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Dimapur, Dec. 17 (EMN): North East Network (NEN), in collaboration with Thetsumi women society and SEWA Thetsumi unit, celebrated a biodiversity festival at Thetsumi in Phek district on December 15 on the theme “Celebrating resilience of bio-diverse community.”
An update from NEN stated that the programme was organised with the objective of bringing together community members – elders, leaders, women, youth, students to celebrate and deliberate on the importance of biodiversity for building community resilience in the Covid-19 context; to acknowledge the contribution of custodians of biodiversity; and to share and exchange knowledge and experiences.
While welcoming the participants to the festival, the Thetsumi village council chairman Vetsope Venuh highlighted the need to value and uphold biodiversity as its destruction has led to climate crisis and would deepen in the future if one does not take action now.
In a keynote address, the NEN state director Wekoweu Tsuhah highlighted the objectives of the festival and the context in which it was organised. Acknowledging the community people who are the custodians of environmental protection, she emphasised on the significance of biodiversity in sustaining rural communities at all times and especially during crisis like the current Covid-19 pandemic.
Towards building resilience, she stressed on localisation and decentralisation - of food and economy; protection of common resources including land, seeds, forests, water, traditional knowledge; engaging youth and women in development processes; and strengthening solidarity.
The guest speaker and VDB secretary of Thetsumi village, Mesevekha Doulo recalled the rich biodiversity in the village, where diverse wild animals were found in abundance. He reminded about the inter-connectedness of different life forms, the food chain, and the need to maintain ecological balance by respecting and conserving all life forms.
Doulo further shared about the various initiatives undertaken by the community to conserve its biodiversity and encouraged the participants to sustain traditional practices that are sustainable but discard unsustainable practices.
On the occasion, Vetepe-u Tsüzüh and Vekhuso Venuh shared stories on Foxtail millets and Job’s tears respectively. Vetepe-u talked about the different types of foxtail millets, cultivation seasons and the various challenges faced by communities. One such challenge was the wildlife attack on millets owing to shrinking of jhum lands and decreased millet farmers.
Vekhuso pointed that Job’s tear is a climate resilient crop that could be grown under any climatic condition and soil fertility and has medicinal values as well as high economic value.
Speaking on “What biodiversity means to us,” the head GB Ngutsolo Doulo stated that communities could remained self-reliant by protecting one’s biodiversity. Citing examples of some local trees that are climate resilient, pest resistant and that offer numerous ecological services, he asserted that those valuable trees should not be grown in a mono-cultural environment but should be in a bio-diverse environment.
Also speaking during the programme, Vechüte-u Lasuh emphasised on the importance of agro biodiversity for health, nutrition, livelihood and ecological security. She called upon the participants to recognise and acknowledge the contribution of bio-diverse farmers who not only feed their families and rural community but also the urban population.
TSU president Wode Tsüzüh spoke about the need to deconstruct development, rethink about adopting a sustainable lifestyle on a daily basis.
The programme saw a gathering of 122 participants representing the village council, GBs, VDB, youth society, women society, students’ union, church and SEWA members – weavers and farmers.
Other highlights of the programme included seed exhibition by women farmers from four khels of Thetsumi village, presentation of cultural songs, farmer’s market and a food-value addition training, which was facilitated by NEN members namely Neitshopeu Thopi and Munulu Chuzho. It stated that 14 participants including both men and women participated in the training.