Smallholder bamboo growers
Industree Foundation said on Monday that it has become the first organisation in the country to secure Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) Forest Management Certification for privately owned bamboo plantations managed by smallholder farmers.Awarded by SCS Global Services, the certification covers 6,671 small and marginal women farmers across 1,112.9 hectares spanning Shivamogga, Hassan and Chikmagalur in Karnataka, many cultivating bamboo on fragmented, barren and distributed plots as small as one-third of an acre.What makes this achievement truly exceptional is not just its unprecedented nature in India, but the inclusive model behind it. Globally, FSC certifications are typically awarded to large, consolidated forest estates. Securing this across fragmented smallholder plots required substantial technical innovation and institutional groundwork, with Industree bringing together hundreds of smallholder women farmers under a single certification framework, setting a new benchmark for community-level forest certification.The FSC Group Certification framework is designed for smallholders who face barriers of cost and complexity, allowing them to collectively share responsibilities under a single group entity, making it the right fit for this community, Industree said.For the women brought together by Industree, those barriers ran deeper. Dependent on rain-fed agriculture on land that had turned barren, many earned minimal incomes while family members migrated to cities for work. Caught between climate change, land fragmentation and economic uncertainty, many had nearly given up on farming. Smallholder farmers are particularly vulnerable to climate change, but they are also a key part of the solution. Bamboo cultivation became the turning point, and it was the group certification model that gave these women the framework to turn hope into a market-ready livelihood.Neju George Abraham, CEO, Industree Foundation, said, “For the women farmers and collectives who have worked so hard to get here, this FSC FM certification is a recognition of their commitment and resilience. For the thousands of smallholder farmers across the country, it establishes a real, visible pathway to FSC certification and global markets.What gives us the most confidence is the energy we are seeing on the ground. Farmers understand how transformative better market access can be, and they are eager to be part of it. This achievement demonstrates what becomes possible when smallholder communities have the right technical and institutional support around them. We hope it encourages other smallholder farmers across India to see certification not as a distant goal, but as an achievable one, and to take that step forward.”For these women farmers, FSC certification brings recognition, credibility, and access to markets that were once entirely out of reach, verifying that their bamboo is sustainably grown, legally compliant, and fully traceable from source to market. These are essential requirements for buyers across high-value sectors such as fashion, furniture, packaging, construction and décor, particularly in Europe and North America. Certified materials command a premium, positioning these farmers as credible suppliers within ethical, traceable global supply chains and directly supporting the goal of enabling each farmer to earn at least ₹1,00,000 as additional annual income, meeting the Lakhpati Didi threshold under DAY-NRLM within three to four years, Industree said.Through the Regenerative Agroforestry and Livelihoods Project, Industree provides end-to-end technical training covering pre-plantation practices such as land assessment, selection of suitable bamboo species, soil preparation and sapling planting, as well as post-plantation support, including growth monitoring, sustainable harvesting techniques and adherence to global FSC certification standards.Women farmers are also guided through the certification application process itself, with dedicated training sessions that help them understand its requirements, benefits and long-term market implications. This structured support equips them to reimagine agriculture as a viable, business-oriented livelihood, one that emphasises efficiency, profitability and sustainability, Industree said.Published on June 8, 2026
