Watershed development practices for ecorestoration in a tribal area – A case study in Attappady hills, South India

Attappady is a rural area in Kerala, South India, that has suffered from severe land degradation and which is inhabited by a poor and predominantly tribal population. The combination of severe land degradation, poverty and a tribal population make Attappady hydrologically and socially unique. Ecological degradation and deforestation followed the gradual building up of land pressure resulting from immigration by more wealthy outsiders. The hills of Attappady were once the forest land of Kerala. Recently it was on the verge of complete degradation.This paper explains how an ecorestoration project involving soil and water conservation interventions, the introduction of agro-forestry, nutritional diversification, income generation activities and training was implemented in a participatory manner. The project had positive impacts on both the environment and the livelihoods of the people living in the watershed, but it also suffered from drawbacks. This paper reports on the successes as well as the lessons learned from this unique ecorestoration project.

► We report on a successful eco-restoration project implemented with people’s participation in a rural tribal area in Kerala.
► Successful reports of complex eco-restoration projects are rare, particularly within a complex institutional setting.
► Of course there were also many set-backs and difficulties which are reported on in a lessons-learned section.