Tribal Development Framework (TDF) :

Introduction :

The Himachal Pradesh Forests for Prosperity Project aims at improved governance, management and community use of forests and pastures at selected sites in the state of Himachal Pradesh and the project will be implemented in 7 districts falling in the Satluj basin (Kinnaur, Kullu, Mandi, Shimla, Solan, Una and Bilaspur). Kinnaur district has the highest concentration of tribal communities (58 percent) followed by Solan (5 percent) while being dispersed and present in small numbers in other districts (Shimla and Mandi 1 percent each). Owing to their presence in the project area, and since the grazing route of the transhumant communities of the state falls in the proposed project area, World Bank’s Policy on Indigenous People is triggered and these communities are likely to be impacted by the project interventions.

To enable the inclusion of tribal and other vulnerable communities in the project and to achieve the best possible outcomes of the project for tribal communities in terms of their participation in project activities and to avoid, to the extent possible, any adverse social impacts of the project this tribal development framework has been prepared.

The principal objectives :

• Avoid or minimize any kind of adverse impact on the tribal community and to suggest appropriate mitigation measures.
• Ensure that the project engages in free, prior and informed consultation with tribal people in the entire process of planning, implementation and monitoring of project.
• Identify the views of tribal people regarding the proposed project and ascertain broad community support for the project.
• Ensure that project benefits are accessible to the tribal communities living in§ the project area.

Components of the Tribal Development Plan :

Awareness generation :

1.Community mobilisation to generate awareness about the project and assess the interest and demand of tribal communities for proposed project interventions.2. Deployment of local (tribal) Community Facilitators to support awareness generation and mobilisation in tribal areas.3. Use of IEC (Information, Education and Communication) at different stages of the project based on specific activities and locations to help planning of sub-projects.4. Galvanising community support for proposed interventions through social mobilisation and consultations with tribal stakeholders and its documentation.

Socio Economic Baseline :

1. Identification of scheduled areas and tribal clusters to prioritise targeting of dispersed indigenous communities in the non-tribal areas as well as for clear targeting of tribals in the schedule V areas. 2. Undertake a socio-economic baseline of all tribal clusters in the project area to measure impacts and inclusion of IPs during planning and implementation at different stages of the project (mid and end term)- disaggregated by gender and economic categories. 3. Benchmark the existing status in terms of occupations, land-holdings, animal husbandry, household incomes, forest access & dependence, existing customary usufruct rights over forest resources, participation in forestry operations as well as community institutions to assess impact.

Social assessment :

1. Hold separate consultations with tribal households, including tribal women and traditional leaders, to elicit their views during sub- project planning.  2. Evaluate the project’s potential positive and adverse impacts on indigenous people.3. Explore various measures to avoid adverse effects.4. If such measures are not feasible, identify minimization or mitigation measures .

Inclusion and Representation :

Ensure adequate representation of all categories of tribals –small & marginal farmers, landless, women, NTFP(Non-timber forest products) collectors & traders, pastoralists in community institutions formed under the project .2. In tribal-dominated areas, such bodies to be either headed by tribal leaders or have their representation in decision-making roles.3. Participation to be ensured in any training, exposure visits, consultations, awareness programs etc. 4. Prioritise selection of tribal members as project beneficiaries- for participation in nursery development, plantations, management of pastures, enterprise development and other related activities, at least in proportion to the tribal population of an area.

Training and Capacity building  :

1. Capacity building of Forest Department through provision of an External Consultant for a period of 2 years for development of the TDP. 2. Capacity building of key department officials, especially field staff and Community Facilitators recruited by the project on issues related to tribal development and related safeguards. 3. Capacity building of members of community institutions (including those in tribal areas) on engagement in forestry operations, roles and responsibilities as well as rights and entitlements related to forest management.

Convergence with other relevant schemes  :

1. Identify schemes that promote social and economic empowerment of tribal communities with which project activities can be converged.2. Hold consultations with state based institutions mandated to work on tribal development or managing schemes providing concessional finance, marketing, capacity/ skill building or institution support to vulnerable communities (as described in the previous section), to avail benefits for stakeholders belonging to scheduled tribe.

Implementat ion of the Tribal Development Plan ( TDP) :

 Implementation of the TDP shall be undertaken in accordance with the overall project implementation schedule.  As per the overall proposed institutional arrangements, the Social Development and Safeguards Specialist in the Project Implementation Unit (PIU) will be responsible for the preparation and implementation of the TDP.  S/he would be supported by an identified focal point in the respective§ forest divisions, who in turn would be supported by the Community Facilitators at the beat level.  Community Facilitators would be trained and involved in the TDP§ preparation, its implementation

Monitoring the implementation of TDP :

 The overall responsibility for monitoring the implementation would lie with the PIU at the State Level. Oversight of its implementation will also be done through regular field visits by the Social Development and Safeguards specialist recruited by the project.  Progress will be periodically tracked against the baseline data collected during preparation of the TDP.  Constraints and challenges identified during TDP implementation will be escalated to senior project management for modifications (if found necessary) in the project implementation strategy.