Adopted at the Workshop on Community and Biodiversity in Nagaland

Kohima, 24-27th October, 2005

(Organised by Forest Department, NEPED, and Kalpavriksh, with sponsorship of Forest Department, IFACN, British High Commission, NEPED, and ICIMOD)

Recognising the growth and positive impact of community conservation movement in Nagaland, in particular their attempts to halt indiscriminate hunting, forest destruction, and fishing at specific sites;

Noting the enormous importance of these initiatives, in the context of the national and international loss of biodiversity and the erosion of earth’s capacity to sustain life ;

Respecting that there is a wide range of such initiatives, with a diversity of motivations, institutional arrangements, rules, and impacts; 

Realising that several measures are needed to strengthen these initiatives, such as  documentation and studies, awareness and capacity building, generating livelihood options linked to conservation, providing appropriate legal measures, and resolving conflicts within and between communities;

Utilizing the existing mandate of Village Councils, Village Development Boards, and various community institutions set up for conservation; 

Recognising that these initiatives provide a challenge and an opportunity to develop a policy integrating conservation, livelihood security, and development, as appropriate to the state’s unique features (in particular its biological and cultural diversity, its immense traditional knowledge, the strong institutions at village and tribe level, its unique constitutional status, and the ownership of most land and resources by communities);

Stressing that such an integrated policy could focus on inputs for sustainable jhum and other traditional farming systems, forest based livelihoods, agroforestry, value addition to medicinal and aromatic plants, markets for organic and traditional crops, water harvesting, and other such inputs that sustain rather than destroy the state’s natural and agricultural biological diversity;

We call upon all sections of society, to work towards strengthening community based conservation:

·        the state government to evolve a state-specific policy integrating conservation, livelihood security, and ecologically sensitive development

·        relevant government agencies to provide sensitive facilitation and support as requested and required by communities

·        NGOs, scientific, religious and educational institutions to extend capacity building and technical assistance to communities, and assist in documenting their initiatives

·        the communities themselves to strengthen and spread their initiatives.

·        empower youth and women to conserve and sustainably use their environment.