Tools and Resources
Policy Analysis
To inform policy on freshwater conservation effectively in the future, a broad analysis of current policies relevant to freshwater conservation was conducted. The key objective was to conduct a desk review and assessment of the relevant public policies and plans with respect to ecological conservation and freshwater management in order to highlight the gaps, challenges and opportunities for bringing freshwater ecosystem conservation in focus and for effective conservation planning and implementation in India.
Stakeholders Analysis
Stakeholders are defined as the people, organizations, or communities who are involved in or affected by an action or policy and can/should be directly or indirectly included in the decision-making process. At the outset of any conservation programme or planning, it is critical that the process involves identification and active involvement of key stakeholders. At the beginning of the initiative, we attempted to identify the key direct stakeholders for freshwater ecosystem conservation and conducted a preliminary online survey to get a better understanding of their perceptions regarding freshwater ecosystems, threats, policy environment and conservation.
Categorising watersheds in India for conservation: A Spatial Analysis
For freshwater ecosystem management, representing information spatially through maps is particularly relevant given their interconnected nature. When conservation efforts are conducted at relatively large scales (e.g watershed, basin), mapping patterns in integrity of freshwater ecosystems across space are a useful tool to allocate and prioritise conservation resources, and to inform planning for monitoring, and ecosystem-based management, ultimately enhancing decision-making about conservation investments. Freshwater ecosystems are often underrepresented in land-use and conservation planning efforts in India, where limited information regarding the distribution, condition and status of these ecosystems is one of the contributing factors. Here, we aimed to contribute to addressing this challenge by providing information on the spatial distribution of different biophysical typologies, condition/integrity, status and extent of enabling conditions for watersheds across India.