Nagaland home to numerous plant species endemic to Northeast India

Our Correspondent
Kohima, May 20 (EMN): Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, YM Yollow Konyak on Friday said that Nagaland is very rich in biodiversity with a variety of flora and fauna.

“Nagaland harbours a large number of plant species which are endemic to the State or the Northeast part of India,” he said while addressing the International Day for Biological Diversity at RCEMPA, Jotsoma.

Biological resources should be nurtured for their sustained supply to our future generation. But this had not been done due to one or other reason,’ he said while urging the experts to conserve biodiversity for future generations.

The policy and planning mechanisms in every sphere of development should accommodate the concept of biodiversity conservation, he added.

The minister also released the revised Nagaland State Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (BSAP) that primarily focussed on addressing emerging issues, relevance for Nagaland, and aligning with global and national target.

The revised plan includes identification of twelve new biodiversity targets for the state of Nagaland based on the revised priorities underlined for the National Biodiversity Targets of 2008 (and the addendum in 2014) to form the National Biodiversity Action Plan (NBAP). Each of these national targets in turn has been derived in relation to global priorities underlined by the Aichi Targets and Sustainable Development Goals.

The timeline for moving towards achieving these targets have been kept at five years with 2026 as the cut off year when it can be evaluated again.

Dr. Anteje C. Berger , Counsellor, Head of Environmental Studies, German Embassy, New Delhi, said that two of the world’s 36 biodiversity hotspots are located in the North eastern region and the launching of state BSAP is a great step towards maintaining this unique landscape.

The agricultural practices can have positive effects on biodiversity and ecosystem services. Enhanced shifting cultivation practices have the potential to promote biodiversity and ecosystem services, permanently improve agricultural production and resilience to the effects of climate change, she added.

The Department of Environment Forests and Climate Change, jointly with the Centre for Environmental Studies, and North Eastern Hill University, Shillong had prepared the BSAP of Nagaland in 2005. An updated BSAP for Nagaland was then planned to take into account the revised NBAP and the addendum of 2014.

Nagaland State Biodiversity Board (NSBB) in collaboration with Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, and the Foundation for Ecological Security (FES) undertook the task of updating and revising the state-level BSAP of Nagaland according to the five strategic goals and the 20 Aichi biodiversity targets, the updated national biodiversity targets as well as the local realities and conservation scenario within the state of Nagaland.

The revised Nagaland BSAP was supported by the global project under the Indo-German development co-operation project “Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services in Agrarian Landscapes (IKI-Biodiv)” implemented by GIZ and commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (BMUV).

Earlier, a technical session consisting group discussion on various topics, case studies and panel discussions was conducted.