Jalukie community harvesting fruits from forest conservation

Dimapur, Oct. 20 (EMN): The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has released recently a report Bonn Challenge and India 2018’ which mentioned best practices for restoration effort by the community’s of old Jalukie joint forest management committee.
The local community there appears to be making good inroads into an area that once functioned primarily as a source of sustenance that held no significance for the larger ecological issues other than to provide food and fuel.

Events associated with the conservation activity continue in various forms. The Forest division of Peren district conducted a publicity event on October 6 to distribute chicks and poultry farm equipments, and solar lamps, among others. A delayed report, a press release, on Saturday said that they set up a “modular poultry farming” unit at old Jalukie “to empower people at the grass root level aimed at reaching to the needy section of society.”

The Forest department continues to work with the community to sustain their Livelihood, the press release stated. The village’s council has declared 370 hectares of land as a community biodiversity reserve and imposed total ban on “jhumming,” hunting, and logging.

The community’s involvement in restoration activities has become a means for employment to the local people, the press release stated.
“Development of a community is not all about making roads, constructing big buildings but basically development is the realization of oneself and the ability that prompt towards change,” district forest officer (DFO) Dr. Sentitula was quoted in the press release as having stated during the publicity programme.

Pointing out that the “forest is the storehouse for all living being,” the DFO said Naga forefathers “read nature in order to know the will of God.” She exhorted the community that “good forest is an indicator of prosperity” and that “ecological and food security depends on quality and quantity of forests.”

“These forests provide all our basic needs but we should harvest these resources sustainably to meet the needs of our future generations and at the same time enhance our livelihood,” the press release quoted Dr. Sentitula.

During the event, the president of the joint forest management committee, Iriegwang Mpom, was said to have assured the Forest officials that the committee still has the capacity to extend the community reserve area and that the community would continue to work with the department.

A village leader, Hainkeing, of the village council of old Jalukie also assured to work for conservation together with the department, the press release stated.
The official programme was followed distribution and installation of four poultry sheds to rear “Vanaraja poultry chicks” through “semi-intensive method of rearing,” the establishment stated.