SPWD

SPWD’s mission is “to prevent arrest and reverse degradation of life support systems, particularly land and water, so as to expand livelihood opportunities in a sustainable and equitable manner through people’s participation”.

SPWD’s focus is on obtaining knowledge from the grassroots level and influencing the larger systems, policies and programmess of the government as well as other concerned agencies. In the beginning, SPWD’s efforts were concentrated on initiating new field projects; commissioning of selective research studies through universities; and raising social awareness on the existence of wastelands and the opportunities available for their rapid restoration. The foremost challenge was defining what constitutes wastelands, the study ‘Estimate of wastelands in India’ being the first step in developing a terminology that broadly identifies, classifies and locates the different types of wastelands. This helped to prioritize problem areas and to develop programs that are appropriate to the different locations and problem types.

The Society for Promotion of Wastelands Development (SPWD) is a national NGO that has been playing a catalytic role in reversing the process of degradation of land and other related natural resources in partnership with grassroots NGOs and community institutions. SPWD has worked in collaborative projects with over a hundred local voluntary agencies, across 17 States in 11 agro-climatic zones of India mainly through socio-technical interventions.