January 29, 2023

Protecting India's valuable Open Natural Ecosystems

topic:	Conservation
located:	India
editor:	Bindu Gopal Rao

Open Natural Ecosystems, or ONEs, are typically found in 10 percent of India's dry, sub-humid and semi-arid zones, of which 68.6 percent are classified as wastelands. ONEs include desert, arid  and semi-arid ecosystems, grasslands and shrublands.

Home to endemic plant and animal species and supporting livestock, these fragile spaces are under threat from other “environment friendly” large-scale tree plantations and renewable energy projects that are damaging these ecosystems.

The Green Revolution, which happened in India between 1880 and 2010, saw a loss of a surprising 20 million hectares of grassland and shrubland, and 26 million hectares of forests. These vast expanses of land include ravines, savannas, scrubland, grasslands and dunes, that are also used as pastoral lands. These are also the habitat of endemic animals like the Indian blackbuck, chinkara gazelle, Indian wolf, and the critically endangered great Indian bustard.

This apart, these areas are believed to sequester 146 tonnes of carbon per hectare each year - just as much as tropical forests. At the recently concluded COP27 event, Abi Tamim Vanak, an ecologist and conservation biologist at Ashoka Trust for Ecology and Environment (ATREE), noted that these ONEs "support 500 million livestock and 50% of fodder production, and over 20 nomadic tribes in India."

This is also why there is an urgent need to work on the conservation of these ecosystems. Community-based conservation efforts are now being initiated, including adaptive management techniques for invasive species, like the lantana plant, which are spreading rapidly in these spaces. 

Both governments and environmentally-friendly organisations are undertaking initiatives to manage these spaces in a manner that is compatible with biodiversity. For instance, an NGO, Samvedana, has worked with the Phaase Pardhi community in central India in using a decentralised management model that has helped them save their grasslands not just for the local community, but also for the critically endangered lesser florican bird. This collaboration has made this a ‘Community Conserved Area.’

There have also been efforts to use the Forests Rights Act from 2006 to ensure that pastoralists have the right to use Forest Department lands. Many of these have ensured that the lands are protected for grazing and helps both the resident and migratory biodiversity.

Recently, all ONEs have been mapped by ATREE, which now opens the path for more people-based involvements to find ways to conserve them. While these are small steps, it is necessary to understand them in the right sense as conservation must be holistic and not damage one ecological system to benefit another.

Photo by Nithin P John

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