Commons

The Commons and Climate programme aims to reclaim and redefine common property resources—such as forests, water bodies, and grazing lands—as vital assets for climate resilience and rural development. As a core partner in CommonGround, a national-level initiative on the commons, Asar supports and strengthens a growing network of grassroots leaders, communicators, and partner organisations to amplify community-driven strategies and narratives around the governance and protection of commons.

It seeks to create bottom-up narratives on commons by fostering community leadership, simplifying and disseminating data, and embedding the discourse on climate and commons in public, media, and policy conversations. Through strategic storytelling, media engagement, and collaborative communication planning, the programme supports context-rich, community-driven narratives across states where Asar is present with a special focus on Odisha and Jharkhand.

Asar works with its partners across India to highlight issues such as land and water governance, traditional livelihoods, women’s leadership, and environmental justice as part of this initiative.

Point of Contact:

Nitya K,
Director, Communications
nitya@asar.co.in

Impact

Published over 100 stories exploring the intersections of the commons with climate, livelihoods, and governance, across local, regional, and national media.

Generated significant public and policy engagement on the commons by combining community voices, data, and strategic communication.

Trained a large number of communicators to craft and amplify bottom-up narratives on commons and climate change across India.

Supported regional media in building a vocabulary and deeper understanding of the commons through tailored media engagements and capacity-building efforts.