Biorights and Community

Biorights’ of SAFE is a pro-poor intervention, both in rural and urban sectors that are adaptive and can downscale climate impacts. SAFE thrives to sustain the livelihoods of marginalized people through climate-smart alternatives under the concept of Biorights. Further, in mainstreaming the marginalized people in the upcoming ‘Carbon-Economy’ SAFE directly involves in policy advocacy and planning to make a participatory platform based on equity and reciprocity.

• A community-ecosystem mitigation approach was adopted to establish environmental justice for commons through Biorights.
• A successful model for negating the negative link of conservation and poverty was incorporated by a bottom up mitigation approach through partnership and participation.
• Adaptive management over space and time was practiced for developing community attitude for conservation and resilience to ensuing environmental changes
• Environmental awareness campaign has been used as a tool for marketing nature services and transforming it as an economic opportunity for the poor. Community adapted wise-use practices in wetlands for ensuring the revenue returns.
• Blending Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) and low cost green technology to sustain conservation efforts.

The long term impact of ‘Biorights’

• Community initiative in participatory conservation program embarks disaster preparedness and resilience, social assurance and cohesive endeavors.
• Sense of empowerment and growing social assurance prevented migration, inculcated social ethics to combat disruptive behavior in the community.
• Raised level of awareness developed environmental leadership, promoting social values for culture, traditional ecological knowledge (tek) and climate conscious attitudes.
• Changes in lifestyle patterns were marked with change in health and sanitation habits, taking pride in their work related to wetlands and increased participation in conservation efforts.
• Biorights as a financial tool compensated the opportunity cost incurred by the community in enduring conservation efforts to retore the wetlands.
• Increased competency through capacity building and augmented income from alternative from alternative livelihood helped in developing entrepreneurial efforts, sharing joint financial liabilities, and venturing new economic enterprises.
• Micro-insurance inclusion helped in risk coverage and risk spreading at the same time. Enabled economic resilience to ecologically susceptible to agro environmental depreciations owing to changes in micro climate regime.