What is your signature innovation, your new idea, in one sentence?

Training and Empowering Women of SAHARA NGO for ecotourism activities as alternative income generation activity leading to conservation of the GHNP.

What approach does your initiative incorporate?

Capacity Building

What stage is your project?

Idea phase, Ongoing project

Year the initative began:

2009

Website:

http://www.greathimalayannationalpark.com/GHNP_sahara.htm

Youtube Video:

http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=kmOIcPYmg7c

Barrier:

Lack of parity in facilities, equipment and funding

Insight:

Embed sports with other activities

Do you have any existing partnerships? If so, please list and describe.

We have an existing partnership with a) Great Himalayan National Park Management who fully support our idea about the development of sustainable tourism in the ecozone with help of all women adventure sport operation. b) Atal Bihari Western Himalayan Mountaineering Institute : the biggest adventure sport training facility in Asia having world class infrastructure who have previously trained world class women adventure enthusiasts. c) Sunshine Himalayan Adventures : A pioneer ecotour operator company in the GHNP responsible for training and developing entrepreneurial skills amongst women folk of SAHARA.

How many people does your innovation serve or plan to serve? Exactly who will benefit?

We plan to serve at least 30-50 women members of SAHARA NGO who will be trained to become guides, naturalists and future entrepreneurs leading to an all new chapter of eco-tourism particularly with women travelers. By empowering these 50 women for becoming adventure professionals we tend to serve at least 50 families women empowerment will not only happen on an economic scale but social and political as well. The exact beneficiaries will be the poor women of the ecozone.

In which sector do these partners work? (Check all that apply)

Citizen sector (non profits, NGOs), Private sector, Public sector (government)

How do you implement your innovation and apply it to the challenge/problem you are addressing?

Great Himalayan National Park has immense potential as far as ecotourism activities go. With growing ecotourism demand resources need to build in the form of trained manpower. We have found that amongst the travelers coming to GHNP and the ecozone about 50% are women who have a strong desire to interact with women folk of the area. So far this has been happening with only our homestays but with training women in active tourism activities like trekking, mountaineering, rock climbing, river crossing as well as inhouse management like hygienic cooking of local organic food, communication, environmental issues, cultural practices one can easily build up on the skills to handle activities and tourists coming into the ecozone. The idea is simple - Train-Employ-Enpower.

Provide one sentence describing your impact/intended impact

Empower local women through intensive ecotourism training to actively earn through ecotourism making them independent and have a voice / choice.

What does impact/success look like? Please list any tangible measures of the impact of your innovation

SAHARA is working with villagers in the Ecozone to try and provide alternative income generating activities. They have set up women's savings and credit groups in which every village woman tries to save one rupee a day. The women's savings and credit groups are a great step forward in empowering women. Surprisingly the women do most of the manual labour in the village; they rise early to collect fodder, they return hours later to cook for the family, they go out in the afternoon to collect wood and graze their cattle, and they return in the evening to cook, do the cleaning and so forth. By training these hard working women in ecotourism which is a high revenue generation activity we want to empower them economically. This is already being done through other activities like handicrafts, producing organic food products, managing medicinal nurseries all of which can be easily incorporated in the Tourist inflow into the park.

Is there a chance that your project could change policy (within an institution or government)?

Yes, SAHARA is a NGO created by the park administration to bridge the Gap between the GHNP authorities and the local community. By making it a success such models can easily be replicated in other remote valleys and would hence have an effect on the policies governing rural areas. By these micro saving and credit groups we tend to make the women more independent and have a voice. This has already shown effects with three members of SAHARA being chosen as heads of Village Councils leading to political enpowerment.

Aside from financial sustainability, how do you plan to grow the initiative or expand your intended impact?

The plan would start with the Tirthan valley which has immense scope for ecotourism. Moreover the infrastructure of women power lies in the form of SAHARA who have over 500 women members doing income generation activities. By incorporating adventure sports as one of the initiatives and making a success out of it we can set procedures and models which can easily be replicated at least in the hidden Himalayas. With the presents governments thrust in eco and rural tourism one can replicate this mod

How is your initiative financed (or how do you expect your initiative will be financed)?

With some financing in training of the women ( which can be got through writing projects ) we expect them to use their own savings to purchase equipment , develop home stays for tourists. With about 35 activities already identified in the ecozone and the core zone of the Great Himalayan National Park there is plenty for a tourist to do in a serene environment. This initiative then needs to be marketed which should come through an active mix of advertisement, publicity, promotion and public relations.

If your project is already up and running, tell us your:

Annual budget

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Annual revenue generated

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Number of staff (full-time, part-time, volunteers)

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What are the main barriers to financing your initiative, and how do you plan to address these barriers?

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What are the major challenges with regards to partnerships?

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What was the motivation or defining moment that led to create this innovation? Tell us the story.

The challenge at GHNP has been to reduce local dependence on the Park, mitigate poverty, and create cooperative relations with local people, all on a sustainable basis. Recognizing that reducing poverty has to begin with the poorest individuals and that often these are the women, a local Community Based Organization (CBO), SAHARA (Society for Scientific Advancement of Hill and Rural Advancement), the Park management are working to enhance the income of poor women along with their social and political empowerment through an instrument called "Women's Saving and Credit Groups (WSCGs)". Ecotourism is one of the prime activities that is being prcatced with men folk belonging to these WSCG's. But by bringing women directly in the feild of adventure sports by training and making them use their own money to generate income would be just great.

Please tell us about the social innovator behind this initiative

I am a lecturer of Ecotourism in the Govt. Degree College at Kullu teaching tourism to undergraduates.I became a naturalist and guide after receiving a Bachelors Degree in Commerce and a Masters Degree in Tourism from Himachal University. i also holds a Certificate in Environmental Tourism from IGNOU and will soon begin working towards my PhD in eco-tourism. i have worked as an interpretive naturalist for the Great Himalayan National Park and has been involved in community and environmental acti

Mr. Ankit Sood