Guwahati, April 26: Known for its sacred groves and pristine forests covering its hills, the state of Meghalaya needs to have a clear picture now on the sustainable livelihood practices of villagers from forest fringes in order to balance development and forest conservation.
In order to chalk out a roadmap for the purpose, the State Council for Science and Technology (SCSTE), Meghalaya, in collaboration with NE India’s premier biodiversity conservation organisation, Aaranyak organized a one-day workshop on “Forest-based livelihood, livelihood security and indigenous people’s right on Natural resources in Meghalaya” at NEHU, on April 22 last, according to a Press communique issued here by Aaranyak.
The event was supported by the Forest and Environment Department, Meghalaya government as part of an ongoing study to understand socio-economic status and forest dependence of the forest fringe villages from the three larger landscapes in Meghalaya.
The objective of the workshop was to understand the existing livelihood scenario of forest fringe villages, livelihood practices, roles of traditional local institutions, and identification of any gaps in the area of sustainable livelihood practices through consultation with the academicians and practitioners.
A group of distinguished persons attended the workshop and they included Dr. Vincent T Darlong, Ex-VC, MLCU, Shillong, P R Marak, CCF (wildlife), Meghalaya and Dr. Bibhab Kumar Talukdar, CEO, Aaranyak.
Addressing the first technical session on the topic “Prospects and challenges of development of the forest fringe villages of Meghalaya”, Dr. Darlong shared some wonderful insights about his experience and relationship with forest. He deliberated on forest, its importance and relation with indigenous people and stated that a practical forest management law was the need of the hour for the region.
Dr. Rekha Shangpliang, Associate Prof. Dept. of Sociology, NEHU spoke on ‘women in the forest fringe villages of Meghalaya and their development’. She stated that indigenous Khasi women are mostly engaged in forest-dependent livelihood and the role is quite similar to that of mother earth but their role remains invisible in the society.
Tambor Lyndoh, KaSynjuk ki Hima Arliang Wah Umiam-Mawphlang Welfare Society spoke on the role of community institutions in forest fringe development and shared his experience, prospects and challenges in managing the famous Mawphlang Sacred Grove in the East Khasi Hills.
Dr. HH Mohrmen shared his observations on Youth engagement and employment generation for forest fringe villages of Meghalaya citing the unique examples of community conservation efforts in Narpuh area of Jaintia hills. The session was moderated by Dr. M Firoz Ahmed, Conservation Biologists of Aaranyak.
In the second technical session the participants were divided into four small groups and each group discussed focused topics – Right of the Indigenous community, TKS and scoping for sustainable livelihood; Natural Resource Management, Green Skill and scoping for sustainable livelihood; Sustainable livelihood for women and youth and Appropriate technology for forest fringe development. The findings including challenges and prospects were shared groups at the end of the discussion.
Dr. Uma Shankar, Prof., Botany Dept, NEHU, summed up all the discussions in his speech, saying that, all the efforts and initiative for development by the Govt. can prevail through a bottom to top approach, the traditional institutions have to be sensitized, monitoring, consultation mechanisms have to be adopted for any initiative to be implemented in future.
The second technical session was moderated by Jayanta Kumar Sarma, Environment and Development consultant associated with Aaranyak. Earlier, Mr Sarma and Dr. Bibhuti Prasad Lahkar of Aaranyak presented the preliminary outcome of ongoing activities in Meghalaya.