Foundation for Ecological Security

General

The Foundation for Ecological Security (FES) enables people in rural India to access legal rights to share, self-govern, and conserve common land. FES is the largest organization focused on securing equal rights to common land (“the commons”) for India’s rural poor. The organization represents landless communities and organizes long-term secure tenure to common land. By establishing formalized rights and using a bottom-up approach to resource management, FES ensures that the commons are governed to support individual livelihoods as well as environmental sustainability. FES’s programs take a holistic approach to resource management that includes legal rights and financial resources for individuals. They also focus on strengthening village institutions and improving the productivity and long-term sustainability of natural resources.