ACTIVE is taking up Social forestry, Plantations and Waste Land Development activities. Objectives of this program are :

  • To develop waste lands to fertile.
  • To increase Green-belt.
  • To encourage ownership in poor tribals.
  • To regenerate natural resources.
  • To increase farm productivity by promoting inter crops thereby conserve soil.
  • To maintain a better eco-balance.

In order to translate the vision into reality as early as possible, ACTIVE has decided on a three-pronged strategy that will wage war on poverty, create a model of natural resources management and empower people both financially and socially so that they eventually take charge of their own future.

  1. Poverty alleviation: Given the small land holding size of the target population, and the increasing there cannot be an alternative to diversifying rural income. One of the most viable ways of doing so is by promoting mixed-specie plantations.
  2. Regeneration of Natural Resources: Afforestation by itself increases the green cover of the area, which has several beneficial impacts on the environment. In addition there are many secondary, but critical, effects on the natural resources.
    • It rebuilding depleted soils and thus increasing farm productivity.
    • It reduces or halts water run-off, thus preventing the loss of valuable topsoil and increasing recharge of ground water sources.
    This in turn creates irrigation potential in the command area.
  3. Long-Term Sustainable Impacts: In order to ensure that the process keeps gathering momentum and becomes self-perpetuating requires intensive efforts in two areas:
    • Encouraging ownership of the project by ensuring that the people are involved in the project planning and implementation stage and become stakeholders by contributing cash, labour and material.
    • Empowering stakeholders to make them masters of their own destiny. This will be achieved through the social mobilization of the target communities into village sanghams.