France’s ecological transition minister Barbara Pompili, who will be in India on a five-day visit to deepen Indo-French ties on sustainable development, will visit Assam.
Minister Pompili will travel to Kaziranga National Park, one of the sites of the Assam Project on Forest and Biodiversity Conservation (APFBC) and IIT-Guwahati during her visit to the state,
The French Development Agency has been working with Assam since 2012, providing financial and technical assistance to APFBC to support the state’s biodiversity conservation efforts, sustainable and participatory management of forests and the creation of alternate livelihoods for forest-dependent communities, official sources said.
In the wake of the One Planet Summit held in Paris on January 11, Minister Pompili will highlight the potential of Indo-French cooperation to spur international efforts for biodiversity protection.
She will also meet local communities who have benefited from skill development programmes to develop alternative livelihoods.
At IIT-Guwahati, the Minister will interact with researchers of the Centre of Excellence-Sustainable Polymers, credited with having developed India’s first biodegradable plastic, sources said.