The Government of West Bengal in the first meeting (December 2003) on biodiversity conservation after the Biodiversity Act being in forced in Feb 2003 invited the President of ENDEV as one of the major speaker to share experice of the work.

The participation of 200 youth group members representing both the genders in equal numbers based on selection of 20 participants from each of the target village was planned and achieved during the project. In the initial stage, none of the participants had any clear conception about the component of bio-diversity, their current status, their uses and value and extent of dependency of the local community on such resource base. During the project they were trained as how to document such resource and their habitat, how to find out socio-economic survey, how to understand the impact of land use changes and how unsustainable method of agriculture may lead to diminishing return. The farmers, through interactive sessions could appreciate the value of right seed selection (traditional vs. high yielding) and were motivated to put part of their land under traditional rice system using organic farming method. The contribution of the local participants could be evidenced in the preparation of 10 PBRs, one for each village, a clear indicator of the enhancement of their capacities.

The project aimed at sensitizing local community on the status of their biological resource base and need of conservation, in view of their dependency, of such resources through a methodical documentation of agro-biodiversity and wild-biodiversity. In this exercise, the participation of men and women of both the village clusters was 50:50. The interest shown by women participants in some of the village areas provided the opportunity to lead the team by the women leader.

The strategies adopted were resource mapping by the village community, analysis of the level of erosion of resource, degradation of habitat and guiding the community towards the restoration of habitat and in bringing back most needed resources to the village. This was done through extensive community interaction. The process was slow at the beginning, but by the end of the project, receptiveness of the community was significantly changed.