Through this project, Pragya aims to strengthen the resilience of Himalayan forest ecosystems against wildfires, improve the livelihoods of local communities, and lay the foundations for replicable models of sustainable forest governance.
The Indian Himalayas are one of the world’s 36 biodiversity hotspots, home to over 3,000 rare and endemic plant species, many of which have medicinal properties. Nearly 50 million people directly depend on its forest resources. This fragile ecosystem is under significant pressure: overexploitation, degradation, erosion of traditional knowledge, and an increase in forest fires, exacerbated by climate change.
Pragya has been active in this region since 1995. Building on its previous initiatives, one of which has been supported by the Audemars Piguet Foundation for Trees, this project aims to prevent and mitigate forest fires by combining traditional ecological knowledge with modern science.
The initiative targets three vulnerable districts in the states of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, covering 60 high-risk forest zones. It engages forest-edge communities to revive ancestral knowledge and implement nature-based solutions.
Three interconnected objectives are pursued:
- Strengthen community knowledge of forest fires by integrating traditional practices into forest management. Sixty villages will develop prevention plans that combine local wisdom with modern techniques.
- Establish community-led risk monitoring, driven by youth, to identify high-risk areas and apply nature-based solutions in 12 pilot zones.
- Improve local coordination of fire response through the expansion of the DMS-Himalaya (Disaster Management System – Himalaya), developed by Pragya to enhance disaster preparedness and response in Himalayan regions.
Through this holistic approach, Pragya aims to strengthen the resilience of Himalayan forest ecosystems against wildfires, improve the livelihoods of local communities, and lay the foundations for replicable models of sustainable forest governance.
