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. …
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 …
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) …
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 …
Corruption charges are flying thick and fast against Kerala forest minister K Sudhakaran and the state forest department (fd). The opposition Left Democratic Front (ldf) has accused Sudhakaran of accepting bribes worth Rs 5 crore in a softwood auction involving the now defunct Mavoor unit of Grasim Industries Limited (gil). …
The unique assemblages of flora and fauna in the Himalayan region make it one of the most important biodiversity hotspots on the Indian subcontinent. Seventy-five protected areas (PAs) encompassing 9.48% of the region have been created to conserve this biodiversity and the fragile Himalayan landscape. However, this has engendered conflicts …
This paper is based on three case studies, each belonging to one of the three types of institutional structures: self-initiated, NGO-promoted, and government sponsored JFM. The basic objectives of three instutitional structures have been strengthening ecological security and meeting the subsistence biomass needs of the local people.
At its recently concluded third session in Geneva, Switzerland, the United Nations Forum on Forests (unff) took a step towards the creation of a legally binding instrument. An ad hoc expert group was established to consider the parameters of a mandate for developing the legal framework on all types of …
