Building Capacities for Augmenting Livelihood to Sustain the Mangrove Stewardship of Women in the Indian Sundarbans to Adapt to Climate Change

Overview

The project, in partnership with Kolkata-based Nature Environment and Wildlife Society (NEWS), aims to enhance livelihoods and strengthen the capacity of women in the Indian Sundarbans to sustain mangrove stewardship and adapt to climate change.

Effective management is needed to protect the mangroves of Sundarbans, which play a key role in climate adaptation and mitigation, and provide crucial ecosystem services like carbon sequestration and shoreline protection. Further empowering communities – which depend on nearby resources such as fish, wood, honey and other non-timber products – to become stewards of the ecosystem, along with strategies to enhance the market value of their products, can help reduce reliance on forest resources. To achieve this, the long-term goal is to build coastal resilience through nature-based solutions (NbS), essentially mangrove conservation and restoration in the context of Sundarbans by promoting mangrove stewardship, establishing governance standards for Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs), and developing livelihood augmentation plans.

Objectives

Develop long-term strategies for sustainable resource management through natural farming and resource collection.
Develop Badabon Farmer Producer Companies (FPCs) long-term vision and strategy for 2030
Strengthen market linkages and explore opportunities for value chain addition
Suggest strategies to expand market reach by selling commodities in the open market and other platforms
Identify areas for capacity building within the organisation and its members
Improve communication and branding strategy for Badabon Harvest with a focus on climate change adaptation, resilience, natural farming, and local Sundarbans production
Attract investments and funding to Badabon’s activities
Develop Operational Management Frameworks including group management plans outlining roles, responsibilities, and decision-making processes for BFC

Events

Training sessions for Badabon Farmers Producer Company Limited on 7 February, 2025

Training sessions for Badabon Farmers Producer Company Limited on 7 February, 2025

Centre for Responsible Business conducted two training sessions on 7 February 2025 for the farmers of Badabon Farmers Producer Company Limited (FPC), an FPO that produces various agricultural products such as rice, honey, turmeric, chilies, jaggery etc under the brand Badabon Harvest. The training focused on Agricultural Marketing, providing valuable insights into value addition and marketing strategies to help farmers enhance their agri-businesses. Members of Nature Environment Wildlife and Society (NEWS) also participated in the sessions. More than 30 farmers attended the training, gaining practical knowledge to improve their market reach and profitability.

Additionally, a capacity-building programme was also organised for the Board of Directors (BOD) of Badabon FPC on Branding and Marketing. This session aimed at addressing key challenges, exploring growth opportunities, and shaping future strategies for Badabon Harvest. Participants received expert guidance on branding, marketing, value addition, and business expansion. The session was attended by over 15 participants, primarily BOD members of Badabon FPC and NEWS staff.

The training sessions were conducted by Dr. Ramesh Mittal, Senior Advisor at CRB, with Chhanda De, Program Officer at CRB, providing Bangla translations to ensure effective communication.

ISS 2024 - Beyond Plantations: Synergies for Healthy Mangroves, Thriving Coastal Communities, and Robust Value Chains - Lessons from the Sundarban

ISS 2024 – Beyond Plantations: Synergies for Healthy Mangroves, Thriving Coastal Communities, and Robust Value Chains – Lessons from the Sundarban: Watch here

The session, as a part of Centre for Responsible Business (CRB’s) India and Sustainability Standards 2024, aimed to develop a strong narrative that promotes a comprehensive concept of mangrove stewardship at the national level, going beyond just increasing mangrove cover through plantations. Some of the objectives of the session were:

Emphasise the importance of nurturing and promoting mangrove stewardship among local communities to ensure long-term ecological sustainability beyond mangrove plantation.
Advocate for the mobilisation of resources through the right channels to support mangrove stewardship and related livelihood initiatives, with particular emphasis on women’s empowerment.
Initiate a multi-stakeholder dialogue platform on the transformative bottom-up model (pursued by NEWS) coalescing the triple objectives of healthy mangroves, thriving coastal communities and resilient value chains.
Use the platform to raise awareness about the positive outcomes nature based solutions using a value chain approach, involving all key stakeholders in the region.

Field Visits

Assessment of Mangrove Stewardship Principles of SHG Groups | November 21 to November 23, 2024

Centre for Responsible Business (CRB), in collaboration with NEWS and Badabon Harvest — a brand incubated by NEWS under the Badabon Farmer Producer Company Limited — is in the process of developing a comprehensive framework to assess the impact of mangrove stewardship. This framework establishes a set of principles, criteria, and indicators designed to measure the impacts of mangrove-related practices across four key capitals: natural, human, social, and produced.

The assessment was built through a participatory, bottom-up process, involving extensive consultations with stakeholders and on-the-ground testing. Fieldwork was conducted with local Self-Help Groups (SHGs) to measure their performance against the defined indicators and understand their positioning across various social, economic, and ecological parameters.

By capturing the strengths and gaps in current practices, this framework aims to promote effective mangrove stewardship, empowering local communities and fostering sustainable resource management.