Community-based Biodiversity Management: South Asia Regional Programme (CBM SA)

The Community-based Biodiversity Management South Asia (CBM-SA) Programme is a regional conservation for livelihoods programme implemented in Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka. The programme capitalizes on and promotes regional experiences, efforts, synergies and commitments to take urgent actions for sustainable management of genetic resources. The programme works towards making resource poor farming communities more resilient to the impacts climate change.

South Asian countries are rapidly industrialising and developing into a market economy. The role of agriculture in economic development is decreasing. While some sectors of the society are benefiting, others like the millions of rural farmers in the region are at risk of being left behind.

Agricultural production environments in South Asian countries are subsistence-oriented and very dependent on the climatic conditions. Any changes in the climate are likely to affect agricultural production and risk their livelihoods. CBM practices such as diversity fairs, community seed banks, and CBM trust funds empower communities to manage and maintain high agricultural biodiversity on-farm and the knowledge associated with them. From this portfolio, farmers can choose crop varieties and livestock breeds as per their needs and increase their resilience in the face of changing climate.

The programme was initiated as a response to the recommendations from the “Regional Consultation and Planning Workshop” held from 16-17 April 2008 in Nepal. The programme is regionally coordinated by Local Initiatives for Biodiversity, Research and Development (LI-BIRD) with UBINIG (Bangladesh), Anthra and GREEN Foundation (India), LI-BIRD (Nepal) and Green Movement of Sri Lanka coordinating their respective country programmes.

The projects are country-led, i.e., they are developed and implemented by coordinating organizations in each country in partnership with farming communities and other stakeholders. A regional programme coordination mechanism supports and strengthens the country projects.

The project goal is to enhance biodiversity based livelihood security of local communities in South Asia. 

Its specific objective are  

  1. To increase productivity of biodiversity based production systems of poor farmers for improved livelihoods and their resilience to climate change; and
  2. To strengthen capacity of farming communities to conserve, utilize and benefit from agricultural biodiversity and protect their rights on genetic resources.

Project Details

Countries

Nepal

Province
Working district

Surkhet, Dailekh, Achham

Municipality
Duration

Jan 2012 - Dec 2016

Partners

Anthra, Green Movement of Sri Lanka, UBINIG

Funded by

The Development Fund, Norway

Household Coverage
Contact Person

Pitambar Shrestha
E-mail: pitambar@libird.org

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