Flowering Kaas Community

Annual Report Card 2017:

Solid-Rock determination enter heading here...

History was made in 2012, when UNESCO's World Heritage Committee inscribed 39 sites of the Western Ghats of India as World Natural Heritage (WNH). It was the first ever-serial nomination of so many sites along the 1600 kms of rock-hard mountain range of Sahyadri that received such an ardent support from UNESCO's expert committee.

Kaas Plateau, the smallest of the 39 sites, perching on the northern most tip of the Western Ghats stands apart due to its wild flowers. Never before UNESCO received the nomination for the inscription that included a place that blooms with wild flowers year-after-year on the rocky plateau with just few millimeters of soil.

History is also in making for yet other reasons.

First, TERRE Policy Centre, not-for-profit organization has been passionately and unassumingly working without any external financial support, to prepare such Report Cards in consultation with the local communities around Kaas. The rapport with local community was established long before the inscription in 2012 and regularly thereafter for last 6 years.

Second, we in TERRE have directly supported Government of India in getting the UNESCO's inscription of World Natural Heritage in 2012. More than that, we held community dialogues and presented the case directly to the World Heritage Committee of UNESCO on behalf of Kaas Community during final round.

Third, it is one of the rarest examples where NGO prepares Annual Report Cards with such a forward-looking quantitative and qualitative description of conservation and community development around the WNH site.

Fourth, there has been a growing feeling among the community and Joint Forest Management Committee for improving the participative management and working in harmony with local governments, experts, researchers, youth volunteers and other NGOs. This does not mean that all is well with Kaas. Though this year's report demonstrates even more positive transformation in sustainable management of the Kaas Plateau, there were formidable, but not intractable, challenges. Such challenges faced by the community are poised to become unparalleled opportunities.

The Annual Report card does not constitute just a 'report card' with simple 'grades', but in reality, it reports about the 'unique cord' stuck by the local community with the nature that 'grades' the potential of the participative conservation and sustainable development.

Click here to read the Full Report