Page 1, 2, 3, 4,

Biodiversity Conservation

             Workshop on Biodiversity Conservation conducted at Haflong, N.C. Hills by NCHCRMS and supported by NERCORMP-IFAD, Shillong on February 5-6, 2008. Nearly 80 representatives from the NaRMGs and SHGs attended the workshop. The Workshop was inaugurated by Mr.   EM (Forest), N.C. Hills Autonomous District Council and Shri B. Brahma IFS, Conservator of Forest was the guest of honour.

            Conducted Participatory Guarantee System (PGS) Organic Agriculture at RRTC, Umran for the community leaders and partner NGOs. The training was organized in collaboration with Institute of Integrated Rural Development (IIRD), Aurangabad, Maharashtra and ICIMOD, Kathmandu during 28-29^th February to March 1, 2008.

 Seminars / workshops attended

· Dr. V.T. Darlong, NRMEC attended Regional workshop cum meeting on “Strategies for Management of Post-Bamboo Flowering in North East India” at Rain Forest Research Institute, Jorhat, February 21-22, 2008.

· Dr. V.T. Darlong, NRMEC attended Stakeholders’ workshop on “Climate Change and Vulnerability of Mountain Ecosystems in the Eastern Himalayan Region”, organized by ICIMOD & NEHU, Shillong, March 11-12, 2008.

· ICIMOD Review Team visited NERCORMP-IFAD on 29^th January 2008 for assessment of the partnership programme of ICIMOD and NERCORMP under the IFAD-ICIMOD-TAG programme. Issues discussed included trainings on queen bee rearing, PGS and soil & water conservation.

- NRMC

The North Eastern Region Community Resource Management Project (NERCORMP) is funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). The overall objective of NERCORMP is to improve the livelihood of vulnerable groups in a sustainable manner through improved management of their resource base in a way that contributes to preservation and restoration of the environment.

            The NERCORMP is looking at participatory, sustainable, and viable community based institutions that is expected to carry out a people driven mode of rural development. . We have been concentrating on building up Community based Institutions (CBIs) at the grassroots level called - Natural Resources Management Groups (NaRM-Gs) and Self Help Groups (SHG).

One of the significant achievements through the creation of CBIs is the emergence of a bottoms-up planning approach by the village communities based and perceived on their felt needs.

NERCORMP is located in the North Eastern Region of INDIA. It is a district geographical unit connected to the rest of India through a narrow corridor in North Bengal. Overall, 98% of its borders are with other countries – Bhutan and China in the North, Myanmar in the East and Bangladesh in the South and West.

            The topography of the NER comprises three broad divisions – (a) the North Eastern Hills and Basin which accounts for 65% of the total land area; (b) the Brahmaputra valley which covers 22% of the region; and (c) the Meghalaya Plateau which covers 13% of the area. The upland areas are characterized by steep sided valleys and ridges with narrow valley bottoms and flood plains which offer limited scope for terracing.

            The NER is renowned for its rich bio diversity and it is one of the two areas in the Indian sub-continent classified as an ecological `hot spot’, denoting ecosystems, which are rich in bio diversity and possess rare and/or endangered species and endemic species. The NER is one of the most biologically diverse areas of the world due to the dramatic changes in elevation coupled with heavy rainfall. As many as 51 types of forest are found in the NER, ranging from tropical rain forest, deciduous forest to snow-clad alpine and sub-alpine forests and as many as 35 plant genera are known to be endemic in the NER. Out of the 500 different species of mammals known in India at least 160 are from the NER whilst over 65% of the mammalian genera recorded from India are also found in the NER.