Giant Trees for Climate Change Mitigation in India

Dear Well Wisher,

Greetings from the Western Ghats!

The campaign on Saving Giant trees will complete seven years next month. We don't realize how time passes when we are motivated and passionate about a cause that matters more than anything else. Giant tree conservation ranks very high when it comes to conservation initiatives of AERF. More so because it is the first crowd funding campaign we launched.

We have enjoyed this journey thoroughly and would like to thank all the individual and institutional supporters from the bottom of our heart. It is often said that in conservation every Dollar counts. While we do value that we think that broadening the constituency of conservation is biggest challenge and is even more important.

Crowd funding campaigns actually provide that important opportunity. Thus it is our foremost responsibility to communicate the impact every supporters donation is creating for Giant trees conservation, local communities and associated biodiversity. This report will talk about the monitoring effort our team undertook to know the conservation status of the Giant trees that we are protecting with your support and biodiversity that is thriving with the help of these Giants. 

Our team of plant ecologist and community expert surveyed giant trees under protection for last five to seven years at 18 different locations and documented the conservation status of 40 Giant trees consisting 10 different species. 3 out of the 10 species have become very rare and out of the 7 species wild mangoes were maximum in numbers. It is very important that we are able to save wild varities of Mangoes in this region. They are our heritage. Our team documented significant diversity of undergrowth that is thriving under and on the trees. They counted total 60 different species that included herbs, shrubs, climbers, orchids and trees. Very importantly, out of the 60 species, 32 were trees. After going through the list of the tree species that have grown under these Giants, it becomes very clear that 60% of these trees have regenerated through dropping of Hornbills. In other words, seeds of these trees are food of the hornbills. Thus it becomes evident that conservation of these trees is not only providing habitat for many bird species, honeybees and primates such as Hanuman langurs, they serve as an indicator of diversity of forests that surrounds them. AERF is also saving these community forests. 

We are very happy to share a detailed report of this assessment so that complexity of the interconnectedness among different species is well understood. It further emphasizes and underscores the critical importance of Giant trees in a forest landscape that is continuously facing degradation due to deforestation. 

We hope you will enjoy the images , the data on species and the detailed report prepared by our team. 

Thanks once again for your continuous support and we hope to carry on this work at least for one more decade.

Best 

Jayant 

• Impact of Giant trees conservation (PDF)
  

Dear Supporter,

It has started raining in the Western Ghats mountains. You may be aware that Western Ghats - a global biodiversity hotspot are also called water towers of India. In other words, these mountains receive heavey rains due to their unique geographical location- near the west coast of India. Rains create myriads of changes and bringing to life many unique and amazing species. One of those life forms are ephemerals or plants that live for a very short period and wait for favorable conditions- mostly rains- to reproduce. Orchids belong to this cateogory of plants. 

Our field team during the survey of species that grow as response to monsoon rains such as fungi, pteridophytes, bryophytes, came across a species of orchid called as Butterfly orchid ( Porpax jerdoniana). Interestingly, this species of orchid is endemic to the Western Ghats and has been categorized as Vulnerable in the IUCN's Red list of species. Importantly, this orchid was seen growing profusely on a giant tree of Terminalia bellirica that we are saving with your support. Giant trees create lot of opportunities for small plants and mosses to grow on their body and thus provide excellent habitat and conditions for orchids to grow 

This is one more example of how giant trees help tiny wonders of nature thrive and succeed. 

The above example provides an important evidence for the fact that your continuous support to this unique initiave is indeed conserving globally threatened species.

Thank you very much.