Climate Change & Local Ingenious Solutions
Rio de Janeiro is hosting the Rio+20 global summit, twenty years after the historic Rio Earth Summit (1992) where for the first time global cooperation was sought on the agenda of sustainable development. Twenty years is a long time and those gathered at Rio will surely reflect on why the Rio agenda has failed despite all the vision and efforts for a green world. Obviously global agreement has not been forthcoming on such issue as Green House Gas (GHG) reduction targets, emissions trading, implementation of GHG reducing activities and issues that were important to developing countries such as capacity building, transfer of technology and financial assistance. The further evidence of the unhealthy state of the Earth is that pollution level is up, forests are down, temperature has climbed up and natural disasters have mounted in the last twenty years since the Rio Earth Summit in 1992. While no doubt the outcome of the Rio+20 global summit will be crucial in the direction in which this critical issue is addressed, yet one should underscore the equal importance that each country or the local community can play in mitigating the harm done to the Earth. For those of us in Nagaland as well, many of us may find it difficult to understand the nuances of cutting emissions and its impact, but what we all can do is to contribute towards mitigation by embarking on our own conservation efforts. This means preserving what is left of the forests, protection of wildlife and plant species, sustainable development, preservation and rehabilitation of our rivers and water sources, ensuring less emission of greenhouse gases by using more solar energy for power generation etc. If we act locally in whatever small way possible it will help contribute to the global mitigation effort on climate change.
In this regard, one welcomes the recent initiative taken by the Old Jalukie village council together with Jalukie Pumling Nko (Traditional Body) and Joint Forest Management Committee (JFMC), unanimously declaring its forest area around the village as “Community Biodiversity Reserve” on June 16, 2012. Within this reserve, there will be total ban on hunting and trapping of wildlife, jhum cultivation, forest fires, green felling, stone quarrying, extraction of non-timber forest produce like pebbles and sand etc. Any rights or claims whatsoever within the demarcated area will not be entertained and will forego for the noble cause of biodiversity conservation. This is laudable. The other significant achievement, which is also one of the first in the State, is the supply of LPG connection to all households as alternative energy source to fuelwood requirement. This initiative of the Old Jalukie villagers should be an inspiration and motivation for other villages in the state to also act towards protecting the beautiful gift of nature. In fact during the Village Development Board (VDB) and Communitization conference a few years back, issues related to climate change were discussed and several resolutions reflecting the concern of rural Nagaland to confront global warming and climate change were taken. Amongst them was the unanimous resolution that every village should maintain a reserved forest. The village authorities also resolved to revive the traditional water-holes, to restrict hunting and fishing, to check indiscriminate burning of jungles and that every village should maintain a bio-diversity register. There is no doubt that such local initiatives will go a long way in creating awareness about the ill effects of global warming on such fundamentally important question of our food security, natural resources and biodiversity. Indeed we as indigenous peoples will have to work towards finding our own solutions for sustainable development and maintaining our fragile eco-system.
