Khasi Hills Community REDD+: Indigenous-Led Cloud Forest Protection

The Ka Synjuk Ki Hima Arliang Wah Umiam Mawphlang Welfare Society, a federation of traditional Khasi governments (himas) covering dozens of villages in Meghalaya's East Khasi Hills, runs India's first community-owned REDD+ carbon project, protecting and restoring 23,507 hectares of montane cloud forest and sacred groves since 2011. The project is 100% owned and operated by indigenous Khasi communities and has verifiably avoided more than 532,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions since it began. Through 2024 it had paid over $1 million directly to roughly 8,000 low-income Khasi families for conserving their community forests, blending traditional sacred-grove stewardship with modern carbon financing to keep fog-fed montane forest and watersheds intact in northeast India.