Saving forest with REDD+ in NE
Kohima, February 9 (MExN): North Eastern Regional Workshop on REDD+ for awareness raising and towards creating REDDReadiness was held at Hotel Japfu in Kohima on February 9. The main objective of the workshop is preparedness for awareness raising and towards creating REDD Readiness in north Eastern States. Ministry of Environment and Forests, New Delhi has conducted regional workshops in Bhopal, Bangalore and Agra. The workshop is organised jointly by Ministry of environment and forests, New Delhi, TERI, New Delhi and Nagaland Forest Department.
M. Lokeswara Rao, APCCF (Env & Climate Change) and Nodal Officer REDD Plus while welcoming the participants said that Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) is an effort to create a financial value for the carbon stored in forests, offering incentives for developing countries to reduce emissions from forested lands and invest in low-carbon paths to sustainable development. “REDD+” goes beyond deforestation and forest degradation, and includes the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks.
He added that REDD Plus and Sustainable Forest Management can prove to be important tools through which the state of Nagaland can reap the benefits of the co-benefits of forests. REDD Plus could provide an opportunity to address the issues of deforestation and forest degradation in the state of Nagaland. Deforestation is the single largest source with 17% of global Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions. It has been argued that reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) could be a low cost and effective strategy to mitigate climate change. Apart from mitigation benefits, REDD could generate co-benefits in form of conservation and livelihood improvement for local communities.
Dr J V Sharma, Senior Fellow, TERI while talking on the objectives of the workshop informed that TERI is initiating a pilot study in other parts of the country including Nagaland in North Eastern for preparing a project for REDD+ keeping all important elements such as governance, methods of carbon assessment through GIS remote sensing technology as well as manually, dependence on forests and also the maintenance of other ecosystem services. “The kind of forest governance needed for REDD+ is already in place and has age old customs and traditions for forest dependence and forest management. The communities in Nagaland are also conserving biodiversity through CCAs and Sacred groves. A combination of scientific knowledge along with their traditional wisdom is needed for the implementation of REDD+ in Nagaland,” Sharma added.
Keynote Address was given by Jagdish Kishwan, Former Additional Director General of Forests (Wildlife), Ministry of Environment & Forests, Government of India. Earlier Dr CLGoel Principal Chief Conservator of Forests and HoFF also emphasised on the importance of REDD Plus project to Nagaland and REDD plus preparedness in North Eastern region. L. Kire Commissioner and Secretary Department of Forests, Ecology, Environment and Wild life, while addressing the gathering informed that REDD is an effort to create a financial value for the carbon stored in forests and North Eastern states can benefit in future. He thanked MOEF New Delhi for organising of workshop in Nagaland and informed TERI technical team will be talking on different topic for preparedness for REDD plus during the workshop.
Vote of thanks for inaugural session was given by Subhash Chandra, Deputy Inspector General of Forests (Forest Policy), Ministry of Environment & Forests, Government of India.
Later, a panel discussion on Carbon based Forest Financing was conducted. Concluding Remarks is given by Jagdish Kishwan, Former Additional Director General of Forests (Wildlife), Ministry of Environment & Forests, Government of India. The workshop ended with vote of thanks by Panger Jamir, Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Nagaland Forest Department (Dev. & Planning). The workshop ended with vote of thanks by Panger Jamir, Addl PCCF (Dev and Planning), Government of Nagaland.
