Lessons on sustainability and ESG from Adivasi communities living in Saal forests of India

Lessons?on sustainability and ESG from Adivasi communities living in Saal forests of India

?Today is a historic day for #India as Smt. Droupadi Murmu becomes the #President of India. In her speech she has spoken about her upbringing in a tribal hamlet of India. She also highlighted the importance of #land, #water, and #forest in the life of tribal communities. This is so relevant in today's world where we are increasingly faced with the impact of #climatechange.

As I listened to her speech, my mind went back to the year 2001, Thakurmunda village, Mayurbhanj district. An important year for me , where a stint in this place shaped my career and thought process in the development sector. Thakurmunda is now a block headquarter and a small market area in Mayurbhanj district in the state of Odisha, India. The hilly landscape of this area is dotted with Sal forests and is interspersed with enchanting rivers. ?

?I was a young professional, brimming with enthusiasm and was looking forward to working in forest-based livelihood. This aspiration came true in Odisha, where I got the opportunity to work very closely with the women Self Help Groups (SHGs) in the tribal hamlets of Thakurmunda. The women here were engaged in collection of Non-timber Forest produce (NTFP) like Mahua flower, tendu patta, saal seeds, laac, wild honey, jamun etc for their livelihood. These Adivasi women valued traditional harvesting and respecting the nature. Their approach was simple yet rooted in traditional and sustainable ways of livelihood. They understood the importance of sustainability in harvesting forest produce for income generation. This process has been followed for millions of years in this tribal tradition of Odisha, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, and North East India.

?As I recall those days, I remember that the women carefully selected any new forest area where they wanted to venture. It was discussed in their SHG meetings and they would draw a simple resource map on a chart paper. This was a basic form of PRA (Participatory Rural Appraisal) map with symbols. This was easy to understand for even a person who was not able to read and write. Gaon bura/pradhan and older community members were consulted in this process and their advice was taken on how to traditionally harvest these minor forest produce. Rules were formulated by the SHG members for the entire process including responsibilities and sharing of the benefits.?Every woman had a role in this process: ?harvesting, collecting, cleaning, sorting, packaging, and selling in traditional village haat/market. One of the most important rules was not to harvest during certain period in a year so that forest gets time to rejuvenate.

?These women taught me some valuable lessons on ESG (environment social and governance) ?and sustainability and following were the takeaways from this women’s SHG group :

• ?Keep it in simple: It is also important for new champions of ESG and sustainability to clearly understand that it pertinent to draw from the traditional knowledge of sustainable practices and not develop complex design and solutions which will be difficult for people to follow. Simple tools and approaches which they have been using for generations will help in motivating communities.
• Governance is local: SDG and ESG rules must be designed locally and by people who will implement them, only then they can be implemented. Any rules which have been designed at a global level has to be rooted in traditional governance mechanism. It must be localized and owned by the community to succeed.
• ?Respect the Social norms: Traditional wisdom and practices are deeply rooted in social norms. Practitioners of ESG should work closely with the traditional groups to understand their beliefs, learn the good practices, and introduce these traditional norms to achieve the ESG goals.

Sustainable development is ingrained in the lifestyle of the traditional Adivasi communities living in the forests of India. There is much that modern day development practitioners can learn by just observing them and spending time with them.?