Indian Wildlife Club Forum

Tribal rights Bill Passed

The law which gives tribals rights to forest land is expected to cover nearly ten lakh tribals and traditional forest-dwellers living in 87 districts of the country. Only those who have been residing in forests for three generations or 75 years will be eligible to claim land. Each such family would be entitled to four hectares of forest land. The total land that dwellers are estimated to get is two percent of the forest land.

But the government has retained the power to acquire forest land with tribals for the construction of schools, hospitals and to provide other basic facilities.

 Rights over land and minor produce

 The gram sabha will determine the nature and extent of individual or community forest rights. The gram sabha will then pass a resolution for conferring the rights and it will be forwarded to a Sub-Divisional level committee. The rights will be conferred by a District Level Committee to be apointed by the state government.

Source: The Hindustan Times and The Indian Express

"The fact is that warming of the global atmosphere is possibly the biggest and most difficult economic and political issue the world has ever needed to confront. I say this because, firstly, emissions of carbon dioxide are directly linked to economic growth. Therefore, growth as we know is on the line. We will have to reinvent what we do and how we do it. There will be costs, but as Stern says, the cost will be a fraction of what we will need to spend in the future.

Secondly, the issue is about sharing that growth between nations and between people. The fact is that global economic wealth is highly skewed. Put in climate terms, this means that global emissions are also highly skewed. The question now is whether the world will share the right to emit (or pollute) or will it freeze inequities. The question is if the rich world, which has accumulated a huge 'natural debt' overdrawing on its share of the global commons, will repay it so that the poorer world can grow, using the same ecological space?

Thirdly, climate change is about international cooperation. The fact is that climate change teaches us more than anything else that the world is one; if the rich world pumped in excessive quantities of carbon dioxide yesterday, the emerging rich world will do so today. It also tells us the only way to build controls will be to ensure there is fairness and equity, so that this biggest cooperative enterprise is possible. Think of climate change as the fallout of the feverish embracing of the market.

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Ultimately, climate change is the true globaliser. It forces our world to come together not just to make short-term profits for some, but long-term economic and ecological benefits for all. Let us continue to discuss how this can be done."

 Source:
Sunita Narain

 in

www.downtoearth.org.in/

The Delhi Wildlife Department rescued seven owls belonging to the species" Indian Horned Owl", in Old Delhi. 

The seizure has brought to light a racket run in the name of black-magic. 

According to wildlife experts, the owls are not captured for their meat but to perform rituals.  The claws of the bird are thought to attract good fortune while feathers are used to ward off evil spirits.  Tantriks cash upon mythology where owl is considered the vehicle of goddess Lakshmi. 

Source: The Indian Express dated 8th Dec, 2006

The headlines scream of a seething Singur in Calcutta, where Tatamotors are acquiring land to set up an automotive plant. The settlement to the farmers is handsome, yet farmers ask,"What use is cash?"

The echoes of these feelings are heard in a faraway consumeristic land in a different form.  America. 

Americans have increased the conservation of private lands by more than 50 percent in just five years. Currently about 37 million acres of private land has been set aside as natural areas.  Factors contributing to the increase in private lands conservation include towns wanting to preserve their quality of life, state and local open space bond initiatives, and policymakers concerned about sprawl and unchecked development.

Sources: Business Standard, 10 Dec, 2006 and  lta.org/census

The award of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize to Muhammad Yunus is a tremendous accomplishment for the founder of Grameen Bank, Bangladesh and for the field of social entrepreneurship.

The media describes Yunus as an economist, professor, or banker, but really why the Nobel Committee selected him is because Yunus is the quintessential global social entrepreneur. His brilliant microcredit strategy is based on unleashing the potential of every person to change his or her life.

Training: Understanding and deciphering EIA: from screening to decision-making
New Delhi, January 8-13, 2006

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This hands-on training programme aims at demystifying Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for NGOs. It also seeks to develop the capacity of state-level regulators to screen and scope the EIA process, evaluate reports and conduct public consultations.

The course will expose participants to:
- Technical and new legal aspects of EIA
- Environmental and social impacts of various types of developmental projects
- Hands-on exercises in screening, scoping, data analysis and developing environment management plans
- Tools and thumb rules to evaluate various environmental and social impact parameters
- Techniques to engage in public consultation

Last date for registration: December 15, 2006

Register online >>
http://www.cseindia.org/misc/eia_form.htm

Wild Elephants of Nepal have all but vanished.  It is said that the occasional herd is from the forests of Shiwaliks and the TERAI along the Himalyan foothills in U.P.
With rapid changes in landscape and increased human activities, the elephants stopped their seasonal migration around 1994 through the forests of Uttar pradesh, India to the connecting forests of Kanchanpur, Kailali and Bardia Districts of Nepal.
Recently there have been reports of a reverse migration from the Royal Bardia Park and Chitwan Forest in Nepal, bordering Bahraich ( Eastern U.P).   According to a report in the Indian Express dated 26 November, 2006, a herd of 22 elephants crossed over to make Bahraich their home.

The major single cause for elephant population going down is the loss of corridors and the above report is a welcome development for all those who want to see these giants roaming the forest and not chained to human bondage.

Dener Giovanini (Brazil) has designed a citizen-based network to fight the third largest illegal business in the world, animal trafficking. He incorporates Internet communications into a start-to-finish system that saves animals' lives, brings criminals to justice, and provides new employment opportunities to rural traffickers.

Dener Giovanini has created the National Network Combatting Wild Animal Trafficking (A Rede Nacional de Combate ao Tráfico de Animais Silvestres), or RENCTAS, to curb and ultimately stop animal trafficking in Brazil by addressing the problem at all levels and including all relevant actors. Perhaps the most distinctive aspects of Dener's work are the focus on training programs for those low-income individuals who make a living by producing the animals for the phenomenally lucrative trade, and the degree to which he creates partnerships among people who would not ordinarily be in contact with each other. To that end, RENCTAS effectively links individuals and organizations to solve all aspects of the problem together: animal protection groups and veterinarians are linked to government officials who have seized the animals from the traffickers; individuals and organizations who want to report trafficking are linked to the government's environmental agency and the Public Prosecutor's Department.

Dener's comprehensive approach includes: 1) an urgent response and care system for the animals who are seized by government officials; 2) training programs to provide alternative employment to those involved in animal trafficking; 3) a reporting system for those who want to report instances of trafficking; 4) training of police officers and customs agents in how to deal with animals that are seized; 5) efforts to improve and enforce environmental laws to provide greater protection for animals vulnerable to trafficking; and 6) a campaign to educate the public about the damage animal trafficking will cause to the environment, and to raise awareness among consumers in an effort to eliminate the market for trafficked animals.

 Ashoka Fellow Dener Giovanini has built a 60,000 person movement served by a powerful Internet investigative and tracking capacity that has thrown Brazil's $3 billion hugely destructive and unforgiving trade in wild animals (90 percent die en route) onto the defensive.

http://www.ashoka.org/node/3272

Dr. JA McNeely, Chief Scientist, IUCN (World Conservation Union), will be speaking on "Ecological Security:The Foundation of Sustainable Development" at the India International Centre (IIC), New Delhi, on 16 December 2006 at 5 pm.