Report of the Tiger Task Force - PRS

TIGER TASK FORCE REPORT JOINING THE DOTS ■benefiting from the forest, and who are bearing thecosts of conservation.Not a ‘one-size fits all’ approachOver 300 PES (payments for environmental services)systems have been inventoried in the world. Eachmodel is distinct and appropriate for specificcircumstances in order to calculate the costs and topass them to the right owner. PES is applicable, but itis not a monolith. India’s approach too needs to beappropriate and tailored to each forest and situationon the ground. The main peculiarity in India is thatthe poorest people in forests have no land rights.Since many PES systems link land use to theprovision of services — payments are based on clearland rights — its application without a land rightsregime for those who protect forests could createmore alienation.Incentives do not have to be land-based,however, nor do they have to be cash payments: thishas been demonstrated in the village of Sukhomajriin Haryana, where water rights were de-linked fromland. The pani panchayats in Maharashtra also workthis way. Such innovative approaches to expandrights, including rights to environmental benefits, areneeded.It is clear that conservation support in India willneed innovative approaches. The fact is that we haveto make conservation ‘pay’ so that the burden on thepoor is reduced. It is they who live within theconservation areas; it is they who are deprived ofdevelopment and livelihood opportunities.RecommendationsThe Tiger Task Force recommends that the Project Tiger directorate must take urgentinitiative to begin a definite and time-bound programme for payment of ecologicalservices to stakeholders.To do so, it must work with the tiger reserves to carry out an evaluation of the ecosystemservices that accrue to the nation from the reserves, and must formulate the mechanismfor charging the city/area/districts that get water from the watersheds secured by thisreserve, and sharing the revenue so earned between the reserve authorities and the peoplein and around the reserve in an equitable fashion.The way ahead 143