The report presents a mixed picture. Over the past 25 years, there have been notable improvements in child well-being in the group of countries examined in this report: steady decline in child mortality, overall reduction in adolescent suicide and increase in school completion rates. But the last five years have …
What is the greatest benefit you have derived from community forest management? There is a centuries-old monastery near our village. It was robbed of its sanctity after the forest around it was denuded. Once the community regenerated the forest, the spiritual splendour that is associated with a religious place was …
For 30 years, 60-year-old Gyan Bahadur Karki, along with his fellow villagers, has been protecting a 24-hectare (ha) patch of forest in the vicinity of his village Kahnu, near Pokhra. He has been sourcing his fodder and fuelwood needs from the forests since then. "But there is a big difference …
In 1993, the Nepal government decided to hand over certain forest areas to rural communities. Six years later, 8,559 such communities are managing 621,942 hectares of forest land in the country. They are bent on accomplishing what the government has not been able to do
In an effort to help developing countries compete more effectively in the world starch markets, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has urged research institutes to study various properties of starch. FAO began studying starch properties a year ago and is now working in research institutes in Italy …
traditional knowledge refers to the unique local knowledge existing within and developed around the specific conditions of people indigenous to a particular geographic area. All members of a community have traditional knowledge about the ecology: elders, women, men and children. However, the quantity and quality of traditional knowledge possessed by …
community participation can work wonders , especially when it comes to tackling diseases like malaria. The Zimbabwe experience in recent years shows that, in what otherwise appears to be a hopeless situation, communities can reverse the fortunes of thousands of people susceptible to the disease. Also referred to as a …
in the 1980s, a few institutional and community biogas plants were set up in some villages by cooperating centres of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research ( icar )-sponsored All India Coordinated Research Project. Islampur village in Bhopal was one of the villages selected. As in any other village, cowdung …
consider this. A small sleepy town on the top of a hill in the north of Nagaland. The mention of the town's name is met by blank looks for it is isolated not only geographically, but also from civilisation. None of the modern means of communication exists and, to top …
the struggle against the British which finally ended in Independence plunged the villagers of Seed, Rajasthan, into troubled times. After over two decades of helpless suffering, it took a Gandhian from the neighbouring village of Sethwana to dispel the clouds of despondency. The simple step involved converting Seed to a …
In Kesharpur, a tiny village in the foothills of Orissa’s Nayagarh district, villagers search for a baton in their frontyard every morning. Two families find a baton each. The batons decide their day’s work
In every village, a committee is elected by the people. There is a blanket ban on felling and stray grazing. The committee supervises these bans and resolves all conflicts. It also collects fines, decided by the villagers, for any violation of the protection rules. Similarly, it decides the village peoples' …
Orissa's forest protection movement, which started in different places at different times, has become so strong that neither do forest officials find it easy to enter the forests protected by communities nor has the government been able to implement its conservation programmes. But the government refuses to acknowledge their efforts. …
What is your concept of conservation when the state is facing severe degradation of the forests and other environmental problems? My concept is very clear: there has to be a fine balance between development and ecology. But whatever policies we formulate must be accepted by the people. We need development …
A poll issue Villagers put forward a charter of six demands to political leaders, from village to state-level, seeking rights over the forests they have created it's a battle between the haves and the have-nots. At stake is 400,000 hectares (ha) of forest land in Orissa
1920s: The British introduced railway lines in Orissa. Commercial exploitation of forests began in a big way. 1930s: In Dhenkanal, people revolted against the king for rights over the forests they traditionally protected. Lapanga village in Sambalpur became the first recorded village to protect forests.The king of Mayurbhanj initiated JFM …
india's first mass arsenic removal community-based programme to provide safe drinking water to more than 400 affected villages of West Bengal will begin in October. The Rs 9-crore project will be executed by the All India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health ( aiih&ph;). A large chunk of aid will …
Mention the word local community and bureaucrats in India wince. So what's new? It seems the bureaucrats have realised that little moves without the participation of the local community in this country. When it comes to implementing decisions taken by the government to benefit the environment, it is local communities …
according to a national survey conducted in the late '80s, 69 per cent of India's protected areas ( pa s) have human populations and a large number of them have community rights. Therefore, the viability of setting up pristine wildernesses sanctuaries which are declared total protection areas as a remedy …
