Launched in 2007, the Balipara Foundation is a nonprofit organization committed to reconciling community and biodiversity needs through its proprietary concept Naturenomics™ (Nature + Economics). Through its Rural Futures vision for habitat-mediated livelihoods for communities, the Balipara Foundation works towards restoring habitats across the Eastern Himalayan region. Though based out of the Indian state of Assam, the Balipara Foundation works across the region and is dedicated to facilitating transboundary action across the Eastern Himalaya.
The Eastern Himalayan region consist of several unique ecoregions within the Himalayan & Indo-Myanmar biodiversity hotspot, stretching from Nepal in the east to Myanmar and China in the west, and is home to 12,000 endemic plant and animal species. However, the region is facing rapidly shrinking habitats, with forests shrinking at approximately 20% a year, in part the result of rising industrialization and in part, the result of accelerate extreme weather events and desertification. The ensuing biodiversity loss is threatening the survival of ecosystems, lowering resilience across forest-fringe community livelihoods and habitats.
Our passion for Rural Futures is to extend its principles of ecology and economy in interdependence across Assam to the Eastern Himalayas and beyond, to build the Naturenomics Civilization: a future with self-sufficient, self-reliant autonomous networked forest-fringe communities with sustainable livelihoods & businesses based on regenerative habitat management.
A future with natural capital-based system for communities to independently deliver equitable access to universal basic assets.
Putting communities front and centre as the stewards of conservation, the Rural Futures programme has partnered with communities and local organizations in Assam to restore over 1000 hectares of forest with plans for 10,000 hectares and beyond.
Photo credits – Ritvik SharmaThe coming decade will be a decisive one for the future of the Eastern Himalayan region, as the region faces down melting glaciers, fragmenting habitats and escalating human-wildlife conflict. The Balipara Foundation, along with its partner communities, is on this frontline, restoring habitats for a resilient future in this fragile biodiversity hotspot. Join us in transforming communities and biodiversity today.
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