Participants during the FPA contest at Dibuia village.
Moring Express News
Mokokchung | July 11
Three contests on Financial Participatory Approach (FPA) as part of the ‘Forest and Biodiversity Management in the Himalayas, Nagaland’ project were held in five villages under Mokokchung Forest Division.
The contests took place in Waromong, Alongkima, Dibuia, Mongchen and Khar villages under Mangkolemba range of Mokokchung district from May 14 to July 4.
The FPA under Mokokchung Forest Division is a project co-financed by the Federal Republic of Germany through KfW (German Development Bank) for the first time in India and Nagaland.
The main objective of the project is not only to conserve biodiversity but also to promote livelihood opportunities of forest dependent communities. This project aims in putting in place incentive mechanism rewarding communities for effectively protecting and maintaining their Community Conserved Areas (CCAs).
In all five villages, the first contest included storytelling and drawing competition under the theme ‘Living with Nature’ which was conducted for those above the age of 18 years and drawing contest for children below 18 years. The second contest was organised under the theme ‘Sustainable infrastructure creation relating to nature conservation’ where the participants were asked to prepare a project. Out of the total, five participants were chosen and the winning project will be implemented in the villages with funding from the KfW.
The third contest was organised under the theme ‘Biodiversity based sustainable livelihood’ for self-help groups in all five villages. The SHGs were asked to prepare a project basing on the theme and similar to the second contest, the winning activities will be implemented in the five villages. The winning projects included mixed crop farming, straw paddy mushroom farming, piggery farming, Nongnang Enterprise (Honey Bee Rearing) and Mini Silkworm farming. Implementation of these projects will proceed after fund requisition.
Village Level Working Group (VLWG) and juries were formed in all the villages. The VLWG organised the various contests while the juries were responsible for adjudging the competition and selecting the winners. All sections of the village participated and all the three contests were attended by the facilitators and support team.
