The Dzedokha village, located in the south-west of Bhutan is a small village under Lokchina Gewog, Chhukha with 2,672 residents. Lokchina Gewog is one of the remotest gewog and consists of 5 Chiwogs. It is located between Phuentsholing Gewog in the south east and Dungna Gewog in the north. It has an area of 70.4 sq.km/3917.77 acres and situated within the altitude ranging from 600-1200 meters above sea level. This mountainous village like thousands of other communities in this largely rural kingdom is off the beaten track; it is only accessible via a single farm road, mostly impassable during the monsoon season. As one of the remotest and poorest villages in Chhukha, the only cash crops are cardamom, ginger, and oranges. These cash crops are the main source of their livelihood. However, due to diseases like cardamom disease and citrus greening, the incoming generating opportunities of the farmers have been seriously affected. The only regular cash crop is the ginger but this too is affected by the instable and volatile market price. The people in the village also follow integrated farming wherein they grow crops like maize and paddy as well as rear livestock like cow and poultry which is solely for self-consumption. Lately with the support from the Department of Livestock, the bee farming has been introduced in the village. The bee farming is supposed to be an alternative income generating opportunities to the people of Dzedokha village.
Since Dzedokha village is located in the sub-tropical region, it is also bestowed with a rich floral diversity. The village has many useful medicinal and aromatic plants which are locally used in local healing system as well in traditional medicine (Sowa rigpa). Thus, collection and selling of medicinal and aromatic plants (MAPs) is another major activity for the people of Dzedokha. However, the sustainability of these resources seems to be questionable because of lack of adequate knowledge in sustainable harvesting approach of these resources.
The people of Dzedokha village are known for using Zingiber cassumunar locally known as ?Phacheng? in the local healing system mainly in relieving joint pains. The Zingiber cassumunar a species of plant in the ginger family is known for its anti-inflammatory properties and is been widely used in many countries like Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines etc. The medicinal value of zingiber plant was first came to the picture in 2012 during the traditional knowledge documentation project of NBC, when members from the community told that the Zingiber cassumunar is often used in the local healing system mainly to relieve joint pains. Since this plant is widely in treatment of joint pains and it is proven to have an anti-inflammatory properties as per the literatures, it was felt that, there is a huge scope for this plant for research and commercial utilization especially spa and wellness products. This idea is also supported by number of commercial products from this plant that are marketed including its essential oil in countries like Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines etc. Moreover, this plant is not very much popular in the neighboring countries like India, Nepal and Bangladesh. This gives Bhutan more opportunity and advantage in making spa and wellness products and roll these products in the market.
Although the plant is widely used for medicinal purposes, it was noticed that the community members used to collect the plant normally from the wild or cultivate it in few numbers in the kitchen garden. Based on the discussion with the community members, it was found that the population of plant in the wild is progressively diminishing. Therefore, in order to revive the population of the plant in the region and sustainably manage it, NBC supported the formation of a group called ?Dzedokha Phacheng Detshen? consisting of 45 members (24 M; 21 F) was formed to initiate cultivation of Zingiber cassumunar at a household level and appropriately utilize for research and product development.
The whole idea of this initiative is to encourage local communities to cultivate this plant and sell it either in the form of rhizome or essential oil to the company, wherein a company will develop a products, market it and share the portion of benefits to the communities. The portion of the benefit will also be deposited into the community fund which in small way shall contribute to the conservation efforts. This initiative is also co-financed by the UNDP-GEF funded project ?Implementing the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and Benefit Sharing in Bhutan? jointly implemented by UNDP Co Bhutan and NBC.
The ultimate goal of this initiative is to support the local communities in sustainable management of the Zingiber cassumunar through capacity building and technology transfer which in turn will reduce the pressure on wild zingiber and revive its population. Although the farmers? group was formed with numerous capacity building trainings, the communities could not be provided with the technology for value addition of the zingiber product due to limited and scarce funding. Thus, if the community is supported with a sustainable cultivation and harvesting training as well as technology such as grinding machines, slicing machines and essential oil distillation unit, the farmers will be able to distill the oil by themselves and sell it at a better price. Further, this would also empower the communities to understand the value chain as well as build their capacities so that the value of genetic resources is better understood. If this initiative becomes successful, it can be scaled up to other potential medicinal and aromatic plants found in the region. To cite a simple example, with an instable market price, ginger is not fetching a good price in the market. If the communities are trained to extract an essential oil from ginger, they can sell oil whenever the price of the ginger become low so that they fetch a better price.

Project Objectives
The project?s goal is to contribute to the conservation and sustainable use of globally significant biodiversity in Bhutan. The primary objective of the project support the Dzedokha Phacheng Detshen in sustainable management of biological resources through capacity building and technology transfer and facilitate the marketing of nature-based products.
The specific objective of the project is as follows;
1. Strengthen capacity and awareness of local communities on sustainable management of biological resources.
a. Conduct community based workshops to enhance awareness on issues, opportunities and challenges in biodiversity management and conservation. Through this, it is expected to increase the knowledge and understanding of the local communities on the opportunities, issues and challenges in biodiversity management and conservation thereby garnering their support for the same.
b. Train communities in sustainable harvesting, cultivation, management and processing of biological resources particularly the one whose population are dwindling and those which has an economic, social and cultural importance to the communities. The cultivation of the prioritized species will be carried out the individual lands belonging to the members.
Through this, local communities will be trained in the sustainable management and it will help to revive the population of the dwindling biological resources.
c. Conduct study tour to other similar project sites to learn and exchange ideas and experiences. Through this, local community members will learn ideas from the success stories and replicate it in their region. It will also enhance their awareness, planning capacity and organizational skills in implementing environment and sustainable development related project and activities.

2. Build capacity and empower local communities to understand the value chain of biological resources and natural product development.
a. Establishment of Essential oil extraction unit and provide hands on training on the operation and maintenance of the extraction unit. The following are the set of extraction oil unit to be procured and established in the community
i. Grinding machine
ii. Slicing machine
iii. Essential oil extraction (steam distillation) machine.

b. Construction of shed for the Essential Extraction Unit.

The land for the establishment of the essential oil extraction unit has been identified. One member of the group has agreed to give a piece of her land for the construction. The members also agreed to support the labor force required for the construction. Through the support of the project, a shed with three rooms (one for drying, and the other for slicing and grinding and third for essential oil extraction) will be constructed. Other required facilities such as water and electricity will be also provided for the better functioning of the extraction unit. Through this, it is expected to minimize spoilage of the raw materials and increase quality product thereby fetching good income to enhance their income and livelihood which in turn will help sustaining on their own to initiate similar biodiversity conservation activities in the future.
c. Provide Hands on training on the operation and maintenance of the extraction unit.

Three to four days intensive hands on training will be provided to the members of the Dzedokha Phacheng Detshen on the operation and maintenance of the Essential oil extraction unit. Through this, members? will be able to independently operate the unit as and when required.
3. Develop and disseminate a communication pieces on Knowledge resources emanating from this project as a material for experience sharing and awareness.
a. Develop a fliers, brochures, short audio-visual or other communication piece on the project and its impact on livelihood and environment at the end of the project. Through this, the success stories and lesion learnt will be disseminated so that other communities can learn from their experiences.

4. Increase and secure market for essential oil and other MAP within and outside Bhutan through market exploration and institutional linkages.
a. Explore market for the essential oil and other MAP that is generated from the community.
b. Promotion and advertisement of the essential oil and other MAP to secure better market.
c. Marketing of the essential oil and other MAP that is generated from the community within and outside Bhutan.

1.3.2 Expected Outcomes
The expected result of the project is that the communities are trained in sustainable cultivation and management of biological resources mainly medicinal and aromatic plants. The community will also be trained to understand the process involved in the extraction of essential oil from the biological resources which help them to gain a better bargaining power and fetch a better price of the oil in the market. If the group is supported in terms of aforementioned capacity building programs and technology transfer, it will empower the community to understand the value chain of the biological resources. If the community fetch a better price for their commodity in the market, it is expected generate enough revenue and enhance their livelihood. This will also contribute towards making the community self-sufficient in future. It will also empower the community to scale up similar biodiversity conservation activities in the future. Lastly, the project is expected to engage the locals especially youths meaningfully and will contribute towards lowering the rural-urban migration. 11

Further, supporting and implementing such community-based project and its activities, it is expected to contribute towards the SGP?s strategic initiatives like; Community Landscape Conservation; Climate Smart Innovative Agro-ecology; Promoting Social Inclusion and ultimately contribute in achieving the SGP?s overall objective for Operational Phase-6 ?Effectively support the creation of global environmental benefits and the safeguarding of the global environment through community and local solutions that complement and add value to national and global level action?.