Environmental policy and administrative management

PROJECT OUTCOME The expected outcome of the three years sustainable land management project was defined into two categories as outline in the project proposal. Those two categories were hardware system development and the software system of development. These two systems in long run would lead to the secondary impact of enhancing the livelihood sources of the community leading to the improvement in the living standard of the rural community and their sustainability. Some of the immediate outcomes from hard system as well as from soft system development had been achieved within this project term. The project has accomplished most of the proposed activities, especially the collective activities within the first two years. However, the household level activities have been taken up part by part during the subsequent years within the project period. This was because the project has given consideration for the labour resource availability at the household level, the amount and type of work to be done by each household keeping in mind the time required for their own daily household and seasonal works. HARDWARE SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT The hard system development is the immediate physical outputs which are tangible and measurable. The immediate outcome of the project is as follows: (a) The contouring of the steep farmland had been completed to 90 percent with 10 percent remaining to be completed in the coming season. (b) The stone risers along the contours have been completed 100% for the five households and 75 % completed for the rest 13 households. (c) The multi purpose tree species nursery had been established and the nursery started producing the tree seedlings and grass slips to meet their local demands. (d) The 250 metres length of diversion channel had been constructed which diverts the storm water during the peak monsoon season. (e) The community have planted around 1 hectare of assorted valuable species and 120 acres of government-reserved forest had been handed over to the community as community forest. (f) The community meeting hall constructed in the middle of the village which started serving as a multipurpose hall during groups meeting and farmers and visitors visiting the land management areas during study tours. (g) Unlike in the beginning of the project every household produces vegetables for self consumption and 12 of the 18 household sells the excess produce in the local market. (h) The top soil loss due to surface runoff from the field has been reduced since there are no scars of soil erosion such as rills and gullies seen in the farmland. (i) The sustainable farmland management group have been formed and named as Salamjee Phashing Zingchoung Tshogpa which became the driving force to efficiently and effectively carry out the land management activities. (j) The farmers saving group have been formed and the individual household contributes Nu.200 half yearly and have made the saving amounting to Nu. 25 to thirty thousand, which are aimed to maintain future sustainability of the land management activities. (k) One of the visible impacts includes the change in the land form from steep degraded farmlands with gulleys and rills to terraced fields with stone risers and grass slips and fruit trees along the contours. (l) The total of 2736 numbers of citrus seedlings were planted by 18 households out of which 1969 numbers of plants were successfully grafted by the communities within 2 years of project time (BTOR, 2007b). (m) The survival of the edible bamboo plants is 40 numbers out of 50 numbers of native bamboos planted which makes the survival rate to 80% and the rest 20% mortality will be replanted within the end of this project period. (n) The farmland management activities carried out by this community has been appreciated by the other dzongkhags and near by villages. The same approach has been replicatedby the communities of three other villages like Geylechu, Lodumba and Trashithang in the same dzongkhags. (o) The draft extension manual on sustainable farmland management approach had been developed through the experience gained from the Salamjee SLM project. 3.2 Software System Development THE SOFT SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT The soft system development includes the development of institutional capacity building for managing the farmland resources which ensures sustainable and profitable utilization of land resources. The intangible outcomes are: (p) Strengthened livelihood resilience through improved land husbandry (q) Institutionalized community groups for land management and increased cohesion of the groups and carried out the proposed activities with the team spirit. (r) The indigenous knowledge on land management technologies have been enhanced and improved, where by farmers now do contouring and hedge plantation, where as in the past they used, construct stone risers without contours and hedge grasses. (s) The farmer group is able to manage their resources (nursery, top working, plantation, contouring, vegetable production, pest & disease mgt., etc) CONCLUSION The three years of sustainable farmland project have been completed successfully by the Salamjee Phashing ZInchoung Tshogpa. Some of the immediate tangible impacts have been already observed as mentioned above and needs few more years to see the community enjoying the fruits of their three years hardship in the form of long-term benefits. The community have really understood the benefits they get out of group works so the local institution

Bhutan