Morung Express News
October 24
KOHIMA: A workshop on community and biodiversity in Nagaland is being conducted at Kohima from today and will conclude on October 27. The workshop is intended to provide a platform for various categories of stakeholders, ranging from the local community to academic institutions, government bodies and international institutions to have a dialogue on terms of addressing the different issues related to community conservation of bio-diversity in Nagaland.
Alemtemshi Jamir, IAS, Team leader NEPED and Agriculture Production Commissioner told media persons that the objective of the workshop is to take a deeper look at the dynamics of community conservation system, take stocks of the community conserved areas and look at ways and means to augment and strengthen the process.
Jamir also stated that recommendations will be made during the workshop, which will then be submitted to the state government and Government of India.
The workshop will look at the existing legal and administrative frameworks of conservation of biodiversity such as the Biological Diversity Act. The Wild Life Act, the village council and areas acts, as also the state biodiversity board.
The workshop will also attempt to address issues concerning the linkage required for a value addition to many of these initiatives and in some ways, help them to integrate the conservation of biodiversity with enhancement of livelihoods and a more active management paradigm. In such exercise the issue of protection of traditional knowledge and generating equitable benefits from the use of biological; resources will be important areas of discussion, Jamir said.
This will therefore require discussions on equitable use of the biological resources of the community especially of marginalized people. In such a manner, it would enhance the sustainable management of such resources, he said.
The workshop will also attempt to define roadmaps for creating viable management plans for such areas, developing guidelines for government and NGOs agencies to work with communities, sorts out cross-cutting linkages and create partnership among all the relevant stakeholders.
It will define responsibilities of the different factors with the possible creation of a timeline in terms of the activities that are envisaged.
The workshop is also hoped to create awareness among the people of the emerging issues with the implementation of UN Convention of Biological Diversity, especially through the Biological Diversity Act.
The partners co-organizing this workshop are NEPED, Forest Department of Nagaland and Kalpavriksh with sponsorship by NEPED, forest department, BHC-FCO and ICIMOD.
