Ecosystem services from participatory integrated micro-watershed development project in Indian north western Himalayas: part-I

Abstract

Ecosystem services (ES) of a participatory integrated watershed (370 ha) management project, namely Bhaintan of Indian North Western Himalayas (INWH), assessed from a set of 38 years data revealed that there was a simultaneous improvement in all the ES indicators in implementation (1975-1986) and post implementation (1987-2013) periods over the pre-project period. Improvement occurred in provisioning services in terms of rice equivalent production (4 times), milk production (7.4 times), and fruit production (from negligible to 6.4 times) and dependency on reserve forest reduced for fodder (55% points) and fuel (60% points). Cultural services improved in terms of cash income (62%) and asset value (4.6 times). Reduction in Gini-concentration ratio from 0.68 to 0.20 revealed a significant reduction in income disparity within the farming community. A significant reduction was observed in regulating services in form of reduction in runoff (69%) and soil loss (82%). Improvement in the ES is attributed to diversified farming system adopted by the farmers, high cohesiveness in the farming society, and immigration of outmigrated youth. The paper concludes that participatory integrated watershed development project Bhaintan showed a significant change in all ES indicators towards desired directions, which indicates that integrated watershed management programme planned with appropriate boundary work, and implemented with proper communication, translation, and mediation results in improvement in watershed ecosystem, and consequently the ES. Even an intensive landuse pattern resulting in tradeoff among ES can be changed to complementary relationship through proper integration of structural, production and social measures in the watershed with legitimacy.