By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, June 30: A capacity-building workshop titled ‘Learning from the Land: Participatory Knowledge Harvest from Assam and Meghalaya’ recently brought together NGOs from the two states, which have partnered with UNDP-SGP, to share grassroots knowledge and resources on sustainable land use and agroecological practices.
Held at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Guwahati Off-Campus, the workshop aimed to foster local knowledge exchange and promote community-driven solutions for environmental sustainability and agro-biodiversity conservation in the region.
The initiative sought to enhance the knowledge and skills of more than 50 NGO participants working to empower local communities in sustainability and livelihoods across five broad areas, namely biodiversity conservation, land degradation, rural development, sustainability and climate change.
Dr Rahul Mahanta, Associate Professor at Cotton University, stepped outside his comfort zone of meteorology to accentuate the value of knowledge.
“Knowledge is sacred in itself and needs to be respected, as consideration of changes in the course of nature is not a disaster, but rather a memory, transforming the very basis of the conventional understanding of disaster, leading to generative disruptions,” he said.
Tithal Parmar, WASH (Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene) Specialist at UNICEF India, highlighted Guwahati’s serious sanitation challenges, noting their profound environmental consequences. “In the absence of a comprehensive sewer network, individual sewage treatment systems must be adopted as an interim solution until a robust sewer infrastructure is put in place, emphasising that sanitation is the responsibility of all and not any particular agency,” Parmar stated.