KAAS Community Dialogue
Press Release
Community Dialogue on Kaas Plateau
Bringing communities together for UNESCO World Natural Heritage site
30th October 2019, “The People from six villages of Kaas Plateau working together to conserve its unique biodiversity and outstanding universal value of wild flowers is a great example of Sustainable living”, said Hon. Prakash Javadekar, Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) and Minister Information Broadcast (IB), while inaugurating the Annual Community Dialogue on Kaas Plateau, near Satara today. “This is precisely the message of PM Modi, Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas” added Javadekar. He was speaking to the Forest Guards and villagers representing the Joint Forest Management Committee (JFMC) from New Delhi via video.
TERRE Policy Centre in close association with JFMC of six villages - Kaas, Ekiv, Atali, Kasani, Pateghar and Kusumbimura organized the Annual Community Dialogue with the key objectives of reviewing the progress, threats related to climate change, overcrowding of tourists and opportunities for the sustainable development of the plateau. Since the inscription by UNESCO of Kaas Plateau - one of the 39 serial sites of Western Ghats as World Natural Heritage in 2012, the villagers there have followed good practices and demonstrated how conservation of environment and the inclusive development can go together. All the decisions including, allocation of income for activities like training and employment of forest guards, actions for bio-diversity protection, promotion of homestay and tourism-business, sustainable transport and enhancing the cleanliness and facility management for the plateau are taken by JFMC.
TERRE Policy Centre has been tracking the trends and mentoring the JFMC jointly with Forest Department.
“We are facing challenge of tremendous influx of tourists. However, we are benefitting from such community dialogues to address the challenges and to manage the site”, said Bajrang Kadam, President of JFMC, Kaas.
“More and more species of flowers are getting into the red list and in danger of extinction. There is an urgent need of research on these trends and impacts of climate change. Without such research, we will not be able to take action on conservation in the right direction”, said Rajendra Shende, Chairman TERRË Policy Centre and Former Director UNEP, who moderated the discussions. “It is heartening to see how the villagers work together with nature even though they have difference of opinion. In a way, they are mini-democratic community-parliament. There is a need to establish networks of 39 sites of Western Ghats starting with 4 sites in Maharashtra - Kaas, Koyna, Chandoli and Radhanagari to share the information and experiences”, Mr. Shende added.
Dr. Bharat Singh Hada, DCF Satara stated, “Annual Community Dialogue is a platform for exchanging ideas on conservation of forest-biodiversity and plan for the sustainable tourism”. He offered help of the forest department to encourage scientific research on wildflowers.
Dr. Deepak Harne, Regional Manager MTDC Pune in his letter to JFMC on the occasion wrote, “MTDC will proactively support local people for running home stays and participate in Mahabhraman schemes”. The scheme provides a unique experience to all the visitors coming from different walks of life.
Mr. Shrikant Katre, Resident Editor of Prabhat and the Chief Guest for the meeting suggested early identification threats to the wildflowers. Dr Sandeep Shrotri, an avid conservationist and nature-author said, “There is an urgent need to take action in establishing a world-class interpretation center and research facility”. END
Note to the editors:
TERRE Policy Centre publishes the Annual Report Cards (ARC) voluntarily right from the year 2013. The 2018 report recognizing the cumulative efforts of the Joint Forest Management Committee (JFMC), Forest Division of district Satara of State Government, local community, researchers, experts and journalists will be published soon in the month of November. The Annual Report Card is an important document that tracks the progress of the management of the site and provides recommendation to conserve the site in the coming year.
TERRE Policy Centre is a non-profit, non-partisan and independent organization dedicated to sustainable solutions to our developmental imperatives. TERRE also is the abbreviation for ‘Technology, Education, Research and Rehabilitation for the Environment.’ TERRE strives to reach all strata of society, particularly the young generation and people at the bottom of the pyramid with capacity building tools on energy and food security. Its motto is: "To think is good but to act is better”.
Contact TERRE Policy Centre : Rajendra Shende / Dinah Gengmei
Phone : 020 2544 8650 / 8488
Email:
Contact JFMC : Bajrang Kadam / Somnath Jadhav
Phone : 9922113463 / 7020440754