Ecorestoration can only be done in cooperation and with support of the people. Only when a whole community decides to protect a certain area for restoration, can this be successful. In most of the villages in Anantapur, the traditional systems of management of natural resources are not functioning any more.

Therefore the primary concern of the Collective was to initiate Community Based Organisations (CBOs) that would be willing and able to carry out the ecorestoration work in cooperation with the Collective.

Main support for setting up and training these CBOs was received from BILANCE and CORDAID - Netherlands, MISEREOR - Germany and SDC - Switzerland through LAYA - Visakapatanam.

The Dalits are the poorest in the village communities. Their lands are usually the most degraded and they are the first to suffer from the decrease of groundwater levels and the desertification of the Commons on which many of them rely for a livelihood.

However it proved to be very difficult to include the Dalits in the VSCs: on the one hand they were facing discrimination by the other castes, on the other, they themselves were afraid to speak and to fight for the interests of the Dalits.

Since it is an essential part of the Collective's mission to help the marginalised sections of society, we decided to start Dalit Youth organizations (DYS). The DYSs carry out several land development programmes and plant fruit trees. They profit from the tank desiltation programme and the employment that all these works generate. They are the strongest force in the labour groups that were initiated by the Collective to take up works such as RFD etc. in the Common lands.

The DYSs have been crucial in developing leadership capabilities within the Dalit communities. The leaders who evolved in the process of organisational work are self confident and have learned to represent the Dalits in the VSCs. They are capable and willing to raise their voice in the meetings and fight for their interests.

The Collective has formed several youth groups in the villages here. Many educated youth in the villages are insecure about their future and their environment. They hardly have any perspective and are used as cannon fodder by fundamentalists of all sorts. They join gangs and increase factionalism in the villages. Because of the poor education that they receive they neither fit in with the agriculture operations that their parents have been involved in nor are they educated enough to join the industrial or service society that has now begun to grow in and around the cities. The Collective's aim is to give them an orientation about their culture, their traditions, agriculture and ecorestoration.

The Collective conducts training programmes to help them develop their management and leadership skills. They learn to deal with responsibility and become increasingly aware of the problems and challenges of their environment.

Like the Dalits, women face discrimination. The Collective found that though the women understood the concept of ecorestoration the best, it was difficult to include them in the ecorestoration activities and the VSCs.

Therefore, the Collective began all women CBOs and took up Thrift and Credit work with them. Over the years this work spread to 85 villages in 3 mandals and the women thrift groups were federated into 3 Mutually Aided Thrift Cooperative Societies in 3 mandals.

Slowly as these CBOs have become stronger and the women have begun to understand and respect their capabilities they too have taken up ecorestoration activities in some village. Though the scale of this is much lower than that of the VSCs, the work has been recognized by many as exemplary.

Women have benefited tremendously from this work as the minor forest produce from the regenerated forests are as cooking fuel and fodder.

Main support for the Collective's work with Women has been received from CAA - Australia, OXFAM - UK, EZE - Germany.