Ecosystem Services Evaluation of restored and rejuvenated Harit sites in India – HCLF
Last date to apply 15th September 2023
HCL Foundation delivers the corporate social responsibility agenda of HCLTech in India through its flagship programmes and special initiatives. As a not-for-profit organization, it strives to contribute towards national and international development goals, bringing about positive impact in the lives of people through long-term sustainable programmes. HCLFoundation aims to alleviate poverty and achieve inclusive growth and development through life cycle-based, integrated community development approach that focuses on Education, Health, Skill Development and Livelihood, Environment, and Disaster
Risk Reduction and Response. At present, it is implementing five flagship programmes, Samuday and HCLTech Grant (Rural Development); Uday and My Clean City (Urban Development); Harit – (Environment Action) and four special initiatives of Power of One, Sports for Change, Academy and My E-Haat.
For more details, please visit our website – https://www.HCLFoundation.org/
Vision
To be the source for sustainable socio-economic and environmental development.
Mission
Nurture clean, green and healthy communities where everyone is empowered and equipped to reach their full potential in partnership with its employees, communities and stakeholders, while promoting volunteerism and establishing international standards of strategic planning, implementation and measuring impact
Links
HCLFoundation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfJNgI-G2gc
Harit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvFZLkkNaTw
Harit by HCLFoundation– The Green Initiative
‘Harit by HCLFoundation is distinct flagship programme for Environment Action. Harit is a multi-year, ongoing programme, addressing environment, operational in 9 States of India, with multiple long-mid- short-term projects under its ambit.
Under this, HCLFoundation is committed towards conservation of environment and the indigenous flora and fauna; with the primary objective to conserve, restore and enhance local ecosystems and respond to climate change in a sustainable manner through community engagement.
Vision
To conserve, restore and enhance indigenous environmental systems and respond to climate change in a sustainable manner through community engagement.
EOI released by HCLFoundation
EOI Code HCLF/Harit/EOI/20082023/BD
Programme Name Harit by HCLFoundation
Date of EOI 23rd August, 2023
Last date for submission 15th September, 2023
Location Chennai, Madurai, Coimbatore, Lucknow, Gautam Buddha Nagar
HCLFoundation invites EOI from experience agencies/organizations working towards Ecosystem Services Evaluation of restored and rejuvenated Harit sites in India
Background – The Environmental Complex
We are all interdependent and share the same environment. The pressing issues such as environmental degradation and climate change are complex, boundary agnostic and are triggered by different drivers; exacerbating environmental risks and leading to deteriorating quality of life and human health. Many a times issues that seem local, would require an ecosystem approach to deal with. World leaders have identified awareness as a key solution towards sustainable development of countries; as creating a strong link between the environment and the quality of human life is crucial to ensure conservation of the environment and natural resources.
Against this context, Harit by HCLFoundation is aimed towards restoring the environmental balance; with the primary objective to conserve, restore and enhance indigenous ecosystems and its services and respond to climate change in a sustainable manner through community engagement. Throughout the process, Harit focuses at building scalable and replicable nature based solutions that are economically viable, socially acceptable, environmentally sustainable, holistic and inclusive.
An integrated and strategic broader-scale approach to environmental action and conservation enables to bring in stakeholders and partners together to work on a common and shared environment and deal better with both the site-level and wider landscape needs. This will also enable us to better understand feedback of the interventions, optimize resources and prioritize actions.
Key Intervention Areas
All these interventions under Harit follow a ‘Participatory and Convergent Approach’ in attaining the desired results towards Sustainable Developmental Goals aligned to the National Indicator Framework for SDG.
Operational in nine States – Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, West Bengal, Uttarakhand, Telangana, Harit by HCLFoundation is building sustainable and inclusive models towards:
- A flourishing biodiversity, green cover and building climate resilience through afforestation;
- An abundance of water resources through rejuvenating vanishing waterbodies;
- A thriving coastal and marine habitats by on and off shore cleaning initiatives;
- A better life for animals by improving human animal relationships and addressing animal welfare inside community areas;
- Cleaner air through reducing and neutralizing CO2 emissions;
- Protecting and preserving the environment through education, community stewardship and participation.
Achievement
We have successful existing partnership models on mass afforestation and water bodies rejuvenation in various cities across India.
Till now, HCLFoundation has greened over 66,000+ acres of land and brought under community governance, 1.45 million+ saplings planted, 57.9 bn litres water harvested and 70,000+ animals rescued, treated and protected. As stories of transformation reverberate across 22 states and 3 Union Territories, our commitment and investment towards the planet continues to be strengthened!
Purpose of EOI
HCLFoundation, is inviting ‘EOI’ from experienced agencies/organizations working towards Ecosystem Services Evaluation of restored and rejuvenated Harit sites in India.
Scope of Work (SOW)
Urban green spaces are critical ecosystems to support biodiversity, but we still have a limited understanding of their ecology and how they function to conserve biodiversity at local and landscape scales across multiple taxa. Limited information about urban habitats and a lack of professionally- collected species occurrence data are often cited as major impediments to completing bio-assessments in urban landscapes. As indicated above, currently operational across six sectors, the overall aspiration of Harit is towards the larger socio-environmental good; with special emphasis to mitigate climate change impact and to enhance native biodiversity, restore ecosystem services and improve human-nature co-existence. Harit’s vision is to conserve, restore and enhance indigenous environmental systems and respond to climate change in a sustainable manner through community engagement.
Additionally, Harit sites especially, the afforestation and waterbody sites are becoming paradise for several urban biodiversity. So far, we have randomly recorded multiple species of seasonal taxa like reptiles, amphibians, insects, and smaller mammals including several residential and migratory birds.
We aim to create ‘Evaluation of Ecosystem Services’ for monitoring and to understand the impact at Harit sites.
We wish to partner with agencies/organizations with expertise in similar aspects who could:
To create a systematic protocol and evaluation and documentation of ecosystem, services, the proposed scope of work, but not limited to, is as below:
1. Conduct ‘Ecosystem Services Evaluation’
a. Detailed assessment and evaluation of different ecosystem services
b. Defining the existing values of the site in terms of provisioning, regulating, cultural, and supporting services
c. Characterizing of the ecosystem services and function and relations to ecosystem services
provisioning
Qualification and experience:
Agencies/originations with experience in the following parameters are invited to submit their EOI:
- Demonstrable experience in working on Ecosystem services evaluation at afforestation and Wetland/waterbody restoration projects or similar kinds of projects
- Proven track record and experience in managing multiple stakeholders and complex situations on the ground
- Familiarity with relevant Government Policies, UN SDGs, National Indicators Framework
Selection Parameter:
Please note that only the shortlisted agencies/organizations will be contacted for the submission of a detailed proposal
Submission Details & Deadlines
Reputed agencies may submit proposals as per their strength and area of expertise.
- All EOI must be submitted with a short narrative indicating the objectives, features, etc.; proposed methodologies including strategies, past experiences, proposed team and and timeline; and clearly defined milestones along with a set of deliverables.
- Please send in your submissions with the Subject Line: HCLF/Harit/EOI/20082023/BD /Name of Organization> latest by September 15, 2023, To ravikumar.sharma@hcl.com, marking in cc amendranath.pandey@hcl.com
- All enquiries regarding this EOI should be made by September 10, 2023 via email to
ravikumar.sharma@hcl.com.
Terms & Conditions
- Deadline: EOI received after the designated deadline may be subject to rejection by HCLFoundation.
- Validity: Your proposal must remain valid for a minimum of six (6) months from the date of expiry of the EOI deadline by HCLFoundation
- Rejection of proposal: This document is an expression of interest only, and in no way binds
- HCLFoundation to make an award. HCLFoundation reserves the right to reject any and all responses
received and/or to cancel the EOI. HCLFoundation will not be obliged to either inform or provide a
justification for the rejection of proposals. - Incurring costs: HCLFoundation will not be liable for any cost incurred during the preparation or submission of this EOI
