS 2.0 program is partnering with local civil society organizations in each landscape to strengthen value chains. The program selected partners who are familiar with the Ecosystem Approach to Forest Management and consider economic development in the light of the ecosystem services provided in each landscape. With these implementing partners, the program has identified potential beneficiaries, created business plans, and began testing pilot programs.Support for developing production and market channels for these specific value chains includes technical assistance in production, post-harvest handling, and marketing. In the ecotourism value chains, the program is working with communities to build their capacity to manage restaurants, nature camps and stores that will serve visitors.In partnership with SFDs and the private sector, Forest-PLUS 2.0 is helping create market linkages between the producers and aggregators and suppliers.HighlightsThe following strategies have been adopted by Forest-PLUS 2.0 for strengthening the value chains.

1. Institutional development and capacity building, which includes empowerment of producers and their organizations.

2. Demonstration of enterprise development at the cluster level.

3. Convergence of resources for enterprise and market development.

4. Facilitating the establishment of a partnership between different stakeholders including public and private sector agencies to strengthen the value chains.

Further, the program has supported the development of a Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFP) Information Management System for improving Vanasree operations in the Thiruvananthapuram landscape. The tool consists of a web-portal and a mobile application for interface of producers, forest department and other stakeholders for the NTFPs enterprise management and knowledge management. It supports data collection, tracking within the value chain and stakeholder interactions & linkages.