On International Biodiversity Day 2025, it’s time to align global frameworks with community wisdom and reinvigorate Nagaland’s own institutions.
Amba Jamir
We are living in an era where the words “sustainable development” echo in every global hall and policy chamber. This year, International Biodiversity Day urges us to reflect on the theme: “Harmony with Nature and Sustainable Development.” And yet, in Nagaland, we seem to be steadily drifting away from that harmony.
Instead of looking inward - toward our forests, fields, food systems, and knowledge keepers - we continue to look outward for what constitutes “development.” But Nagaland has never lacked resources. We are embedded in a biodiversity hotspot, surrounded by life that sustains us, culturally and ecologically. And our communities, particularly our women, have practiced resilience and stewardship long before biodiversity became a buzzword.
So why do we continue to treat our own as invisible?
A Conservation Ethic That Precedes Global Frameworks
The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF), adopted in 2022, lays out ambitious global goals for nature. But many of these goals already have living, breathing examples right here in Nagaland. Our jhum fields double as repositories of agrobiodiversity. Our community seed banks, largely managed by women, rival modern gene banks in both function and spirit.
Even more impressive are our Community Conserved Areas (CCAs), created not by enforcement but by conviction. In some districts, CCA corridors extend across village and even international boundaries into Myanmar, areas once marked by conflict, now transformed into landscapes of collaboration.
Our communities may not speak the language of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) or the KMGBF, but they embody their spirit: peace, equity, inclusion, and sustainability. This is not merely poetic. It is policy-relevant.
“Conservation by conviction, not coercion, that is the legacy Nagaland offers to the world.”
CCAs as OECMs: A Policy Window We Must Not Miss
One of the most promising and underutilized opportunities within the KMGBF is the recognition of Other Effective area-based Conservation Measures (OECMs), areas that may not be formally designated as protected, but nonetheless deliver long-term conservation outcomes.
Nagaland’s Community Conserved Areas are prime candidates for OECM recognition. Their contribution to biodiversity, ecological connectivity, and peacebuilding make them exemplary models of bottom-up conservation. The state must seriously consider supporting the documentation, recognition, and reporting of CCAs as OECMs under national and global frameworks.
At the same time, the Nagaland Biodiversity Rules open another exciting opportunity, that of designating Biocultural Heritage Sites (BCHS). These are not limited to forested conservation zones; sustainable jhum landscapes, rich in agrobiodiversity and cultural heritage, qualify equally. Recognizing such areas would not only celebrate traditional knowledge and stewardship but also strengthen local rights over biological resources.
Strengthening the Structures that Should Support Us
Despite this community-led leadership, the institutional architecture that is supposed to support them remains frail. The Nagaland State Biodiversity Board (NSBB), envisioned as a statutory body to regulate, advise, and protect our biological wealth, remains
undercapacitated. Its mandate is vast: from monitoring biodiversity hotspots and regulating access to genetic resources, to supporting benefit-sharing and documenting traditional knowledge.
But without adequate staffing, financial support, or institutional autonomy, the Board cannot fulfil its crucial role. At a time when communities are more engaged than ever, the NSBB must be reinvigorated as the backbone of biodiversity governance in Nagaland.
We need to ensure:
- That NSBB is made fully operational with legal autonomy and adequate funding.
- That it actively supports Biodiversity Management Committees (BMCs) and community initiatives.
- That it documents and protects not only our resources but also our traditional ecological knowledge systems, which are increasingly vulnerable to misappropriation.
Inviting the Youth to Lead — Not Just Participate
Another glaring gap lies in how we engage our youth. It is no longer enough to involve them in plantation drives or awareness campaigns. We need to make room for them, at the table. Whether in district-level planning, state biodiversity board or its committees, biodiversity management committees, or village councils, young people must be viewed not as passive recipients of information but as active custodians of our shared future.
This is a generation that stands to lose the most from inaction. The choices we make today - or fail to make - will define the kind of land, water, air, and food they inherit.
“We owe it to future generations not just to protect nature, but to ensure that they have a voice in how we do it.”
The Road Ahead: Local Agency, Global Impact
If Nagaland is to move forward, truly forward, in harmony with nature and development, we must walk hand in hand with our people. That means integrating the KMGBF and SDGs with a whole-of-society approach. It means recognizing that our greatest biodiversity custodians are not institutions in capital cities but communities in valleys and hillsides.
Let us stop treating our ways as outdated. Let us instead start seeing them for what they are: blueprints for survival in a warming, unequal, and uncertain world.
The world is looking for models of inclusive, peaceful, and nature-aligned development. Nagaland already has them. All we need to do - is believe in them, invest in them, and let them lead.
