The Government of India has been a state member of IUCN since 1969. Today, IUCN has 25 members in India, one of the highest among Asian countries. IUCN's six Commissions include 425 experts from India. In 2007, IUCN established a country office and programme in India to deepen its engagement at the local, national, and regional levels.

The IUCN India Country Programme

The India country programme emerged from extensive consultation with its members and partners. The programme seeks to tap synergies among the IUCN community in India, in Asia, and in other parts of the world. Its implementation will strengthen India’s conservation efforts both at home and abroad. The programme has six conservation priorities, each of which requires specific improvements in knowledge, in capacity, and in governance at the local, sub-national, and national level. These are:

  • Enhancing India’s cooperation with other countries on issues where national, regional, and global conservation concerns converge.
  • Influencing mainstream policy and programmes to recognise the trade-offs between social, economic and environmental considerations.
  • Employing effective instruments that encourage environmentally sensitive resource use. 
  • Designing special measures to ensure the survival of fragile ecosystems in different parts of the country.
  • Encourage community conservation of common pool resources, whether owned by the state, or by local entities, to provide local communities a long-term stake in conservation.
  • Promote sustainable management of protected areas and other habitats controlled by the state in a manner that balances conservation imperatives with local needs, synthesises scientific conservation principles with indigenous knowledge.

IUCN’s India programme will also seek to identify the key environmental concerns and gaps and correspondingly broaden the membership base to enhance influence on policy and practice in sustainable development.

Recent activities undertaken by IUCN in India include:

  • Himalayan Water and Nature Initiative- innovative management practices to support mainstreaming of an ecosystem approach to water management;
     
  • Access to environmental justice by the rural communities; and
     
  • Tiger Reserve Assessment.

Regional and Global Initiatives in India
Work has also been undertaken to implement two important initiatives:

  • The Livelihoods and Landscapes Strategy (LLS) is a global initiative that examines the rights and access of the rural poor to forest products in the context of the entire landscape in which people and forests interact; and
  • Mangroves for the Future Initiative (MFF), which seeks to address long-term threats to coastal ecosystems, and promote investment in conserving coastal ecosystems as development ‘infrastructure’. For more information, please visit: www.mangrovesforthefuture.org

For more information, contact the IUCN India office at:
20 Anand Lok (2nd Floor)
New Delhi -110049
India
Tel/Fax: 91-11-26257742
email: jsrawat@iucnt.org