ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the role of forest and water-based institutions in promoting livelihoods opportunities, equity in benefit sharing among and across users and maintenance of ecosystem services, its sustainability and their limitations in actualising Community Based Natural Resource Management (CBINRM). The cultivated/cropped area in the Begnas watershed covers about 60 per cent and 40 per cent in the valley floor and the upper watershed, respectively. The proportion of agricultural income to total income for the households in the valley floor is nearly three times more compared to the upper watershed indicating the importance of irrigated agriculture. The activities during the project interventions were directed towards providing increased benefit to the users through the productive use of available natural resources and maintenance of these ecosystem services for sustained benefit. The livelihood option available from the ecosystem has induced a great change in the livelihood of the group known as Jalhari who are involved in fishing activities.
