Adivasi youth from three states in India received training on Analog Forestry to understand the immense potential that their forests hold through designing their own restoration strategies.
The Sahariya youth came from the degraded forest landscape of Vidisha. Youth from the Tiger Reserve area of Panna struggle with the challenges of restricted access and invasive species in their forests. The Gond and Kolam youth of Telangana came from rich traditional knowledge of their forests which are witnessing degeneration for various development interventions. They all met in the Niligiris mountains to learn from the regeneration efforts of the Adivasi youth in Tamil Nadu.
With passionate guidance from Sharada Ramadass of the International Analog Forestry Network (IAFN), they learnt to assess forest health and map the biodiversity gaps of an ecosystem and how to design their restoration strategies using the AF tools.
As some of the youth are also Barefoot Educators, they explored ways of using AF methods for ecological education with the children of the Bal-Angans, the children’s education centres.
The field sessions were an exciting experience of exploring the Nilgiris Biosphere and its rich shola forest.
This training is a collaboration of Dhaatri, Keystone Foundation, and the International Analog Forestry Network.
More pictures from the training:
