In India, about a quarter of the population is directly dependent on ecosystem services for their livelihoods. A majority of these are small, marginal and landless farmers. With external agricultural inputs being inaccessible or unaffordable to this section of farmers, they are completely dependent on the ecosystem services and at the mercy of climate vagaries. The livelihood of the rural poor is thus to a large degree dependent on ecosystem services. There is a direct relationship between the health of ecosystems and the poor people’s opportunities to build assets, increase food security, improve health, reduce risks, and have generally more secure lives or –to put it succinctly- to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (Hazelwood and Mock, 2010).

However, policy and decision making processes in the country traditionally have not taken into consideration these aspects of ecosystem services and their linkages to poverty. The result is a situation where the ability of ecosystems to continue delivering services is being compromised. It is true that at the national policy level the role of ecosystem services in poverty alleviation is being increasingly acknowledged, as evidenced by various initiatives and programmes like Integrated Watershed Management Programme, National Action Plan on Climate Change and Desertification, National Mission for a Green India etc. On the other hand, we observe that at the local and regional level, the capacity for implementation of these policies and programmes in a manner consonant with the local ecological context is grossly inadequate. The need to build this capacity amongst policy and decision makers at all levels is strongly felt if the concerns of ecosystem services are to be well integrated within poverty alleviation policy and development action. Suitable mechanisms will have to be defined to mainstream consideration of ecosystem services in developmental planning.

One of the barriers preventing the consideration of ecosystem services in policy decisions has been the lack of acceptable methodologies for the valuation of these services. In the absence of valuation, the market forces are able to conveniently ignore the costs of ecosystem degradation in terms of loss of long term livelihood security for the poor. However, several initiatives have emerged from both the government and the non-government sectors towards addressing this identified gap .They promise to create a positive impact.

Development Alternatives has been attempting to stress the importance of ecosystem services in mainstream planning through some of its ongoing interventions. As the National Resource Cell on Decentralized District Planning, we have been advocating an ecosystem based approach to local development planning. However, such an approach must be complemented by the creation of an awareness amongst the local communities. Only then the stakeholders’ demand for developmental approaches that are sensitive to the need for long term resilience of ecosystems can be catalysed. Our ongoing ShubhKal campaign is an initiative towards this end whereby local communities are being sensitised to the risks of climate change and the need for adaptation.

It is critically important, particularly in the context of climate change impacts becoming evident, that the ecosystem services approach be mainstreamed in development planning. It can be achieved through appropriate policy mechanisms and capacity building and by integration of research advances in the valuation and sustainable management of ecosystem services. q