PRCF’s South Asia program has started laying key foundations through two Darwin Initiative funded projects: one focused on conservation and poverty alleviation in Bangladesh, and the other on building the institutional capacity of two partner NGOs across India and Bangladesh. Here is what that looks like on the ground:
WHERE TWO BIODIVERSITY HOTSPOTS MEET
And Why It Matters
Northeast India and Eastern Bangladesh sit at the convergence of the Eastern Himalayas and the Indo-Burma Biodiversity Hotspot, one of the most threatened and biologically rich regions on earth. The Sangu-Matamuhuri Forest Reserve in Bangladesh’s Chittagong Hill Tracts covers 70,000 hectares and shelters at least 32 globally threatened species. Across the border, the forests of Meghalaya and Assam support viable populations of the Western Hoolock Gibbon — the westernmost gibbon species, South Asia´s only non-human ape species, classified as Endangered, and with fewer than 800 individuals estimated to remain in Bangladesh.
The communities living inside and alongside these forests —primarily Mro and Tripura indigenous peoples in Bangladesh, and Khasi, Karbi, Garo, and other tribal communities in India — are not peripheral to the conservation story, they are central to it. PRCF’s two Darwin projects, implemented with the leadership of local partners Creative Conservation Alliance (CCA) in Bangladesh and Conservation Initiatives (CI) in Northeast India, are built on the premise that the long-term future of this landscape depends on the wellbeing, agency, and capacity of the people who depend on it and shape it.
BANGLADESH · DARWIN MAIN PROJECT · (DI 32-018)
Understanding The Starting Point
CCA conducted a comprehensive socio-economic baseline study across five Mro tribal villages deep inside the Sangu-Matamuhuri Reserve — some as far as 15 kilometres from the nearest paved road. The findings are both sobering and clarifying.
Around 95% of the 97 surveyed households depend on traditional shifting cultivation, locally known as Jhum, as their primary income source. Most cannot meet their annual food needs. Livestock matters enormously to these families, but poultry and pig mortality rates exceed 56% and 59% respectively in the absence of any veterinary services. Healthcare, functioning schools, and clean water are either absent or severely inadequate in most villages.
These findings are not cause for despair — they are the starting point for a genuinely integrated project. The baseline also reveals strong communal forest management traditions, existing collective practices, and clear community demand for support. Every one of the five villages already manages a community forest. The project’s task is to strengthen these practices and get legal recognition from the government. The logic behind the project and the Theory of Change is that the hunting of the selected focal species (Western Hoolock Gibbon, Capped Langur, Phaeyres Leaf Monkey, and Asiatic Black and Sun Bear) can be eliminated through providing welfare critical support to the communities in return for tangible conservation outcomes.
All 97 households received direct services in Year 1 through livestock vaccinations and medical camps — the first tangible benefits of a project whose full programme rolls out from Year 2.
BUILDING CAPACITY AND CAPABILITY · DARCC068
Two Organisations Becoming Stronger
Our other funding from the Darwin Initiative is for a project focused on a different kind of conservation work: the unglamorous but essential business of institutional strengthening. CCA and CI are both proven grassroots conservation organisations. But being good at conservation in the field is not the same as having the financial systems, governance structures, and fundraising pipelines to sustain that work independently for decades to come. That gap is what this project is designed to close.
CCA’s Year 1 progress has exceeded expectations. The organisation entered the year as a relatively small NGO with limited formal systems. It closes Year 1 with a draft for a five-year strategic plan developed during a four-day facilitated workshop, a new financial management system, 12 staff undergoing safeguarding training, and a Financial and Operations Manual under Board review.
In Northeast India, Conservation Initiatives (CI) used Year 1 to build both institutional strength and grassroots conservation capacity across Meghalaya, Assam, and Nagaland. The centrepiece is CI’s fellowship programme: four indigenous conservationists were enrolled and are already applying skills in GIS, bioacoustic monitoring, ecological restoration, and community engagement in their own landscapes. In a single quarter, CI also delivered structured biodiversity monitoring training to 29 grassroots community members across five indigenous groups.
YEAR ONE · ACROSS BOTH PROJECTS
What The First Six Months Produced
From Boardrooms to Forests – CCA’s landmark CSR event in Dhaka brought together representatives from over 90 private organisations, securing initial donations and opening strategic partnerships with Ooterbagh Tea Estate and Hilti Bangladesh — demonstrating real appetite for corporate investment in community conservation.
Conservation Fellows in the Field – CI enrolled four grassroots conservationists and scientists from Khasi and Karbi communities — including one woman — in a fellowship programme. Fellows are already applying new skills in GIS, bioacoustic monitoring, and ecological restoration across India’s gibbon landscapes.
A National Action Plan Endorsed – CCA led the production of Bangladesh’s 10-year Western Hoolock Gibbon Conservation Action Plan (2026–2036), endorsed by the IUCN Primate Specialist Group’s Section on Small Apes, and now awaiting final government approval.
A Regional Western Hoolock Gibbon Working Group Formed – A working group for this endangered species spanning Bangladesh, India, and Myanmar (with IUCN involvement) has been established to coordinate transboundary conservation and pursue consortium-level funding from the ARCUS Foundation.
WHAT COMES NEXT
From Foundations To Outcomes
Year 2 is where both projects move from foundation-building to measurable change. In Bangladesh’s Chittagong Hill Tracts, the focus shifts to establishing community-based forest governance — Forest Management and Conservation Working Groups in each of the five villages, participatory land-use mapping, community conservation agreements, and the rollout of livelihood support: better farming methods, livestock health support, healthcare camps, and women-led self-help groups for organic input production.
In India and Bangladesh together, CI will deliver gibbon survey training to CCA’s field team, and the full cohort of 38 grassroots conservationists — 24 in India and 14 in Bangladesh — will begin structured biodiversity monitoring training with a specific focus on gibbons. CCA will finalise its five-year strategic plan, complete finance and administration training, and continue building its donor pipeline.
Across both projects, the ambition remains consistent: communities that are better equipped to protect their forests, organisations that can sustain conservation work beyond any single grant, and a landscape where the Western Hoolock Gibbon and indigenous communities have a genuine future.
