On-Ground Surveys
What Are On-Ground Surveys?
Conservation goals are set at a landscape scale. But whether they are actually working — for the land, for wildlife, and for the people who share the landscape — can only be seen up close.
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Last Mile Effectiveness surveys are NCCI's way of staying honest about outcomes. They are structured field surveys that track conservation-relevant behaviours, land-use patterns, and livelihood indicators across villages in the Kanha landscape. Conducted in partnership with field teams and community members, they ask: what is changing, and for whom?
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This is not extractive data collection. The findings are shared back with communities and used to shape how NCCI and its partners approach their work.
Surveys So Far
​NCCI conducted baseline surveys in March 2023 and Year 1 follow-up surveys in January 2024 across ninety villages in four clusters: Bichhiya, Mukki, Nainpur, and Narayanganj in Mandla and Balaghat districts.
Who Uses This Data?
The surveys are designed to serve multiple audiences. Conservation managers and practitioners use them to understand what is working and where. Researchers draw on the data for landscape-level analysis. Policy actors find evidence of community-level outcomes that rarely appear in formal assessments. And communities themselves — who participate in the surveys — see a reflection of their own changing landscape.
How We Work?
Surveys are designed collaboratively, drawing on field experience, community input, and programme priorities. The approach combines:
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Structured household and community interviews across target villages
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Tracking of conservation-relevant behaviours — grazing, tree-cutting, fire use, millet cultivation, and more
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Livelihood and food security indicators
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Year-on-year comparison to track change over time
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The method is designed to surface what standard biodiversity assessments miss: the texture of everyday life in the landscape, and how it is shifting.
Why Last Mile Effectiveness Matters
Conservation is not just about forests and species counts. It is about whether change is actually happening at the places and among the people who share the landscape with wildlife.
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The Last Mile Effectiveness surveys are a form of accountability — to the landscape, to communities, and to the organisations working alongside them. They make visible what might otherwise go unmeasured: the slow shifts in behaviour, the quiet changes in how land is managed, and the fragile but real gains that patient, community-grounded work can produce.