Good Food is First Food. It is not junk food. It is the food that connects nature and nutrition with livelihoods. This food is good for our health; it comes from the rich biodiversity of our regions; it provides employment to people. Most importantly, cooking and eating give us pleasure. …
All of the 204 million hectares of the Brazilian Cerrado, a vast tropical savanna, might disappear by 2030. And this disappearing act will be more tragic than magic. According to this startling revelation, in a study by Conservation International (ci), around 57 per cent of the area has already been …
an imminent report by the Central Bureau of Investigation (cbi) might compound the woes of Kerala's tribals who suffered police firing from close range in their struggle for forestland. The agency is about to give a clean chit to the police operation to drive the tribals away from the Muthunga …
function map() { var popurl="image/20040731/25-map.jpg" winpops=window.open(popurl,"","width=500,height=500,scrollbars=yes") } function table() { var popurl="html/20040731_inout.htm" winpops=window.open(popurl,"","width=500,height=500,scrollbars=yes") } function table1() { var popurl="html/20040731_bust.htm" winpops=window.open(popurl,"","width=400,height=300,scrollbars=yes") } The India Eco-Development Project (IEDP) was a much-lauded experiment, and the World Bank and government's pet. But it was not a
Nimati Domohini village in the west of Buxa Tiger Reserve, West Bengal, is on a highway where a side road breaks off and leads to the reserve's Nimati range office seven kilometres away. But the village is miles away from realising the dreams dreamt by its 331-member eco-development committee (EDC) …
Both the Forestry Research Education and Extension Project (FREEP) and its later, larger avatar, the India Eco-development project (IEDP) had a single objective: conserve biodiversity. What also made it a different form of rural development, quite unlike anything government had hitherto done, was the equal emphasis on improving the lives …
IEDP's larger monitoring mechanism, too, seems to have been primarily meant for the government or Bank consumption. The Bank sent its supervisory missions and its supervisors wrote
There exists a document called Linking Biodiversity Conservation and Rural Livelihoods. It is the Indian government's initial salvo for a new eco-development project, expected to begin late 2005. It will cost approximately US $48 million (Rs 220 crore), with beneficiaries putting in US $2 million (Rs 9.20 crore). The remaining …
One stove, one pot What eco-development means to people in Nagarhole When forest department officials find a handful of tourists staying overnight in the Nagarhole forest they put on a video show in the evening. For the last two years the same cassette has been played: Nagarhole's magnificent wild animals …
sky's the limit: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is going to launch a European satellite into orbit from its Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle by the end of 2005. ISRO chief Madhavan Nair said this would be the first EU satellite to be launched by the country. The organisation recently …
Conflicts over natural resource access goes back a long way in history ever since national parks became the best insitu method of protecting endangered biodiversity and received legal sanction all over the globe. This paper reviews a case study that was conducted in Kanha national park, India to find out …
When deliberations began on May 13, 2004 the world's forest policy-makers thought that all was well at the fourth UN Forum on Forest meet (UNFF-4). But by midnight everything had collapsed: two resolutions were dropped and another significantly watered down. By next afternoon, the delegates were on their way home, …
The government owns the forest. It also owns the statistics on forests. Government sources sporadically throw up reams of information related to forests, which is often difficult to decipher. But now a group of independent researchers has decided to make people understand the country’s forest facts better. They have used …
fixated on extending the ‘feel good’ sentiment to the country’s 67.8 million tribals, the powers that be forgot where to draw the line. On February 5, the Union ministry of environment and forests (moef) released a circular stating that the land rights of tribals living in forests since 1993 or …
Gujjars, a pastoralist community, prefer wilderness for their habitats. In Rajasthan, one tract of Gujjars habitats is mainly scattered around Sariska, a world fame Tiger Reserve, nowadays very much in news because of the tigers vanishing from it. The Sariska is spread over 866 square km areas. The Gujjars are …
from being a net exporter of timber, India has turned into its net importer. The reversal stems from the country's soaring demand for industrial roundwood. This was highlighted at the 35th session of the International Tropical Timber Council (ittc-35) in Tokyo from November 3-8. Moreover, sensitive issues such as labour …
As the vehicle drives into Cherrapunjee, a huge notice greets it. "Welcome to the wettest place on earth'. Sure it rains here (although that morning at 8 am there was a mild but persistent drizzle, cold light sleet in fact): 1,000 cm in a year. The Cherrapunjee line veritably leaps …
Land-use changes are transforming land-cover at an accelerating pace. These changes in terrestrial ecosystems also affect essential parts of our natural capital
what do cities like Mumbai, Karachi, Sao Paulo and Johannesburg have in common besides their high population? A strong reliance on forests for their drinking water, reveals Running Pure, a study by the World Bank and the World Wide Fund for Nature. Around a third of the world's top 105 …
