CONSERVATION & LIVELIHOODS

At Kalpavriksh, we believe that biological diversity should be respected and conserved for its own sake. At the same time, they need to be protected as habitats for wildlife, as providers of water and other forms of ecological security, as a source of basic survival and livelihood for millions of people and as sacred spaces. Kalpavriksh believes that ensuring ecological, economic and, cultural security of those, most critically dependent on biodiversity and its components, is the only way for the long-term survival and development of human societies and, for the sustenance of all life forms.

In the context of the present planetary crisis of climate change and global warming, brought on by a model of development which fosters remorseless exploitation of natural resources, dispossession of communities, breakdown of indigenous cultures, species extinctions and ecological and civilizational collapse; any model of conservation needs to integrate all three aforementioned factors of concern. The current model of conservation governance that attempts to achieve economic, ecological and cultural security, through disparate approaches have proven to be unsuccessful. Kalpavriksh believes that synchronizing these approaches over a wider landscape, as a continuum of land and water uses, is the only way to ensure conservation, cultural and livelihoods security.