According to Arunachal Times, the Sustainable Mountain Development Summit-IV held at Itanagar, under the aegis of Integrated Mountain Initiative (IMI) from Oct 7 will forward the outcomes and recommendations to NITI Ayog on Dec 11, the International Mountain Day for further action.
The final recommendations would be finalised later by the IMI core team. The core themes deliberated during the three days event were Disaster Risk Reduction, Forests and Mountain Agriculture. Some of point included for recommendations includes establishment of fully capacitated model District Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) in one district in each state, 100% coverage in terms of DDMPs in all hill states.
On the theme of Forest, it was found that there incoherent institutional and legal Policy with limited space for communities in conservation. It was also recommended that shared vision to be created for the community and state and other stakeholders to develop forestry sector vision 2030 to help in unlocking potential of forestry for sustainable mountain development.
One of the recommendations also include ecologically sustainable, socially inclusive, resilient, diverse, flourishing and market-linked mountain agriculture economy driven by youth and women by 2030 as well as formulation of a clear mountain-specific policy approach for Himalayan Agriculture.
Alemtemshi Jamir, Vice President, Integrated Mountain Initiative (IMI) informed that inclusion of Arunachal Pradesh in the PRASAD scheme under Tourism would also be a recommendation of the SMDS-IV. The Bhalukpong-Bomdila-Tawang Buddhism circuit has been envisaged under the PRASAD scheme. Sustainable Mountain Development Summit-IV saw participation of all 12 mountain states of the country as well as representatives from Nepal and Bhutan.
Making the concluding remarks of the summit, Dr. NC Saxena, Advisor UNDP and former member Planning Commission, opined that the neglect of mountain areas has been historical since the British times and it is not an easy task to manage community forests and land and that management capacity of the local people has not been satisfactory which needs government policy intervention to manage them.
The community management of forests is good but it has become open to access for all and nobody is protecting it. Elites are capturing the land and forests but on paper it has remained as community forests, he stated. There is shortage of production in the mountain states, and they are dependent on PDS compared to other parts for which the PDS needs to be strengthened, he said.
Further, Saxena terming fake NGOs as Paper NGOs, cautioned of these NGOs as they are contractor driven NGOs and eat into government funds. He also expressed optimism in the representation and involvement of women in the SMDS. Union Minister of State for Home, Kiren Rijiju in a video recorded statement stated that the development of mountain regions was essential. Assuring his cooperation and support to SMDS, Rijiju added the Himalayan development was imperative for the mountain people.
There was a briefing on the Chief Secretaries Conclave and Indian Himalayan Legislators Meet which was held as side events on Oct 8. Earlier, giving a brief background of IMI and SMDS, RS Tolia, President IMI informed that through “Forum envisage voices of the mountain people to be heard at the national and international forums and policymaking. The problems, solutions and way forward for the mountain states will be discussed for specific policy formulations as the problems are different for mountain regions, he added. The forum includes legislators, government officials, retired civil servants, and civil society movements. Responding to a question from the media, on the absence of hydro power development and its impacts in the Sustainable Mountain Development Summit-IV discussions, Tolia categorically stated that “we are aware of the positive and negative impacts of hydro power development in mountain states, and the issue had been the core theme in the first summit at Nainital in 2010. The focus here post Nepal earthquake is mainly on Disaster Risk Reduction”, he added.
Stating that the issue is a concern as the affects of hydro power development is much larger than other big projects; Tolia opined that the rehabilitation policies should be more liberal than other projects. One should be aware of the problems in the downstream too but there are devices like public hearing where people can raise their problems, he added.
Responding to the statements that SMDS was not involving NGOs at the grassroots, Tolia said the impression was wrong as it is a forum for all people to come together and work out a plan. Convenor SMDS-IV and Chairperson SDFA, FM Jaiswal added that the summit has involved NGOs in the whole preparation level. Around 235 delegates from outside the state participated in the SMDS-IV. The next SMDS would be held at Leh, Jammu and Kashmir, for which the Ladakh team formally received the baton.