What is WELFARE?, by Frederique Lacraz

Among the Society for Mahseer Conservancy, a new project was launched few months ago, under the name “WELFARE”, which stands for Women Empowerment through Lantana Furniture, Artefacts and Restoration of the Environment”.

The reason for this project emerged after an obvious result from the firewood survey: the villagers will not reduce their wood collection unless some alternatives are provided to them. Unfortunately, the government is almost absent in such help. Our actions may be at small scale, but at least they are actions. The women are the protagonists of this project since they are the ones going inside the forests, the ones risking their lives and the ones who work the harder.

WELFARE has a strong will to empower villagers –strongly dependant on forest products – and to reduce their pressure on the forest. This would serve several purposes:

- by raising their income, the villagers will hopefully progressively modify their habits and buy wood alternative. The best alternative would be LPG but solar cookers should also be brought to their minds.

- by reducing their wood consumption, the villagers would obviously reduce their venues inside the forest, reducing their impact on the forest.

- by reducing the impact of the villagers on the forest, the man-animal conflicts should decrease too.

Different sub-projects are hosted under the name WELFARE:

- the Lantana furniture project: in association with ATREE, four villages (Kyari, Sunderkhal, Ringora and Chhoti Haldwani) have been selected to be trained how to make furniture out of Lantana. This project comprises the removing of Lantana camara, the making of the furniture, the selling and marketing of the furniture and the afforestation of the area where Lantana has been removed.

- NEEMA: this project is happening in Ringora village where a girl, Neema, is making the only artefacts available in and around Corbett, making them priceless. She is making a set of dolls and hand bags out of a local hemp, the “saan”. We are supporting her by managing the whole selling and marketing of her products and to give an identity to Ringora’s village. She is the ambassador of the brand and will confidently bring other girls from Ringora in this project, increasing the range of products made.

The idea of those projects is to combine the conservation of wildlife species such as tiger and of the environment and to improve villagers’ lives. The regeneration of the undergrowth and the forests in general is vital for the preservation of many animals’ habitat. We should never forget that the forests of Corbett are not ours, they belong to the animals. Imagine if someone came to your house to take every day pieces of your walls. In a near future, you would be left with nothing!

On the other hand, the improvement of villagers’ lives would cover a several facilities such as better health care, better education and self employment.

Please refer to the other blogs dedicated to each project to know more about them.