North Western Ghats is known for rich cultural and biological diversity, but is under accelerating anthropogenic pressure because the area is sparsely covered by protected areas and most forests in the area are owned by communities. Insufficient community awareness of the role of biodiversity and ecosystem services in their livelihood, as well as their limited incentives to conserve these elements have resulted in mass scale replacement of forests into commercial monocrop plantations, biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation. To address these threats, the project developed the value chains of products that sustainably use the plants of high conservation value, which were the most likely to resonate with the aspirations of the communities to gain sustainable income and to contribute to biodiversity conservation as well.