- Northeastern states of India have nearly 15% of the country’s total forest area under the traditional ownership of local communities which can play very critical role in fulfilling India’s national and international commitments.
- Special constitutional provisions should be used to safeguard community rights over resources, support sustainable management of the resources to ensure ecological and economic security.
- Using the special constitutional provisions to support community-based conservation in Northeast India will help the country have an inclusive approach to achieve the 30X30 global biodiversity conservation target.
- The views in this commentary are that of the author.
In recent times, both at national and international levels, there has been strong recognition of the role of local and indigenous communities in securing global biodiversity and the need for mechanisms to support them. Among all the international initiatives, the most significant ones are the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), aimed at conserving global biodiversity and first signed at the Earth Summit held in Brazil in 1992, and the targets of the biannual Conference of Parties (COP) to the CBD.
In November 2018, the biodiversity conference COP14 adopted the category ‘other effective area-based conservation measures’ (OECMs) to incorporate all conservation efforts of local and indigenous communities. At COP10, held in Nagoya, Japan, in 2010, parties agreed, as part of Aichi Biodiversity Target 11, to secure (through effective conservation and sustainable management) 17 percent of territorial and inland water bodies between 2010 and 2020. The Protected Planet Report 2020 submitted to CBD noted that countries secured nearly 16.64 percent and the contribution of OECMs was seven percent. In the National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP) 2019 submitted to CBD, India has reported that it secured nearly 28 percent of the total area (0.93 million sq. km), which is much above the target. What is important to note is that the contribution of OECM to India’s achievement was around 17 percent (0.16 million sq. km).
As part of Target 3 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF) in the CBD COP15 held in 2022, global leaders agreed to conserve 30 percent of the planet by 2030, popularly known as the 30X30 Target. The consensus was to achieve this target while ensuring equitable governance, respecting IP&LC (Indigenous People & Local Communities) rights, and accommodating conservation-compatible sustainable use. The Protected Planet Report 2024 released at CBD COP16 recently at Cali, Colombia, revealed that in response to the commitment, so far, only 17.6 percent of territorial and inland water and 8.4 percent of marine and coastal areas have been secured. In COP16, there was also an agreement to recognise the role of local and indigenous communities as protagonists in protecting biodiversity. In addition, parties decided to constitute a subsidiary body for the indigenous communities under Article 8(j) of CBD in addition to two existing subsidiary bodies, Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA) and Subsidiary Body on Implementation (SBI).
In the NBSAP 2024, submitted by India in CBD COP16, 23 national biodiversity targets were spelled out. The committed targets aligned with the three broad themes of the KMGBF with a strong emphasis on ensuring active community participation and benefits to the community from conservation efforts. This effort indicates India’s commitment to recognise and support conservation initiatives by local and indigenous communities of the country in securing its rich biodiversity and fulfilling its commitment to the global community.
The seven northeastern states of India – Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura – account for only 8 percent of India’s total geographical area but contain almost 25 percent of its total forest area. Of the region’s total forest cover of around 0.16 million sq. km, nearly 59 percent (recorded mostly as Unclassed Forest) are under de facto traditional ownership of more than 200 different local indigenous communities in the region. This means, the northeastern states have nearly 15% of the country’s total forest area under the traditional ownership of local communities in the region.
Thus, this region, which also forms part of two Global Biodiversity Hotspots (Himalaya and Indo-Burma), can contribute significantly to fulfilling India’s commitment to the 30X30 Target by recognising and strengthening traditional natural resource management practices.
In recent years, the traditional subsistence-level dependency of local communities on natural resources has been surpassed by the commercial demand for the same resources. In addition, due to the push for large-scale infrastructure development projects in the region, the pressures on natural resources have been increasing rapidly. Many local communities have realised the negative impact of the ongoing degradation of natural resources on their cultural identity and traditional livelihood, which are still largely dependent on natural resources. However, they are reluctant to adopt the state-managed protected area model of conservation which, primarily emphasises notification as a National Park, Wildlife Sanctuary or Reserve Forest, as that will lead to the loss of their traditional ownership and user rights over the area and resources.
The process of nationalisation of forests in India began in the late 19th century during the British regime. However, for parts of northeastern India, the British rulers preferred to follow the policy of non-interference and administrative freedom to the strong local traditional institutions in the region. After independence, with the adoption of the Constitution of India in 1950, special Constitutional Provisions were incorporated for the region to safeguard the traditional ownership rights over land and resources and the local communities’ traditional ways of life. These special constitutional provisions include the Sixth Schedule for Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tripura; Article 371 A for Nagaland; Article 371 C for Manipur; and Article 371 H for Arunachal Pradesh. Though 15 percent of the total forest of India is under traditional ownership of local, indigenous communities in this region, so far, these special constitutional provisions have not been used to frame a robust legal framework to promote a model of conservation that takes into consideration the age-old relationship of local communities with their surrounding environment.
In the region, there are ten autonomous councils, constituted under the provision of the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution of India, which authorises them to legislate laws to manage forest areas under their jurisdiction outside the notified reserve forest. Despite this opportunity, they have preferred to adopt and follow laws enacted at state and national levels, which often do not consider the age-old traditional relationship and management practices of traditional institutions and local indigenous communities with their surrounding forest areas.
Certain initiatives have been taken in the region recently. On December 20th, 2023, Karbi Anglong, an Autonomous Council, constituted an Expert Committee to frame rules to implement Community Conserved Area (CCA) under the Sixth Schedule provision. Recently, on November 14th, 2024, the Government of Arunachal Pradesh published a draft guideline for recognition of CCA for public comments.
In addition, in the last two decades, multiple voluntary and NGO-driven community-based conservation initiatives have been launched in region. These include initiatives such as the Khonoma Nature Conservation and Tragopan Sanctuary and Sendenyu Community Biodiversity and Wildlife Reserve in Nagaland; Thembang Bapu CCA, Pangchen Lumpo Muchat CCA, Egam Basar—Project Nature, and Elopa-Etugu Community Eco-Cultural Preserve in Arunachal Pradesh.
All such ongoing initiatives can provide important learnings to design and implement robust and effective legislative provisions to support and strengthen community resource management initiatives in the region utilising various constitutional provisions. Most importantly, there is a need for legislation that not only provides legal security to the communities’ traditional rights over the area and resources but also offers technical and financial support to them to deliver their responsibilities.
This is critical to ensure ecological and economic benefits to the communities by exercising their rights over the area and its resources. A strategy is needed to mobilise different communities to think and act at the landscape level by adopting a collaborative approach to ensure ecosystem and habitat contiguity. This, in turn, will help reduce the edge effect and secure the future of wildlife in the region, which requires a larger ecological home range. The region has a rich stock of high commercial-value forest resources, which include medicinal and aromatic plants, bamboo, cane etc. Mobilising the community to manage larger areas at the landscape level will also provide the scope to design and implement sustainable resource-use protocols as conservation incentives which will benefit the community economically. With secured ownership and management rights over space and resources of the local communities, it will open opportunities for them to create diverse income opportunities by promoting Community-Based Tourism (CBT). However, it is also essential to recognise that many of the traditional resource management systems being followed by indigenous communities have not evolved to effectively address most of the new and emerging threats and challenges, like illegal wildlife trade, garbage management, climate change, etc. Therefore, it is important to work with the local institutions to strengthen their capacity and their traditional resource management systems by incorporating the changes required to address such gaps and weaknesses.
There is an urgent need to revisit the current state-managed protect area model of conservation and have a suitable legal mechanism by using the opportunities provided in special constitutional provisions for the region, thereby recognising and supporting community-based, inclusive conservation under the category of OECM. This will ensure ecological and economic security in the region and will contribute to fulfilling India’s commitment to the KMGBF treaty, particularly the 30X30 target.
The author is faculty at Azim Premji University, Bengaluru.
Banner image: CCA being managed by local villagers in Zemithang. Image by Pijush Kumar Dutta.
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