RiverIndia's South Asian River Skills Institute SARSI
SARSI trains local guides to navigate boats safely down South Asia's longest freely-flowing waterway, the Siang River. Additionally, SARSI organizes outreach programs that introduce whitewater rafting as a recreational sport to the youth and populace of Arunachal Pradesh, India. The goal of the program is to create and support a profitable and sustainable industry that relies on a healthy, protected river system to be successful. This industry is then invested in keeping the Siang River river protected in the face of immediate damming threats. Similar river-protection examples can be found in Uganda, Chile, and California.
About You
Section 1: About You
First Name
Roland
Last Name
Stevenson
Website
Organization
RiverIndia
Country
India, AR
Section 2: About Your Organization
Organization Name
RiverIndia
Organization Website
Organization Phone
877-768-0150
Organization Address
Pasighat, Arunachal Pradesh, India
Is your organization a
For‐profit
Organization Country
India, AR
Your idea
Name Your Project
RiverIndia's South Asian River Skills Institute SARSI
Country your work focuses on
India, AR
Describe Your Idea
SARSI trains local guides to navigate boats safely down South Asia's longest freely-flowing waterway, the Siang River. Additionally, SARSI organizes outreach programs that introduce whitewater rafting as a recreational sport to the youth and populace of Arunachal Pradesh, India. The goal of the program is to create and support a profitable and sustainable industry that relies on a healthy, protected river system to be successful. This industry is then invested in keeping the Siang River river protected in the face of immediate damming threats. Similar river-protection examples can be found in Uganda, Chile, and California.
Website URL
Would you like to participate in the MIF Opportunity 2010?
No
Innovation
What makes your idea unique and innovative?
RiverIndia is the first outfitter based on the Siang River, and the first outfitter to train locals through its free guide school, SARSI. We have invested in equipment and local partnerships to empower the local community to take control of the development of the Siang river. This is in contrast to hydropower projects which stand to dam the river, decrease biodiversity, and create short-term, un-sustainable construction jobs. The river-tourism model we propose exists elsewhere, but it is unique and innovative in that it has not been applied to the Siang, in part because of a lack of tourist infrastructure.
With a billion-dollar infrastructure development project intitiated recently, the gateway is opening to Arunachal Pradesh. Ironically, this infrastructure development is also being fueled by hydropower development. Recently increasing protests against the building of a dam on the Siang have led locals to ask for other income-generating alternatives. While a dam creates income for construction workers and a small amount of skilled management; a river tourism industry opens the door to sharing tourist revenues through an existing economy. Markets, hotels, drivers, jeeps, guides, mills, laborers, and landlords have all benefited from RiverIndia expeditions, with over $50,000 having been distributed to local businesses and individuals through the course of one year's expeditions. As SARSI trains more students and river-tourism grows, through RiverIndia and other outfitters, local communties share in the sustainable, natural wealth that the Siang River has to offer.
Do you have a patent for this idea?
No
Impact
This Entry is about (Issues)
What impact have you had on your clients and the tourism sector?
RiverIndia has run multiple expeditions over the past five years on the Siang River. Our clients support the SARSI school through their participation in expeditions, as trainees build skills on expeditions, profits go to supporting SARSI schools, and guides are paid for their work on trips. With each client, we share the fragility of the Siang River and the conservation/hydropower issues at stake on the river. These issues are also shared through documentaries and features in major national magazines. This year our trips featured or will feature in Outside, Men's Journal, and Travel+Leisure. Previously, we have supported international professional kayaking expeditions, featured in an award-winning documentary, and have been selected as a finalist in the Nat Geo/Changemakers 2010 Power of Place competition. Winning a competition would allow us to leverage the investment to offer more schools and increase community outreach and participation.
Problem
The Siang River is one section South Asia's longest freely flowing rivers and is currently targeted as a major source of hydropower energy by both China and India. While it may serve as a clean source of energy for India's population centers, the dam will do little to better the livelihoods of the traditional tribal villagers living in the Siang Valley.
Actions
RiverIndia is promoting river-based recreation as a sustainable industry that infuses the Siang's local communities with investment and development at a grassroots level. A river-based industry inherently protects the Siang and promotes conservation of biodiversity along the river corridor. Guides are trained in leave-no-trace-style practices and community-outreach increases the scope of interaction with a freely flowing river.
Results
Our expeditions have shared the prescient conservation issues on the Siang River with tens if not hundreds of thousands of people through media interviews, awards, and documentaries. While our expeditions are currently exclusively accessible to a small number of affluent participants, our goal is to open a one-day rafting trip on the lower-Siang river that is affordable to almost anyone. Direct participation is perhaps the most poignant way to connect people with the beauty of a freely flowing river. Our SARSI schools have trained a dozen local guides who can now participate in trips. In the future, we hope that these guides will be able to train others and start their own companies; following the model of India's Ganges-River rafting industry. While this is a 10-15 year process, results have already been promising.
What will it take for your project to be successful over the next three years? Please address each year separately, if possible.
Our project is already sustainable and income-generating; though for it to be even more successful over the next three years the following would be ideal:
1.) A focused marketing strategy that drives both international and domestic tourism to Arunachal Pradesh's Siang River. The opening of a one-day rafting section that is more affordable to backpackers and locals.
2.) Hosting the 2012 International Rafting Championships and promoting the Siang as an international rafting destination. Continuing with an effective marketing strategy. Investing in an eco-lodge and community center with western amenities.
3.) Increasing support for exchange programs, scholarships, and loans to individuals who want to start their own rafting companies.
What would prevent your project from being a success?
Clearly the most immediate threat to the free-flowing Siang river, which flows for 1,800 miles from Tibet's Mt. Kailash to the Bay of Bengal, would be a massive dam near Pasighat, Arunachal Pradesh- as well as the dams China is planning. While this would be an obstacle, it doesn't preclude SARSI's mission- to train local guides in the safe operation of river-based recreation. Were a dam to appear, options exist to move to other rivers or to develop water-based recreation on the dam's reservoir. While these would be options, the goal clearly is to promote a sustainable, tourism-based economy on the Siang river while protecting both the river's biodiversity and the providing an alternate source of income and jobs to communities that would lose their ancestral lands under a large reservoir.
How many people will your project serve annually?
101‐1000
What is the average monthly household income in your target community, in US Dollars?
Less than $50
Does your project seek to have an impact on public policy or introduce models and tools that benefit the tourism sector in general?
Yes
Sustainability
What stage is your project in?
Operating for more than 5 years
In what country?
India, AR
Is your initiative connected to an established organization?
Yes
If yes, provide organization name.
RiverIndia
How long has this organization been operating?
More than 5 years
Does your organization have a Board of Directors or an Advisory Board?
No
Does your organization have any non-monetary partnerships with NGOs?
No
Does your organization have any non-monetary partnerships with businesses?
Yes
Does your organization have any non-monetary partnerships with government?
Yes
Please tell us more about how these partnerships are critical to the success of your innovation.
We receive sponsorship and promotional support from river-recreation companies in the US such as Jackson Kayak, Mion, and Astral. We regularly partner and work with the Tourism Department of Arunachal Pradesh to promote our schools and outreach days. Both types of partnership are critical to our success, since they provide us with equipment, exposure, and logistical support.
What are the three most important actions needed to grow your initiative or organization?
1.) A comprehensive marketing strategy that results in increased traffic to the Siang River. This translates into more jobs, more exposure for the Siang, and more friends of the river.
2.) Securing funding to for a 5-year SARSI budget; primarily to pay a local employee's yearly salary to run and manage the school and outreach days. This has been done voluntarily for the past 5 years.
3.) Legislation-based protection of the Siang River corridor.
The Story
What was the defining moment that led you to this innovation?
On the way to the Siang, bumping down a dusty road in the back of a jeep with 5 other Nepali guides in December of 2005, I experienced the same sense of adventure that our students and guests experience. A discussion with the state's Director of Tourism inspired us to start a small river-rafting company on the Siang River; a trip down the Siang convinced us that it needed to be conserved and protected for generations to come.
Tell us about the social innovator behind this idea.
Roland Stevenson spent seven years living in South Asia before he was 18. He speaks basic Hindi and Urdu and counts many friends in the subcontinent with whom he has worked to run rivers and promote their conservation. Working as a river guide in the US for 12 years, he developed a passion for free-flowing rivers in places such as the Grand Canyon of the Colorado and Yosemite's Tuolumne River. Returning to India in 2005, he started RiverIndia with the goal of creating a thriving river-based tourism industry that has as its heart the conservation of South Asia's longest freely-flowing river, the Siang.
How did you first hear about Changemakers?
Friend or family member
If through another, please provide the name of the organization or company
50 words or fewer
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| Outside.jpg | 120.92 KB |
| Outreach.jpg | 69.27 KB |
| Back_Raft.jpg | 166.36 KB |
| Bridge.jpg | 353.05 KB |
| SARSI_Students.jpg | 289.51 KB |
| Rafting.jpg | 555.16 KB |
| Raft_Bridge.jpg | 249.74 KB |
| Camp.jpg | 327.38 KB |
 | 82 weeks agoRoland Stevenson said: Hi Amy, Effective legislation starts with strong support in the communities being affected. In the 60's and 70's in the US, the ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 82 weeks agoAmy Dalebout said: Hey Roland, Looks like there has been a lot of good work on this idea so far. What specifically is your group planning to do to ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 86 weeks agoRachna Pandey Donthi said: That's great Roland. Hope other tour operators follow suit! about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 86 weeks agoRoland Stevenson said: Hi Rachna, RiverIndia funds the training through our expeditions- SARSI doesn't generate revenues, although it could be an option to ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 87 weeks agoRachna Pandey Donthi said: Hi Roland, This is a great initiative, and a good example of promoting tourism to a new place, while engaging the community in ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 87 weeks agoRoland Stevenson updated this Competition Entry. |
| 87 weeks agoRoland Stevenson submitted this idea. |
