JIWAN stands for Jaladh Integrated Watershed and Natural Ressource Co-Management Programme. The programme integrates public education with sustainable management of natural resources in the Lok Patshalas – People's schools. The schools aim to create an understanding for using and protecting nature and the environment in a sustainable way.

Target group

The programme targets 62,500 residents of the Churia Mountains of which 53 per cent are women and 14 per cent are Dalits. Additionally the programme helps 17,000 people in the surrounding areas.

Activities

One of the most serious problems for the rural population in Nepal is the extensive and increasing deterioration of arable land. The causes of the rapid detorioration are deforestation and unsustainable agricultural methods combined with heavy monsoon rains. In the area around the Jaladh river in the Churia Mountains the land is cultivated on steep slopes. The slopes easily erode, when the protective cover of forest is removed in connection with the creation of new settlements. The project aims to solve these problems and improve living standards for the target group through public information sharing about environment, nature and basic rights. The project is also implementing a new system, which is based on payment for environmental services, and which splits the burden of soil erosion and deterioration of arable land between the farmers in the mountains and the farmers on the plains.

The project starts Life School Centres and Open Village Schools, where groups of adults meet every week. It is Grundtvig's 150-year-old concept of folk high schools giving education to the poor rural population in Denmark, which inspired the schools in the Jiwan project. In the schools adults meet across gender, caste, religion and language to learn how to work together on sustainable management of their common resources and basis for living.

Area

The area around the Jaladh river in Dhanusa district in the Churia Mountains and the Terai lowlands, located in the vicinity of Janakpur South East of Kathmandu.

Duration and budget

The programme runs from 2005 to 2011 and is financed by Danida with approximately 30 million kroner.

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