Situational Analysis of Current Monitoring Systems for Eco-restoration (Soil Restoration and Water Resource Development) Projects in Agro-ecological Landscapes

Society for Promoting Participative Ecosystem Management (SOPPECOM) is a non-profit, non-governmental organisation based in Pune, India, working in the area of natural resources management, primarily in rural areas. The organisation is committed to the principles of sustainable and rational use of natural resources, equity, and social justice in the distribution of benefits, especially to disadvantaged groups like Dalits, the landless, and women. As an organisation committed to these principles, SOPPECOM extends its support to grassroots groups working on NRM issues through training, resource literacy, participatory planning, research, and policy advocacy. TMG Research gGmbH is a Berlin-based research organisation working on sustainability issues in the areas of sustainable management and responsible governance of land and oceans, food systems, and climate. As an organisation, TMG brings sound knowledge and practical experience in facilitating national, European, and international processes and is dedicated to the analysis and solution of new and complex challenges. The following study commissioned to SOPPECOM by the TMG Research group is a part of the SEWOH lab project. The purpose of the SEWOH lab project is to analyse the linkages between digital and social innovations for achieving Sustainable Development Goal 2, and especially to understand the potential of digital solutions for inclusive rural and agricultural development in sub-Saharan Africa and India. Within this larger project, SOPPECOM conducted the study under the Ecosystem Restoration Workstream: “Digital Tools to Cover the Last Mile in Restoration Monitoring.” The study focussed on two distinct work packages – i) Situational Analysis of current monitoring systems:To understand existing tools (digital or otherwise) for monitoring and impact assessment of SOC and soil health resulting from agricultural and farm management practices; ii) Scoping study on the monitoring, verification, and reporting in ecosystem landscape restoration: To assess, how the implementation of programmes and projects in the field of ecosystem restoration is reported to the state and national level in India. This report, “Situational Analysis of Current Monitoring Systems for Eco-restoration (Soil Restoration and Water Resource Development): Projects in Agro-ecological Landscapes” presented below is the synthesis of the research work done under work package one as mentioned above. The study was done for five months from February to June 202