Sahjeevan’s governance work involves facilitating legal bodies and management plans.
Our Biodiversity Unit encourages Panchayats in Kachchh to take advantage of the provisions under the BDA to set up legally mandated BMCs. The BMCs document the biodiversity in their village, develop management plans to track specific indicators and feed detailed data into People’s Biodiversity Registers (PBRs).
We specifically support villages with rare flora and fauna or where there is a threat from industrial or infrastructure development projects. Community representatives and our staff survey and observe landscapes in and around the village to identify and mark critical habitats. The PBR prepared by the village provides a legal framework to protect its biodiversity, corridors and ecologically sensitive habitats.
We have collaborated with the State Biodiversity Board to help 35 villages prepare their registers in the talukas of Nakhatrana, Abdasa and Lakhpat. Subsequently, we collaborated with several CSR programmes to help 15 villages prepare and implement their conservation plans.