Rengma Village Council Chairman Forum (RVCCF) half yearly meeting on July 9 at Tseminyu
Rengma VC Forum resolves for 'Green Development Pathway'
Our Correspondent
Kohima | July 9
The Rengma Village Council Chairman Forum (RVCCF) today resolved for “A Green Development Pathway” for Tseminyu District through community conservation.
This was resolved during the half-yearly meeting of RVCCF at Tseminyu New Town to have a community conservation area in all the villages under the Tseminyu district.
Kegwasing Keppen, president of RCVVF chaired the session and remarked that “community conservation will go a long way to create an environmentally sustainable development pathway for the Rengma community and Tseminyu District”.
The district currently has 39 recognised villages and 3 unrecognised villages spread across seven ranges with a total area of approx 500 sq km, whereby forest green cover consists 70% (250-300 sq km) of the total geographical area.
The meeting was held at New Town, the district headquarter where the Council of Rengma Baptist Churches (CRBC) presented a proposal to initiate the movement for the Tseminyu district community conservation plan which will be jointly spearheaded by RVCCF and Kenono Foundation, a development organisation working on conservation initiatives and developing a carbon market for community conserved forest in Nagaland.
The purpose behind this resolution is to leverage the current climate agenda into the development trajectory of the Tseminyu district.
Globally, The United Nations Framework on Climate Change Convention - COP26 and nationally, India’s Intended Nationally Determined Contribution offer us an opportunity and a suitable framework for our response to green growth and sustainable development.
Likewise, given the scope and the time at hand for local climate action, the forum decided community conservation as the development trajectory for the upcoming decades.
As part of the resolution, every village in all the seven ranges under the Tseminyu district demarcates an area for forest biodiversity conservation.
It will be paramount of all the villages undertake forest conservation whether big or small in proportion to the total land available in the village in order to commit to the principle of conservation as a cultural norm and adherence to UN climate action goals.
As a result, this will position Tseminyu district strategically in becoming the 1st district in Nagaland as a ‘Green District’ to have all villages undertake conservation.
Such effort will go a long way in the brand building of the district viz. climate action funds and projects.
It was noted by the forum that conservation provides the first-level landscape foundation for other climate action initiatives which offers a great opportunity for our farmers, youths and entrepreneurs, such as the sale of carbon credit generated from conserved areas, incentive-based climate agriculture practices, branding and marketing of agriculture, and forest-based and livestock products.
