Forests & Biodiversity: On the occasion of 22 May International Day for Biodiversity 2011

-by Usha Lachungpa, On behalf of Green Circle, NGO and Sikkim State Biodiversity Board, 22 May 2011

Our journey in Sikkim from IYB 2010 to IYF 2011 was a celebration of various aspects of neighborhood Biodiversity, the spectacular to commonly seen, in and around our homes and forests.    A journey from celebrating the life-sustaining diversity of life around us in 2010, to singling out just one of them, our Silent Sentinels in our Forests in 2011.  And who needs them?  We the People.

Our food, much of our cool clothing, shelter, fuel, fire….where else do we turn to but our nearest easily accessible forests.  Now we really need to “see the wood for the trees”.  Dr Ahmed Djoghlaf, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in his message for International Day for Biodiversity 2011at http://www.modernghana.com/news/329897/1/message-for-the-international-day-for-biodiversity.html talks about the far-reaching benefits of forests.  Forests catch and store water, stabilize soils, harbor biodiversity and make an important contribution to regulating climate and the greenhouse gases that are causing climate change. They generate profits for international businesses and provide essential income and resources for hundreds of millions of the world's poorest people.  This year's observance of the International Day for Biodiversity falls during the 2011 International Year of Forests, declared by the United Nations General Assembly to educate the global community about the value of forests and the extreme social, economic and environmental costs of losing them.

Luckily, as the ongoing climate change negotiations demonstrate, awareness is growing that reducing deforestation and forest degradation can play a large part in how we are responding to the combined threat of climate change, biodiversity loss and land degradation.
Closer home India is hosting the eleventh Conference of the Parties (CoP-11) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), and the sixth Conference of the Parties serving as Meeting of the Parties (CoP/MoP-6) to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety to be held on 1-19 October, 2012.  Our Ministry of Environment and Forests is launching the UN Decade of Biodiversity at New Delhi on 23 May 2011.
At home we realize our Biodiversity Bouquet is a result of our long history of natural resource conservation and its sustainable use for our day-to-day survival. Our Sikkim wonderland is variously describes as a Hidden Paradise, Shangrila, and such-like superlatives.  Everyone we know wants to visit our little haven and see for themselves what they only read or heard about.
Recently a lot of young Sikkimese with increasing curiosity are celebrating great learning experiences about Sikkim’s birds, butterflies and moths, all on Facebook.  A venerable senior naturalist Mr. G. M. Pradhan has this excellent advice: ‘Start a Society for Cultivating and Conserving Sikkim’s Native Plants, with chapters in various regions. Establish Groups such a Butterfly Larval Food Plants Group, Orchid Group, Aroids Group, Gingers Group, Impatiens Group and so on. When interested people start sowing seeds of wild plants and raising them as a hobby, this will add to creating a gene pool and who knows, a thriving national and international commerce and seed exchange project may evolve. The concept will have to be "sold" to the public through modern mass communication processes. People will have to be brainwashed into believing that growing native plants is a purer form of meditation and an excellent therapy for releasing tension! There will be many takers! Schools should be a primary target. Tourism will have one more interest point to market.’
What better way to “enjoy another journey round the sun like fellow travelers on a wonderful adventure!”  Forests for People and People for Forests; there’s hope yet, for mankind!!