Kire was speaking during the inventory and documentation of Community Conserved Areas (CCA) in Nagaland, a workshop for forest personnel, organized by Nagaland Forest Department and Energy and Resources Institutes (TERI), New Delhi at the Conference Hall, PCCF office.
Dr. Nicky said Nagaland is a state with rich biodiversity that has traditionally been protected by local communities. He however expressed regret that the rich biodiversity if the state was under threat from various sources. He pointed out that traditional conservation practises have helped protect biodiversity and there were record of community conservation areas being declared in the early 1800s, especially in response to forest degradation and loss of wildlife.
Dr. Nicky also recalled that in 1982, the tropical evergreen forests of Yingnyushang was declared a community conservation area by Yongphang Village in Longleng district and currently it was reported to be 776 community conservation areas in the five eastern districts of Nagaland - Mon, Tuensang, Longleng, Kiphiri and Phek districts. In Tuensang district alone, there were as many as 104 such areas where ban has been imposed on hunting by village councils.
He said despite the creation of more CCAs since 1990s, there was little awareness of community conservation initiative in Nagaland apart from a few well known examples such as the Khonoma Nature Conservation and Tragopan Sanctuary in Khonoma Village or the efforts of Sendenyu village.
Kire said documentation of Eastern Nagaland was carried out by SACON and NEPED spanning three years at a cost of about Rs. 3 crores.
While stressing on the urgent need to highlight successful community conservation efforts in other parts of Nagaland, Dr. Nicky said such efforts would help decrease hunting which was a culturally and economically well entrenched practise in Nagaland’s tribal society. He also pointed out that there was no documentation of community conservation reserves in Nagaland and asked TERI to suggest new areas that could be protected as CCAs. He said such documentation could also form the basis of future ecotourism initiatives and awareness programmes.
Principal secretary forest N.N Zhasa said 83% of the land area in Nagaland were covered with evergreen landscape and the state has a vast canopy of rainforest besides being located in one of the world’s 25 biodiversity hotspots. Forest occupied an area of approximately 8,62,930 ha of which government forest accounted for 11.7 % and rest 88% was under the control of village councils. The forest and tree cover of the state was 13, 764 km which was nearly 83 % of the geographical area, he said.
Introduction to the workshop was delivered by senior fellow TERI Dr. J.V. Sharma while APPCF (Env & CC). Member secretary Nagaland biodiversity board Albert Solo also spoke at the programme.
Source: Nagaland Post
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