Promotion of Community Participation

  The local government institutions also need  strengthening to 
  promote  community  participation in the planning and develop-
  ment process. These grassroots institutions, besides carrying 
  out local projects with the involvement of communities within 
  their jurisdiction, can also provide a powerful lobby through 
  which  communities  can  negotiate for services from sectoral 
  agencies or departments of the Government.

  Unfortunately,  the  role  of  local  councils in development 
  efforts has been mostly  underrated by planners, and is quite 
  often  overlooked  in the  implementation of  energy projects, 
  resulting in their  failure to achieve the desired objectives.  
  Energy  plantation  projects  provide a case in point. It has 
  been observed that, even when the political will is there and 
  the  funds  are   allocated,   implementing  a  large - scale 
  afforestation(plantation) campaign is an unexpectedly complex 
  and  difficult  process.  Planting   millions  of  trees  and 
  successfully  nurturing  them  to  maturity  is  not purely a 
  technical  task, like building a dam.  Further, tree planting 
  projects  almost  invariably  get  enmeshed  in the political, 
  cultural, and administrative tangles of a rural locality. The 
  nature of their  success, therefore, is largely  governed  by 
  the  intensity  of   community   involvement  through   local 
  government  or  other  means.  Central  or  State  Government 
  stimuli in technical  advice and financial assistance in such 
  cases  are  ineffective  unless   community  members  clearly  
  understand why   lands to which they had  traditionally  free 
  access for  grazing and  wood-gathering are being  demarcated 
  into  plantations. Therefore,  it is  expected that they will 
  view the project with suspicion or even hostility.

  Also, the  conservation efforts cannot succeed without strong 
  commitment from the  community. A  major  source of energy in 
  the  rural  hill  districts,  is  biomass / bioenergy. Slight 
  improvements in the efficiency of energy use from this source 
  can substantially improve the physical quality of life of the 
  rural people in such districts  without any increase, or even 
  decrease,  in  the  supply  of  primary  energy.  Adoption of 
  appropriate  cooking  devices (improved cooking stoves) alone 
  can  bring a  major  change in this direction.  Likewise, the 
  replacement of dung fuel with  biogas can provide both energy 
  and  manure  on  one  hand  and  improve  the  quality of the 
  environment on the other.

  There  is  a  need  to  distinguish  the  difference  between 
  subsistence  energy  requirements  and  energy  required  for 
  economic  development.  As  far  as  the  subsistence  energy 
  requirement  is  concerned, the  existing energy  consumption 
  pattern, with the major  chunk being met through bioresources 
  for thermal energy  requirements, indicates the importance of 
  intervention in this sector. The low conversion efficiency of 
  energy  devices (using  bioresources) is a significant aspect 
  in the  context of designing  energy  intervention  plans. In 
  areas  with  surplus  resources,  the  implementation  of the 
  efficiency measures have to follow an effort to convince  and 
  educate  local people about the importance of efficient usage 
  of resources.  In the biomass scarce region, the significance 
  of the interventions for fuel switching (such as solar energy 
  for  water  heating,  drying,  etc.), improvement  in end use 
  efficiencies and augmenting supplies (through social forestry 
  and energy plantations on barren land) are to be adopted.