Saving The Environment By Rethinking Development

As the Northeast faces a growing environmental crisis, we need to move beyond treating conservation and development as needs in opposition towards integrated models, such as Rural Futures

- Ranjit Barthakur

Between 2001 and 2018, the Northeast lost 12,523 square kilometres of forest cover, according to Global Forest Watch. According to these estimates and numbers, this means nearly 75% of all deforestation that happened in India during that period, happened in the Northeast. In spite of this, the Northeast still holds a quarter of India’s forest cover and carbon stock and retains nearly 60% of its green cover. While forests fragment and land degradation is accelerating, the changes are not yet irreversible, and immediate, decisive action will save the region’s fragile habitats.

Traditionally, conservation efforts have focused on segregating man and wild; pitting human needs and aspirations directly against forests and habitats. The cost of this segregation has been a further fragmenting and shrinking of habitat spaces, continued declines in biodiversity, and human rights abuses among some of the most vulnerable forest-fringe communities. Meanwhile, the biggest drivers of biodiversity decline and environmental loss remain uncontrolled. According to a study published in Nature, over 30% of the world’s biodiversity is directly threatened by global commodity supply chains.

The NaturenomicsTM Future: An Ecological Economy