The project will put in place a cross-sectoral land use management framework, and compliance monitoring and enforcement system to ensure that development in production sectors such as tea, cardamom and tourism is congruent with biodiversity conservation needs – to achieve the long term goal of conserving globally significant biological diversity in the High Ranges of the Western Ghats. It will seek to establish a conservation compatible mosaic of land uses, anchored in a cluster of protected areas, by engineering a shift in governance approach towards a cross-sectoral, coordinated planning, implementation and compliance monitoring so that cumulative direct and indirect impacts of different production activities across economic sectors on biodiversity is managed, reduced and mitigated.

Total Budget: US$ 36,275,000. Total allocated resources (GEF): US$ 6,275,000. Partner-managed: - Government: US$ 28,000,000  - UNDP-Managed: US$ 1,000,000  - Private Sector: US$ 1,000,000

The complaint states concern that, among other things, there was improper consultation and exclusion of relevant stakeholders during the design and formulation of the project. It expresses concern that stakeholders' rights, such as the requirement of Free, Prior, Informed Consent and certain relevant national laws, were not properly adhered to when formulating the project. The complainant further states that people potentially affected by the project protest and are apathetic to the project, and that the project documentation improperly refers to relevant lands as protected areas when in fact they are not.