Dimapur: The North Eastern Council (NEC) will implement a project to conserve and restore catchment areas of the Barak river across Assam, Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland, with the North Eastern Region Community Resource Management Society (NERCORMS) as the executing agency.
A meeting on the proposed project was held in Kohima on Monday to review the ongoing feasibility study and discuss data and information required from various departments in Nagaland, an official release said on Tuesday.
The meeting covered community forests and customary land ownership, upper-catchment management, water resources, livelihoods, agriculture, soil health, agroforestry, biodiversity and traditional ecological knowledge.
The meeting was chaired by Kohima ADC Ruopfukuotuo Noudi and attended by NERCORMS representatives and officials from concerned departments of Nagaland.
A NERCORMS representative presented the proposed project and its objectives, saying it would be funded by the Government of India and KfW, Germany.
The NERCORMS team said the project would follow a grassroots approach, with local communities’ needs and perspectives incorporated into the planning process. The meeting also emphasised the participation of all stakeholders, including both male and female representatives.
The project seeks to address environmental challenges in the Barak basin associated with unsustainable land use and inadequate watershed management. These include deforestation, soil erosion, wetland degradation, shifting cultivation, riverbank erosion, high sediment loads and increasing flood risks in downstream areas.
The proposed project will focus on landscape planning, catchment restoration, climate mitigation, farm and forest product value chains, forestry and horticulture interventions, and project management.
Planned activities include soil and moisture conservation, plantation and forest protection, biodiversity conservation, springshed management, livelihood promotion and capacity building of local communities.
The project is expected to improve forest and vegetation cover, strengthen climate resilience, reduce flood risks and promote sustainable management of natural resources and livelihood opportunities in project villages and neighbouring areas.
Officials also discussed the feasibility of the proposed interventions and requirements for the ongoing feasibility study. The meeting proposed designating a nodal officer from Nagaland to coordinate project-related activities.