[MPWG] NWFP-Digest-L No. 1/05
Patricia_DeAngelis at fws.gov
Patricia_DeAngelis at fws.gov
Wed Apr 6 09:06:41 CDT 2005
Catching up on disseminating information!
The January '05 issue of Non-Wood Forest Products has several interesting
articles concerning sustainable use and conservation of medicinal (and
aromatic) plants around the world - including benefit sharing, traditional
medicine, traditional cosmetics - as well as several events of interest!
Patricia S. De Angelis, Ph.D.
Botanist - Division of Scientific Authority
Chair - Plant Conservation Alliance - Medicinal Plant Working Group
US Fish & Wildlife Service
4401 N. Fairfax Dr., Suite 750
Arlington, VA 22203
703-358-1708 x1753
FAX: 703-358-2276
Working for the conservation and sustainable use of our green natural
resources.
<www.nps.gov/plants/medicinal>
----- Forwarded by Patricia De Angelis/ARL/R9/FWS/DOI on 04/06/2005 10:00
AM -----
NWFP-Digest-L
No. 1/05
Welcome to the first issue of 2005 of FAO’s NWFP-Digest-L, a free e-mail
journal that covers all aspects of non-wood forest products.
Back issues of the Digest may be found on FAO's NWFP home page:
www.fao.org/forestry/site/12980/en
==============================================================
IN THIS ISSUE:
NEWS
1. Forests’ contribution to the Millennium
Development Goals
2. Megadiverse countries join efforts for strong
international law on access and benefit sharing
3. Natural Resource Conflict Management
4. Tsunami affected mangroves
5. Tsunamis and mangroves
COUNTRY INFORMATION
6. Cameroon: Preserving the Ottotomo Forest Reserve
and its NTFPs
7. China: Traditional medicine 'threatens China's
biodiversity'
8. Kenya: Sh16 billion for trees
9. India: Biodiversity Hotspot Highlight: Western
Ghats
10. India: Orissa villagers revive devastated forest in
barren land
11. Polynesia: Traditional Polynesian cosmetics help
save rainforests
12. Uganda: Mabira forest endangered
13. Zimbabwe: Women's role in forestry recognized
PRODUCTS
14. Ecotourism in a soggy corner of Washington State,
USA
15. Wild oak silk; forest health no longer hangs by a
thread
16. Bamboo: study tour in China
EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES
17. Forestry Officer (Non-Wood Forest Products), FAO
Rome
18. World Bank 2005 Summer Internship Program
EVENTS
19. International Conference on Sustainable Development
of Medicinal Plants/Herbs in 21st Century
20. Kaziranga Centenary Celebration
21. International Training of Trainers on Wetland
Management (ICWM-TOT)
22. A Fortune in the Forest - A conference on Non-Timber
Forest Products
23. Growing markets for non-wood forest products
24. Training Workshop-cum-Seminar on “Poverty
Alleviation through bamboo-based development: policies, strategies
and stakeholders”
25. MMSEA - Sustainable Use of Natural Resources &
Poverty Dialogue in Mainland Montane
26. The Association for Temperate Agroforestry Ninth
North American Agroforestry Conference – 2005 “Moving Agroforestry
into the Mainstream”
27. IVth International Congress of Ethnobotany
(ICEB-2005)
LITERATURE REVIEW AND WEB SITES
28. Gender in the park
29. Herbage Fourth Edition
30. Acacia senegal and the gum arabic trade
31. Other publications of interest
32. Web sites and e-zines
MISCELLANEOUS
33. Oak Becomes America's National Tree
34. Traditional alert 'saved Andaman tribes'
NEWS
1. Forests’ contribution to the Millennium Development Goals
Source: FAO Newsroom, 25 January 2005
Experts emphasize forests' contribution to the MDGs. FAO committed to
helping realize development goals.
Forests contribute directly to reducing extreme poverty and
hunger and ensuring environmental sustainability, two of the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs), a panel of forestry experts invited to the UN
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has concluded.
The panel highlighted the significant contribution of forests
and trees outside forests to the MDGs, emphasizing that sustainable forest
management and sustainable development are closely linked, as recognized at
the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in 2002.
Forests' contributions to achieve the MDGs
"Forest products can contribute directly to the goal of reducing poverty
and hunger by providing cash income, jobs, and consumption goods for poor
families," said Dr. David Kaimowitz, Director-General of the Center for
International Forestry Research, who chaired the meeting.
The livelihoods of the approximately 240 million of the world's
poor that live in forested areas of developing countries depend on the
protection and, in many cases, the rehabilitation of these forests. Poor
people's agricultural activities also benefit from the role of forests and
trees through contributions to land productivity, enhancing crop and
livestock production, and providing genetic resources, among other
services.
The panel recognized forests' contribution to environmental
sustainability by providing a range of environmental services and by
furnishing renewable wood and non-wood products, many substitutes for which
are not renewable or as environmentally friendly. Widely recognized
environmental functions of forests include mitigating climate change,
conserving biological diversity, maintaining clean and reliable water
resources, sustaining and enhancing land productivity, protecting coastal
and marine resources and enhancing urban environments.
Key roles for FAO
Several roles that FAO can play to assist countries' efforts to achieve the
MDGs were identified. And it was recommended that FAO assist countries to
carry out analyses of the forest-poverty links in their national context,
to increase the visibility of the forest sector in their Poverty Reduction
Strategy Papers and other sustainable development plans, and to reflect
poverty reduction and food security adequately in their national forest
programmes.
The panel recognized the key role that FAO can play in raising
the profile and increasing awareness of the links between forests and the
MDGs and in enhancing regional and sub-regional cooperation in this area.
In promoting the achievement of the MDGs, it was recommended
that FAO continue to support countries' efforts to enhance participatory
processes in the forest sector as well as to encourage corporate social
responsibility (CSR) in the private forestry sector.
Sustained international commitment to the MDGs
The panel's views come at a time when international attention and national
efforts are focused on efforts to achieve the goals. FAO is currently
carrying out a major review of its activities aimed at ensuring maximum
support to achieving the MDGs.
The Ministerial Meeting on Forests and FAO's Committee on
Forestry, both to be held in Rome in March, are expected to help raise
additional international awareness of the role of forests in sustainable
development and to identify actions to help realize forests' potential
contribution to the realization of the MDGs.
Heads of State and other high level government officials will
gather at the United Nations in New York in September in a high level
segment of the General Assembly to review progress in implementation of the
UN Millennium Declaration and the MDGs.
"Forests not only make significant contributions to sustainable
development, but failure to achieve environmental stability - including
through sustainable forest management - will undermine social and economic
development goals. FAO is fully committed to helping countries realize the
potential contributions of forests to their national development goals,"
said Hosny El Lakany, Assistant Director-General, FAO Forestry Department.
For full story, please see:
www.fao.org/newsroom/en/news/2005/89264/index.html
BACK TO TOP
2. Megadiverse countries join efforts for strong international law
on access and benefit sharing
Source: TWN Biosafety Information Service, 25.1.05 in [BIO-IPR] Resource
31.1.05
The Group of Like Minded Megadiverse Countries (LMMC), rich in biological
diversity and associated traditional knowledge, have agreed to join efforts
for effectively negotiating the development of an international regime on
access and benefit sharing (ABS), including legally binding instruments in
the forthcoming meetings of the Ad-hoc Open ended Working Group under the
aegis of Convention on Biological Diversity, so as to safeguard the
interests of LMMC countries and peoples.
The 17 members are Bolivia, Brazil, China, Colombia, Costa
Rica, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ecuador, India, Indonesia, Kenya,
Madagascar, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Philippines, South Africa, and
Venezuela. These countries possess 60-70% of the world's biodiversity.
The Group played an important role in obtaining a decision at
the 7th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the CBD to start
negotiations on an International Regime on ABS. The first negotiation
session will be in Bangkok at the 3rd meeting of the CBD Ad Hoc Open-ended
Working Group on ABS, from 14 to 18 February. In preparation for that
meeting, the Group met in New Delhi from 17 to 21 January. There was an
experts' meeting followed by a ministerial meeting which adopted the "New
Delhi Ministerial Declaration of Like Minded Megadiverse Countries on
Access and Benefit Sharing".
The Group agreed to join efforts for effectively negotiating
the development of the international regime, including legally binding
instruments. The New Delhi Ministerial Declaration also stated that the
proposed international regime on ABS should include "mandatory disclosure
of the country of origin of biological material and associated traditional
knowledge in the IPR (Intellectual Property Right) application, along with
an undertaking that the prevalent laws and practices of the country of
origin have been respected and mandatory specific consequences in the event
of failure to disclose the country of origin in the IPR application".
The Megadiverse countries have also agreed to ensure that the
proposed ABS includes prior informed consent of the country of origin and
mutually agreed upon terms between the country of origin and user country.
At the inauguration of the New Delhi meeting, India's Minister
for Environment and Forests, Thiru A. Raja, emphasized that the loss of
biodiversity will be reversed only if the indigenous and local communities
that have been its custodians benefit from its conservation and sustainable
use.
Thiru Raja, who is also Chairman of the Group, said that a
significant part of the pharmaceuticals industry and its products are
developed based on traditional and indigenous knowledge, adding that
"however, local and indigenous communities rarely get any benefits from the
resulting products".
"The megadiverse countries, with home to nearly 60-70% of the
global biodiversity, should be in a position to influence the bulk of trade
in bio-resources. However, the reality is that most of the megadiverse
countries continue to remain impoverished despite the richness of
bio-resources that they posses", he added.
Stating that the relationship between genetic resources,
traditional knowledge and intellectual property rights is one of the most
debated issues in the negotiations of several multilateral agreements,
Thiru Raja pointed out that the CBD and the TRIPS ((Trade-Related Aspects
of Intellectual Property Rights) agreements, both touch on issues relating
to genetic resources and intellectual property giving rise to a range of
legal and practical issues concerning both their relationship in
international law and their implementation at the national level. The
Minister stressed the strong need for harmonization of the provisions of
these agreements.
BACK TO TOP
3. Natural Resource Conflict Management
From: Antonia Engel, Livelihood Support Programme, FAO
FAO’s Livelihood Support Programme is specialized in how to respond and
deal with conflicts in the context of natural resources management. It has
developed training materials and provides tailor made training courses on
Community-based Natural Resource Management.
Conflict anticipation and management are from our viewpoint
critical ingredients of collaborative natural resources management. The
challenge is on managing conflicts and containing them, trying to find
constructive ways to bring opponents together, aiming to reach a consensus
or possibly win-win situation in which violence may be laid aside.
The aim of conflict management is to:
· prevent existing conflict from escalating;
· identify latent conflict and address it
constructively; and
· make use of conflict in promoting positive social
change,
The training materials aim at providing practitioners in
natural resource management with instruments and skills to facilitate the
resolution of conflicts over natural resources in a collaborative manner.
The materials are based on alternative conflict resolution (ACR) as a
conflict management approach. ACR offers an innovative, multi-disciplinary
approach to understanding, analyzing and managing conflicts both before and
after they occur (latent and manifest conflicts). The overall goal of ACR
is to seek long-term mutual gain for all conflict parties as a basis for
local development and empowerment.
More specifically, the objectives of the materials are to:
· explain how natural resource conflicts can affect
collaborative natural resource management and harm sustainable
livelihoods;
· introduce the principles of alternative conflict
resolution, a methodology to deal constructively with natural resource
conflicts based on a collaborative and interest-based negotiations
approach;
· outline a process map which guide facilitators in
alternative conflict resolution processes; and
· sensitize facilitators about their role and
responsibilities as third party in conflict resolution processes.
The materials are designed as background material for training
courses in natural resource conflict management. The targeted audience is:
· practitioners in natural resource (conflict)
management who want to learn the fundamental concepts and instruments
in alternative conflict resolution,
· trainers who may use these materials as background
for preparing training courses in natural resource conflict
management,
· trainees in courses on natural resource conflict
management who may use this guide for background reading during the
training and afterwards.
For more information, please contact:
Antonia Engel
Forestry Officer (Natural Resources Conflict Management)
Livelihood Support Programme
Forest Policy and Institutions Service
FAO, Rome Italy
Fax: + 39 06 570-55514
e-mail: Antonia.Engel at fao.org
BACK TO TOP
4. Tsunami affected mangroves
Source: FAO Newsroom, 19 January 2005
Rehabilitation of tsunami affected mangroves needed. Should be part of
integrated coastal area management
Rehabilitation of severely affected mangroves would help speed up the
recovery process from the tsunami, but large-scale planting should be
undertaken with caution, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
said today.
"Mangroves contribute directly to rural livelihoods by
providing wood and non-wood forest products - including timber, poles,
fuelwood and thatch for houses - and indirectly by providing spawning
grounds and nutrients for fish and shellfish. Mangroves can also help
protect coastal areas from future tidal waves," said Mette Løyche Wilkie,
an FAO expert on mangroves.
Restoration of damaged mangroves should be undertaken as part
of the post-tsunami rehabilitation process, but FAO does not recommend
massive planting of mangroves in areas where they would replace other
valuable ecosystems, such as turtle nesting grounds and sea grass beds.
According to FAO, rehabilitation and planting efforts should be undertaken
within a larger framework of integrated coastal area management.
Damage to mangroves and other coastal forests
Mangroves cover an area of around 15 million hectares (or 150 000 sq km)
worldwide with close to 40 percent of this area found in the countries
affected by the tsunami. As would be expected, mangroves and other coastal
forests and trees were adversely affected by the recent tsunami.
The extent of the damage is still not clear and it may take
some time before the final impacts are known, since the deposit of silt may
clog the pores of the aerial roots of mangroves, and thus suffocate them.
Changes in topography, soil salinity and freshwater in-flow from upstream
may also adversely affect the mangroves and other coastal forests in the
longer term.
"What we do know is that the demand for fuelwood, for wood to
rebuild houses and infrastructure and for constructing fishing boats is
substantial," said Jim Carle, an FAO expert on plantations. "This is likely
to lead to further pressure on the coastal forests, including mangroves,"
he said.
FAO is working with several other organizations to gather
information on the impacts of the tsunami on mangroves and other coastal
forests and to provide advice to countries in their rehabilitation efforts.
Mangroves as barriers to tidal waves
"The role of mangroves in providing coastal protection against the actions
of waves, wind and water currents is well known," Mette Løyche Wilkie said.
"But the extent to which mangrove green belts contribute to saving lives
against large tsunamis, such as the recent one in Asia, depends on several
factors."
As widely reported, extensive areas of mangroves can reduce the
loss of life and damage caused by tsunamis, but narrow mangrove strips can
have limited positive effects, and in some cases the effects can even be
negative.
During the recent tsunami, the Pichavaram mangrove forest in
Tamil Nadu in India slowed down the waves, protecting around 1 700 people
living in hamlets built inland between 100 to 1 000 meters from the
mangroves. In Malaysia, in areas where the mangrove forests were intact,
there was reduced damage. Similar observations were made in Sri Lanka. In
Indonesia, the death toll in the island of Simeuleu, located close to the
epicentre was relatively low, partly due to mangrove forests that
surrounded the island.
On the other hand, narrow strips of mangroves, when uprooted or
snapped off at mid-trunk and swept inland, can cause extensive property and
life damage. At least in one reported case in Thailand they have also
damaged shallow coral reefs.
"The protective effects of mangroves against tsunamis mainly
depend on the scale of the tsunami and the width of the forest and, to a
lesser extent, the height, density and species composition," Wilkie said.
A mangrove is a tree or shrub which grows in muddy, chiefly
tropical, coastal swamps and has tangled roots that grow above ground.
For full story, please see:
www.fao.org/newsroom/en/news/2005/89119/index.html
BACK TO TOP
5. Tsunamis and mangrove forests
Source: Various
A natural, low-tech solution to tsunamis: mangroves
As nations around the Indian Ocean discuss plans for a tsunami
early-warning system, environmental scientists here point to an existent,
natural form of disaster minimization: mangrove forests.
www.csmonitor.com/2005/0110/p07s01-wosc.html
Tsunamis leave environmental devastation
Scientists from around the world have expressed grave concerns about the
health of local ecosystems and their ability to sustain survivors of the
tsunamis that struck parts of Asia and Africa last month.
www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/science/01/13/tsunami.env/index.html
Mangrove forests 'can reduce impact of tsunamis'
Dense mangrove forests growing along the coasts of tropical and
sub-tropical countries can help reduce the devastating impact of tsunamis
and coastal storms by absorbing some of the waves' energy, say scientists.
www.scidev.net/news/index.cfm?fuseaction=readnews&itemid=1823&lan
Mangroves better than sea wall: Scientists
It was a dense belt of mangrove that saved the village of Pichavaram,
around 40 km from here, from extensive damage by the gushing tidal waves.
www.chennaionline.com/colnews/newsitem.asp?NEWSID=%7BDCC7A0DB-61E7-4580-9E21-1F4C590A106C%7D&CATEGORYNAME=National
Indonesia to Replant Mangroves in Tsunami Defence
Indonesia will replant huge swathes of mangrove forest along its vulnerable
coastline to help provide a buffer against possible future tsunamis, the
forestry minister said on Friday.
www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/29021/story.htm
Tsunami-hit nations look to save mangroves
The Indian Ocean tsunami highlighted the life-saving benefits of mangroves
and reefs, officials and environmentalists say, leading some Asia nations
to look at replanting lost or damaged mangrove forests.
www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/SP250076.htm
BACK TO TOP
COUNTRY INFORMATION
6. Cameroon: Preserving the Ottotomo Forest Reserve and its NTFPs
Source: Cameroon Tribune (Yaoundé), 14 January 2005
The Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) has held a training
session to sensitise and inform the local population in the forest area of
Ngoumou on how to judiciously harness and market non-timber forest products
(NTFP) to ensure sustainability. The Ottotomo Forest Reserve comprises
fourteen villages on both the northern and southern parts of the reserve.
The increasing rate of demographic growth with the pressure exerted on the
reserve for a livelihood is a call for concern. It is against this backdrop
that CIFOR, working in collaboration with some local groups in the area, is
seeking alternative means to diversify activities to reduce pressure on the
forest.
Until 2003, the forest was fully controlled by the government
and some supporting organs like CIFOR's Adaptive Co-management programme
and ATD (Association de terre et de développement), all of which withdrew
due to the economic crisis. The absence of these organs led to free access
into the reserve by the local population in search of their livelihood.
NTFPs are of socio-economic importance and can be used for both
domestic (health) and industrial needs (construction of houses), as well as
for their nutritional value and as a source of income. As such,
exploitation should be judiciously carried out to ensure availability in
the future.
Some of these NTFPs possess a high protein content. CIFOR
research found that a kilogramme of Njangsa, a non timber forest product
contains more protein than a kilogramme of meat; the same with the bush
mango (Irvingia spp).
The marketing of NTFPs should be better organised so as to
increase their quality and quantity; production should be in harmony with
prices and promotion and advertising should be carried out in both the area
and the point of sale. Accordingly, CIFOR intends to merge these groups to
form a single body that will market the products.
For full story, please see: http://allafrica.com/stories/200501140384.html
BACK TO TOP
7. China: Traditional medicine 'threatens China's biodiversity'
Source: SciDev Net, 20 December 2004
China's booming traditional medicine industry is threatening biodiversity,
according to scientists.
Chen Shilin, deputy director of the Institute of Medicinal
Plant Development under the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, last week
described drug development as a "major factor" threatening the extinction
of Chinese species. Speaking at a seminar on traditional medicine in
Nanning, the capital of Guangxi province, Chen said between 60 and 70 per
cent of China's 3,000 threatened plant species are used in traditional
medicine. Of these, he added, 169 are protected species, meaning trade in
them is restricted under Chinese law.
Qin Minjian, a professor of traditional medicine at the China
Pharmaceutical University, says that as China's population has become more
health-conscious, people are turning more and more to traditional medicine.
Demand for such medicines has grown by 300 per cent in the past
decade. Last year, the sector's economic value grew by 15 per cent to 94.9
billion yuan (US$11.5 billion). Overseas demand for Chinese medicine has
also risen. In 2003, China exported US$712 million worth of herbal
remedies, a six per cent increase over the previous year's exports.
But the boost in demand has promoted environmental degradation.
For example, large swathes of yew trees have been cut down because they are
the raw material for an alcoholic beverage used as a cancer preventive
medicine.
Qin told SciDev.Net that many valuable plants are found only in
fragile habitats. What's more, says Qin, some of the plants are
ecologically important to many other species and their disappearance would
increase the risk to the rest. According to Qin, this threat to China's
biodiversity has been compounded by multinational drug companies, which
have increased investment in research on potential drugs from Chinese
plants in recent years.
Measures to make traditional medicine sustainable, says Qin,
include cultivating plants used in herbal remedies, restricting the
exploitation of valuable species with potential for drug development, and
identifying alternatives to medicines based on endangered species. In
recent years, China has successfully cultivated or farmed 400 species used
to make up traditional medicines. Half of these species account for more
than 60 per cent of all natural ingredients used in traditional medicine.
But Xiao Peigen, a retired professor of traditional Chinese
medicine and former director of the Institute of Medicinal Plant
Development, says current efforts are inadequate.
Comprehensive databases on wild herbal plants and animals
should be established to assist regulation of species exploitation, and
anyone collecting too much of any wild plant species should be severely
punished, Xiao told last week's seminar.
For full story, please see:
www.scidev.net/News/index.cfm?fuseaction=readNews&itemid=1811&language=1
BACK TO TOP
8. Kenya: Sh16 billion for trees
Source: The East African Standard (Nairobi), 18 January 2005
A grand plan to plant over 200 million trees in the country was unveiled
yesterday. The project to plant trees in the Tana and Athi river basins, a
mainly semi-arid region, will cost Sh16 billion and will be carried out
over 10 years. It is a joint venture of Tana and Athi Rivers Development
Authority (Tarda) and GreenPlanet, an international organisation dedicated
to environmental care.
The chairman of GreenPlanet, Mr Rino Solberg, said another
project to plant 1 billion trees would soon be discussed.
Tarda chairman Alex Mureithi said the project would start with
the planting of 5 million trees on 5,000 hectares of land in Kiambere area
over the next three years. When completed, the plan, which is the biggest
reafforestation project in the country, will have covered 200,000 hectares
with trees.
Mureithi said traditional trees with medicinal value, such as
the neem, would be planted in Garissa, Bura and Hola.
The Belgium Technical Cooperation will implement the project.
For full story, please see: http://allafrica.com/stories/200501170476.html
BACK TO TOP
9. India: Biodiversity Hotspot Highlight: Western Ghats
Source: Jayanti Ray Mukherjee (in Biological Conservation Newsletter,
January 2005)
Kalakad and Mundanthurai, in the southern Western Ghats mountain range of
India, were two separate entities until 1988, when owing to their
importance for conservation of threatened plants and animals, the province
was proclaimed the Kalakad - Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve (KMTR). These
verdant hills lie along the south-western coast of the Indian Peninsula,
which is well known as a global biodiversity hotspot. The KMTR harbours
five broad forest types ranging from tropical dry to evergreen forests. Its
entire stretch of pristine evergreen forests houses a rich repository of
rare and endangered species of flora and fauna, which can be attributed to
the biogeography and isolation of this region along with its varied
climates.
The area has high plant diversity harbouring 1,500 plant
species of which 150 are narrow endemics. This domain also provides more
than 250 species of medicinal plants and wild relatives of cultivated
plants like mango, banana, jackfruit, cardamom, ginger, pepper, tea and
coffee. Sixty-six species of orchids have found a home in this region, 8
species with a very narrow distribution. Recently, Paphiopedilum druryi
Pfitz., was rediscovered in the wild after having been thought to be
extinct for a hundred years.
KMTR has 77 mammal species, 273 bird species, 37 amphibian
species, 81 reptile species and 33 fish species. It is the southernmost
home for the Indian tiger (Panthera tigris), and also retains several
endemic and threatened mammals such as the Nilgiri tahr (Hemitragus
hylocrius), lion-tailed macaque (Macaca silenus), the Nilgiri marten (
Martes gwatkinsi sub sp.), and others.
Like any other protected area in India, KMTR has threats to its
biodiversity. It is bounded by 145 villages along the 5-km stretch of
buffer zone, and widespread disturbance processes, such as livestock
grazing, fuelwood collection, and sudden outbreaks of fire, occur in
parallel with rare instances of poaching, gem stone collection and
extraction of minor forest products.
The area was used as a model for World Bank's successful
Ecodevelopment Project during which the Wildlife Institute of India,
Dehradun, accepted the challenge of conducting a multi-disciplinary
research project in KMTR. The major goal of the project was to document
various components of biodiversity and to quantify the dependence of the
local people on its natural resources for formulating long-term
conservation and ecodevelopment goals. Although the project successfully
identified a range of important ecological and socio-economic issues facing
the KTMR, there remains a long way to go to implement a management strategy
based on these findings.
BACK TO TOP
10. India: Orissa villagers revive devastated forest in barren land
Source: New Kerala, Wednesday, 29/12/04 (in Community Forestry E-News
2004.12)
Residents of 17 villages in Orissa have set an example for protecting the
environment by reviving a forest spread over 3 500 acres that was
devastated by widespread felling of trees a decade ago.
“When I would go out with a stick and axe to protect the
forest, people laughed at me but now things have changed,” Raghunath
Pradhan, the 80-year-old resident of Magarbandh village who inspired the 10
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