The Adaptation Group comprises of an inter-disciplinary team of professionals ranging from social sector & rural development, environmental management, renewable energy, economics and statistics. The group’s wider mandate is to work towards contributing to the larger global process of building climate resilient communities, systems and processes that help adapt to & mitigate anthropogenic & climate-induced rural & urban vulnerabilities. To enhance the effectiveness of actions, conscious efforts are being taken by the group to undertake action research studies, vulnerability assessments and pilot-demonstrate successful adaptation strategies.

• Promoting adaptation through enhancing livelihoods & climate resilience
• Climate-induced vulnerability & risk assessments and designing adaptation strategies
• Monitoring and evaluation (M&E) for Rural Development projects and Central & State Government programs
• Policy research on NRM, Climate change & gender issues
• Renewable Energy Technologies (RETs) implementation
• Studies on Disaster Risk Reduction
• Research studies on REDD+
• Incentive-based mechanisms and environmental economics
• Training and Capacity building

The Biodiversity Conservation Group was initiated as a new arm of Natural Resource Management division of InsPIRE Network for Environment in January 2007. With the objective to better address the issues related to loss and degeneration of the biological wealth of the nation, this group complements the existing efforts of InsPIRE Network for Environment in achieving its overall mission. The program envisions a biodiversity rich and ecologically secure India. With field presence in Arunachal Pradesh and Kerala, the group focuses on:

• Conservation of biodiversity in biologically rich terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems
• Promotion of enterprises that link conservation with livelihood security
• Promotion of new tools and instruments that enhances sustainable use of resources
• Assessment of impacts of climate change on biological diversity and
• Creating awareness on conservation of biological diversity

The programmatic focus of the Forest Management (FM) Group has evolved considerably over the past few years. From a primarily forest management perspective, the FM group is now developing and implementing programs that encompass social, environmental and economic perspectives with regard to improved land husbandry and secure livelihoods for the poor. The group strives to be at the forefront of emerging innovative concepts and approaches by demonstrating them and facilitating knowledge sharing among stakeholders for their wider adoption.

The Landscape Approach, which recognizes and builds upon the inter-connectivity of systems, is currently one of the group's main thrust areas and it is investing itself at the grassroots level to demonstrate the relevance and benefits of such an approach to policy makers, researchers and other practitioners. Systems for continuous learning is another of the group's areas of work and it has been involved with a variety of stakeholders – from local communities to policy makers and international researchers – towards achieving this. The FM group's projects aim at streamlining learning within project management to improve project implementation. Further, by building on collaborations with national and international institutions and established associations with relevant ministries and government departments, the group aims to contribute significantly towards improved development policy making, planning and implementation.