Correspondent
KOHIMA, SEPTEMBER 8
Taking serious note of the absence of documentation of community conserved areas in the biodiversity-rich state of Nagaland, the state forest department has stepped up its efforts to address the matter and has recently assigned the responsibility to The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) New Delhi. The TERI expert team will be assisting the department in preparing inventory and documentation of Community Conserved Areas (CCAs) in the state and set up a baseline data for about 1300 villages who are conserving their forest resources using traditional knowledge and practices.
In connection with this, a day-long state level training workshop for forest personnel, conservators, district forest officials and forest rangers was held on Monday at the PCCF Office Conference Hall, Kohima.
In his address during the inaugural function of the workshop, minister for Forests, Environment & Wildlife, Dr. Neikesalie Nicky Kire pointed out that unlike other parts of the country, most of the forests (93%) and biodiversity in Nagaland is owned and managed by individuals, clans, village and district councils and traditional communities. He said there are records of CCAs in the state through traditional practices being declared as early as the 1800s, particularly in response to forest degradation and loss of wildlife, and today there are 776 such areas in five eastern districts of the state alone, namely, in Mon, Longleng, Tuensang, Kiphire and Phek.
Despite the increasing creation of CCAs, the minister lamented that there is little awareness of community conservation initiatives in the state except for few noted examples such as the Khonoma Nature Conservation and Tragopan Sanctuary and the efforts of Sendenyu village in biodiversity conservation. He underscored the urgent need to highlight successful community conservation efforts throughout the state and help enhance and expand these efforts.
Dr. Kire said the inventory and documentation of CCAs was initiated towards this concern with the objective to understand community conservation initiatives in Nagaland, put them on record and scour new areas that can be protected as CCAs. He stated that documentation can form the basis for increasing awareness of the state’s conservation initiatives both in India and abroad.
In his introductory remarks, TERI senior fellow, Dr. JV Sharma said Nagaland is a state with rich biodiversity that has traditionally been protected by local communities but currently lacks baseline data that is needed to monitor the conservation efforts. He informed that the team from TERI has been assigned the responsibility to document the various elements of CCAs by assisting the forest department in preparing an inventory of CCAs; identify social, economic and historical reasons for community conservation initiatives; land ownership and use patterns including decision making structures; document resource regulation practices including community imposed bans; understand the impacts of such conservation efforts for biodiversity; prepare peoples biodiversity register for sample CCAs to document traditional knowledge and biological resource; report containing an inventory of CCAs; and documentary showcasing the CCAs in Nagaland etc.
“Our methodology for this task is to review secondary literature,” Dr. Sharma said.
Pointing out that it would be a huge task to prepare a baseline for 1300 villages, he said the state forest department personnel will be sensitized on the collection of data and the various procedures involved.
In addition to inventory and documentation, he said it is also important how to manage CCAs by community and, that the principal of sustainability should be included in the management plans.
The importance of traditional knowledge with respect to conservation and use of biological resource must be documented in the peoples biodiversity register (PBR) so that knowledge and biological resource could be available to the future generation, he said.
Principal secretary to the department of Environment, Forests & Climate Change, NN Zhasa in his speech said forests occupy an area of approximately 8,62,930 ha, of which government forest account for 11.7% and the rest 88% fall under the control of village councils.
Of all conservation programmes, Nagas have most been successful through community based conservation of diversity, he stated, and further emphasized on the need for guidelines for CCAs that will have the potential to conserve community/private forests and enable enhancement of the livelihood security of the people, simultaneously providing ecological benefits.
Earlier in the programme, the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests & HFF, M Lokeswara Rao, APCCF & member secretary Nagaland Biodiversity Board, Albert Solo and APCCF Rajath Pal also delivered short speeches.
Resource persons of the workshop included Dr. JV Sharma, TERI fellow Dr. Bibhu Nayak, TERI associate fellow Siddharth Edake, and APCCF & ED, Madhya Pradesh Forest Development Corporation Dr. AK Bhattacharya.
