Mokokchung, August 30 (MTNews): As concerns about climate change grows, the World Bank and the Nagaland government are collaborating to implement the Enhancing Landscape and Ecosystem Management (ELEMENT) initiative, which aims to maintain ecosystems and improve landscape.
In this regard, members of the World Bank, including senior environmental specialist Pyush Dogra; retired principal chief conservator of forests Dr. Ajit Kumar Patnaik (IFS); Avanish Kant, a key member of the World Bank’s Green India team; Aditi Paul, a specialist in climate change and safeguards for the World Bank and other organizations; and Nandini Chaudhary, managing director of GreenCIndia Consulting Pvt Ltd., visited Nagaland where the team held series of meetings and interactions with various related departments and also visited the Nagaland GIS and Remote Sensing Centre on 30th August, 2022.
On Wednesday, the crew will also visit Khonoma (Agro-Forestry), Jhum Field at Tseminyu, and the Boke-Botsa Project (Naga Integrated Settled Farming). On September 1, they will also travel to Kohima at the Springshed Coffee plantation. On the same day, they will meet with the chief minister of Nagaland, Neiphiu Rio, and the chief secretary, J Alam.
The ELEMENT project is worth Rs 647 crore and will be funded in an 80:20 split between the World Bank (Rs 517 crore) and the State government (Rs 130 crore).
Senior environmental specialist Pyush Dogra, on Monday said that the strategy of the funding agency is to stress on guiding principles and approaches like landscape approach for forests with integrated water approach, biodiversity; promotion of sustainable livelihoods, strengthening collaborative community participation; community-led, owned and managed/capacity building for planning and convergence and leverage of existing programs.
The project’s pillars would centre on adopting a climate smart model, supporting green growth and sustainable livelihood and provisioning ecosystem services.
After 59 years of statehood, this was the first collaboration between the World Bank and Agri & Allied departments, according to Agriculture Production Commissioner (APC), Nagaland, Y Kikheto Sema, who also claimed that farmers will benefit most from the project.
Additionally, he noted that there were roughly 1,300 villages in the State, of which 350–400 villages (or 25%) could be targeted through ELEMENT, and that, approximately 1 lakh members of the farming community could also be targeted.
It was told that the project concept note (PCN) preparation was only getting started. Over the course of five years, the project will run in all 16 districts of the State, and the coverage will be finished in stages. The project’s proposed timeframe is July 2022 to June 2027. These details were disclosed on Monday at Hotel Vivor, Kohima during the project’s launch event.