IMPHAL, September 27: “Keeping into view the need to share and understand the full extend of the impacts of the global climate change, the Manipur Biodiversity Board, in association with the state forest department is organizing the two days national workshop on “Impacts of climate change on biodiversity management in North-Eastern India, with particular reference to Manipur” at the Classic Hotel starting September 29”.
The state chief secretary DS Poonia who is also the chairman of the Manipur Biodiversity Board announced this during a press conference held at the conference hall of secretariat south block. He further announced that with Manipur being a part of the world hot spot biodiversity, the rich biodiversity of the region has just been recognized only recently.
Elaborating further on the need of organizing such workshops, he stated that considering the need to understand the impact of climate change on forest, agriculture, wetlands and biodiversity associated to the livelihood support systems at large, the state board decided to organized the national workshop.
He further added that the present available database is not adequate to understand the full extent of impacts of climate change.
“The workshop will initiate deliberations on interactions between the “climate change” and “biodiversity conservation” and added that many experts and senior officers from various parts of the country including the state and the NE region have been invited to attend the workshop”.
It may provide training that would cater to understand the capacity needs of scientists, researchers and locals, he added.
Further speaking at the conference, he stated that the climate model predicts that there will be 2-3.5 degree Celsius increase in temperature and 280-500 mm increase in precipitation in the Northeastern region by 2030, which is likely to impact severely on the biodiversity of the region.
He further mentioned that, the current knowledge on climate change by the people of the state is fragmentary and there is high degree of uncertainty with climate projections on regional scale due to non-linear variations and limited understanding of many critical process in the climate system. It is high time to analyse, at local levels, technologies to address issues pertaining to adaptation to changes in climate. There will be a greater need for more flexible management strategies that take the interest of different stakeholders into account in biodiversity management strategies.
“This require an ongoing process to anticipate how ecosystems will respond to variation in climate, while interacting with others, as some species will die out, other will perish and some will migrate, forming new combination of ecosystems.”
He further added that the key task for addressing vulnerability and adaptation needs, require local monitoring networks, understanding of regional and global scenario, assessment and awareness at the state, district and community lvels. The community initiatives may includes adaptation programs, in view of climate change and their impact n biodiversity management, which holds the key for integrating with development and planning process.
Meanwhile, member secretary Manipur Biodiversity Board RK Srivastava at the very onset of the press conference had informed that the inaugural session of the proposed workshop will be attended by the chief secretary DS Poonia, advisor ministry of Environment and Forests, government of India Dr SK Kaul and director, Institute of Bio-Resources and Sustainable Development, Imphal, Dr NC Talukdar as the chief guest, president and guest of honour respectively.
Furthermore, he informed that the technical session of the workshop will commence from 12 noon and continue till 5pm.
Many expert, subject specialists from premier institutions of the country such as Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, Indian Institute of Forest Management (HFM), Bhopal, Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Dehradun, Foundation for Rehabilitation of Local Helath Tradition (FREHT), Bangalore, Ministry of Environment and Forest and Manipur University will make presentations in the workshop he added.
He also mentioned that BK Chaturvedi, member secy (NE) Planning commission of India, who is visiting the state on September 30 has agreed to attend the valedictory session of the workshop as chief guest.
He further mentioned that the website of the Manipur Biodiversity Board would be launched by the state chief secretary, during the inaugural session of the workshop on September 29
Meanwhile, various state officials of the forest department and environmentalists who also attended the conference echoed the need of holding such national workshops in the state and
Later, various high level officials of state forest department and environmentalist who attended the press conference have expressed holding of such national workshop in the state and further observed that the deliberations made by the topmost academia and experts as well as the holders of traditional knowledge would help in promoting the efforts for efficient and sustainable utilization of the bio-resource of the region.
In the meantime, taking opportunity of interaction with the media person during the press conference chief secretary DS Poonia have drawn the attention of the media persons of the state that such national workshop will give extensive knowledge on the changing ecological imbalances in the state.