Participative and Integrated Development of Watershed (PIDOW): Reflection on an Indo-Swiss Collaboration

In this paper, some history of and reasons for the PIDOW project in India are given. It provides an eco-history of the region in which the project started, describing how the natural resources disappeared over a period of decades. The early stages of the project and the approaches used to initiate activities are dealt with, as are ways in which strategies had to be changed. For those who now know the PIDOW project as a successful example of participatory watershed management, the paper provides interesting insights into the project's evolution.