Mountains: mighty yet fragile
Abdhesh Gangwar

Save Environment-Conserve Tradition: Dye With Organic Colours
Asha Bansal, Anjali Sood, Anjali Sharma and Seema Rani

Vermicomposting – Potential livelihood for rural poor and source of nutrients for sustainable agriculture
G.L.Bansal

Evolution of Forest Landscapes in Romania
Peter Lengyel

The first and last learners
Rahul Goswami

Empowering Self-Help Groups to Address Gender Inequity
Rashmi Gangwar

Mountains: mighty yet fragile
- Abdhesh Gangwar

The Abundance
Mountain areas occupy about one-fourth of the world's land surface and shelter about 12 per cent of the world's population. Another 40 per cent population occupies the watershed areas below mountains. Thus half of the world's people depend directly or indirectly on mountains.

Mountains are called "the water towers of the world". Each day, one out of every two people quenches his or her thirst with water that originates from mountains. Billions in China, India, Bangladesh Africa, and the entire population of California, United States, are among the people who rely on the continuous flow of fresh, clean water from mountains - for drinking, domestic use, irrigation, hydro-power, industry and transport. Most of the large rivers of the world flow through the territory of two or more countries.

Mountain regions provide several valuable goods and services. The important goods include water, food, wood, a variety of non-timber forest products and minerals. Important services include the maintenance of soil fertility and structure, and associated limitation of soil erosion; downstream movement of soil nutrients; avoidance and mitigation of damaging impacts of floods, landslides, avalanches; opportunities for tourism and recreation; biodiversity, not only of local benefit, but also of extra-regional value; cycling and storage of carbon and soil nutrients which has global significance.

The rich biological diversity they store is necessary for the sustainability of human life. Many varieties of plants and animals have originated in the mountains. Mountain people cultivate many lesser-known crops and medicinal plants. This biodiversity is of immense value for the future, for genetics and breeding.

Mountain areas are considered to be the abode of Gods and Goddesses and have an important place in religion and mythology. Mountains are also centers of cultural diversity for reasons including isolation, refuge from dominant cultures, and distance from center of powers. However many cultures and traditions are threatened by globalization. Because of their scenic beauty and recreation value they are becoming focus of tourism. Tourism, now growing as world's largest industry, can bring both benefits and negative impact to mountain people and their environment.

The peril
Mountain ecosystems are fragile and susceptible to soil erosion, landslides, and loss of genetic diversity as well as cultural diversity. Their glaciers are receding at an alarming rate due to global warming. Their forests are being cut indiscriminately. They are being mined to denude them beyond recovery. Their delicate balance is being tempered in the name of development without proper assessment of the extent of loss to their stability and the impact on the lives of mountain people.

The peculiarity of mountain ecosystems is that the damages caused once are either irreversible or take too long to recover. The disturbances thus not only affect the local environment but also the life down stream.

Despite the richness of these systems, mountain areas have one of the lowest per capita incomes in the world. Mountain people suffer from unemployment, poverty, poor health, and insufficient sanitation. The mountain economies are mostly subsistence-based and meet food requirements for only a part of the year, compelling household members to move out in search of employment. Women and children have to bear increasing burdens of agriculture and subsistence activities because of the migration of male members.

The mountain areas world over are facing serious environmental, social and political problems, the serious most being the armed conflict. Occupying the high ground has always been of strategic importance when opposing forces have fought for local or regional supremacy. The rugged, high terrain of mountain areas offers not just a place to seize military advantage. It can also be a place of refuge for opposition movements retreating from lowland areas. As many mountain regions are on the borders between two or more countries, they end up serving as the battlefield for trans-boundary conflicts. Mountain people are helpless hosts to the combatants. In addition, if opposition forces remain for the long-term, the communities themselves are transformed into insurgent communities.
Peace is a prerequisite for development and the well being of the people. One of the greatest causes of poverty and hunger in mountain regions is the chaos created by armed conflict. In 1999, 23 of the 27 major armed conflicts in the world were being fought in mountain regions. Where there is armed conflict, people cannot carry out fundamental life-sustaining tasks, such as planting and harvesting crops. Where mines are laid, agricultural lands must be left barren until expensive mine clearance can be undertaken, typically many years later. Roads, schools and other infrastructure are destroyed, halting economic development. And, of course, the death, injuries and emotional trauma of armed conflict devastate individual lives and national advancement.
Armed combat in mountain regions - some 105 wars and conflicts between 1945 and 1995 - resulted in 11.1 million casualties, including 7.8 million civilians. While natural disasters are usually well reported, the world community has tended to ignore mountain warfare in all its forms, including the atrocious treatment of mountain minorities. The transformation of mountain minority peoples into stateless refugees must be arrested.
In times of conflict, women in mountain regions carry a heavier burden. As men join the struggle, the women are left as heads of households. Their workload increases as they compensate for the loss of male workforce. Stretched beyond capacity - and with limited access to land, credit, education, technology and rural organizations, all of which could help them improve their well-being and that of their families-their productivity often decreases, taking with it any food security that they may have had and any hope for pulling themselves out of poverty. It is clear, then, that without peace, we cannot reduce poverty. Without peace, we cannot guarantee secure food supplies. Without peace we cannot even consider sustainable mountain development.

There is concern but it has to be more
Mountains are vital not only for the people who live there but also for the people downstream. The importance of mountain communities and ecosystems has gained greater awareness in recent years, largely due to the on-going broad-based effort to implement Agenda 21. Chapter 13 of Agenda 21 "Managing fragile ecosystems: sustainable mountain development" focuses on mountain regions, and states: "As a major ecosystem representing the complex and inter-related ecology of our planet, mountain environments are essential to the survival of the global ecosystem. Many of them are experiencing degradation in terms of accelerated soil erosion, landslides, and rapid loss of habitat and genetic diversity. Hence, proper management of mountain resources and socio-economic development of the people deserves immediate attention."

Considering the deteriorating state of mountains and their significance for the global ecosystem, the United Nations General Assembly declared the year 2002 as 'International Year of Mountains (IYM)' to raise global attention for the well being of mountains and their people. The United Nations also declared 2002 as the International Year of Ecotourism (IYE). December 11 is observed as International Mountain Day since 2003 to make people aware about the mountain environment and their importance for the survival of human kind, existing threats to mountains and about the people there. This year the day was celebrated with the theme - 'Peace: Key to Sustainable Mountain Development'.

The Himalayan challenges
The Himalaya is youngest and most magnificent mountain ecosystem. The Indian Himalayan Region (IHR) has an area of 5,31,250 km square, which is about 16.16% of India's total geographical area. It is spread over the states of Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttaranchal, West Bengal, Sikkim, and Arunachal Pradesh. Himalaya in Indian territory extends all along the northern border from the eastern border of Pakistan on the west to frontiers of Myanmar in the east having a total length of about 2500 km. The average width is about 240 km.

The human population of the IHR was 30,468,612 during 1991 census, which has become 39,628,311 during 2001 census. Thus the decadal increase has been 30 per cent. It contributes to about 4 per cent of country's total population. The rate of growth of population in the region is also higher than the average national growth rate. The total population and the growth rate is the highest among all mountain regions of the world.

Population has been increasing rapidly, resource use intensified and natural resources are getting lost and degraded. The divide between rich and poor is increasing. Condition of women and children is bad. Increasing population puts pressure on natural resources leading to over exploitation and unsustainable development. Mountain areas being sensitive and fragile face more threat than the areas in the plains.

The Himalayan region has witnessed a close association of man, forests and environment implying strong concepts of ecological principals in the traditional management systems. These systems are however, becoming weak and are being lost in the critical areas. Historically, forests were treated as a common property resource and thereby freely accessible to those inhibiting the region, but the present system of management has resulted in lot of conflicts.

Mountain people in urban areas having access to markets and technologies are rapidly prospering. But people in remote and inaccessible areas do not have adequate food supplies and other resources. Agriculture is yielding less. Water and forest resources are getting scarcer. Soil erosion, landslides, loss of biodiversity, and degradation of land and water resources are common problems throughout the region.

Development programmes have not been successful in adequately improving the food-fodder-energy problems of the area. Since land and water resources have already been damaged to an alarming degree, restoration of degraded ecosystem has to be the thrust for all development policies.

The Himalayas are host to perhaps the largest concentration of military forces and destructive weapons anywhere in the world. The collective concentration of the forces of China, India, Pakistan and few other countries has been putting tremendous pressure on the Himalaya. Unless all the countries of the region realize and join hands to reverse the eco-destruction of the Himalayas, the future generations of Chinese, Indians, Tibetans, Nepalese and Pakistanis will not have left much to fight over.

Meeting the challenges
Current understanding about socio-economic, institutional, and biodiversity processes in mountain areas is still very limited. There are large gaps in understanding in the area of climate change, pollution, armed conflict, population growth, deforestation and exploitative agricultural, mining and tourism practices, development of non-agricultural opportunities, gender-related issues, the unique aspects of space and micro environmental variations and their implications for development, biodiversity, mountain genetic resources, landslides and soil erosion etc.

Generally the policies are made relying on data available for mountains in the developed world. This is inappropriately applied to developing countries. There is need of more scientific research to have sufficient and authentic data for effective policy formulation. Many mountain areas face accelerating environmental and cultural decline partly because of policies based on inadequate research and consultations. In addition to gathering and sharing more and better data and information worldwide, there is an urgent need to strengthen capacity in developing country mountain areas.

Institutional gaps in many areas of development can therefore be seen as persistent problems in mountain areas, needing greater emphasis in future. The real challenge is to ensure that capabilities and capacities at the community and other levels grow on a sustainable basis, that economic changes do not result in cultural deprivation, and the technology gains do not result in environmental disaster.

Stronger local level development organizations are necessary for successful management of development activities in view of the various constraints to access and communication. Decentralized and participatory organizational frameworks have been accepted but efforts to promote these have not been sustained.

Because of its ecological and geopolitical importance, it is for the world community to initiate steps to rescue the Himalayas from its present peril. The task may seem complex, difficult and despairing. But with foresight, scientific and humane understanding, political will and co-operation, sustainable mountain equilibrium can become a possibility. All those, who are concerned with, and dependent upon, the resources of the Himalayas, in other words about half of the mankind, have to come together and undertake the task of reversing the damage that appears irreversible.

Guidelines need to be established for supporting local and regional community networks and for agreements that promote regionally balanced development, including social and environmental standards. International organizations and the donor agencies should support trans-boundary cooperation for the sustainable development of international mountain areas, e.g. with regard to transit corridors, watershed management, hydropower generation and electrification. Benefits accruing nationally or globally through the services provided by the mountain regions should be shared.

It becomes urgent to co-ordinate the efforts, on a global and trans-national basis, to rejuvenate the Himalayas. Such an authority should not be limited to only the eight sovereign Himalayan nations, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal and Pakistan. The Himalayas is the heritage of the world. All nations must participate in this endeavor and pool their resources for the purpose. The trans-Himalayan authority should be set up with the assistance of the United Nations.

Fortunately, awareness on the need to protect mountain people and their environment has increased over the last few years-since the Rio Earth Summit 1992, through the International Year of Mountains 2002 and beyond. It has also been recognized that mountain challenges cannot be tackled by one organization alone. It requires working side by side-with mountain communities, scientists, development agencies, decision-makers, civil society, the private sector and governments. Coordinated action on political, economic, educational, health and environmental fronts are immediately needed. Since the people who can prevent or resolve conflicts in the long run are the local residents themselves, they must be an integral part of decisions made and actions taken.

Scope of education and communication
Though mountains remained an enormous amount of indigenous knowledge, the modern education system is not mountain specific yet and traditional wisdom is becoming scanty with time and development. Women have a very poor access to education. Furthermore mechanisms to impart the basic skills needed in modern development activities are lacking and changes are needed urgently to provide mountain people with skills needed to equip them for future.
Education appears to be the most powerful tool to address many of the mountain specific problems. It has to play a role in increasing the awareness in mountain communities about the importance of the well being of mountains for their survival. It also is essential to educate the people down in plains throughout the world about the threats to mountains, their possible impact on human lives in the plains and how the people in the plain can contribute towards the conservation of mountain environment. In addition, education has to contribute in building the capacity towards sustainable development in the mountain regions.
Education for sustainable development (ESD) is a dynamic concept that encompasses new vision of education that seeks to empower the people of all ages to assume responsibility for creating and enjoying a sustainable future. The overall aim of ESD is to empower citizens to act for positive environmental and social change, implying a participatory and action oriented approach.
In the context of ESD, education is being seen as the most powerful tool in overcoming the problems in mountain regions as well. It has to plug the gaps in many areas of development that pose persistent problems in mountain ecosystems. The new education needs to ensure that economic changes do not result in cultural deprivation, and the technology gains do not result in environmental disaster.
'Education for a Sustainable Future' (ESF) has been planned as a forum for the international community of those involved in education and communication to share experiences and learning in education for sustainable development (ESD) and identifying best practices for ESD from different parts of the world. The event is expected to contribute towards strengthening networks and active participation of all stakeholders for ESD for the next decade. It is aimed at developing a strategy and a blueprint of actions for the decade, including India's strategy and its role in the decade.

Some key facts:
Mountains occupy 25 % of Earths surface

About 12% of the world's population lives in mountains while 40% occupy watershed areas below them

More than half the world's population relies on mountain water to grow food, produce electricity, sustain industries and, most importantly, to drink.

Mountain water helps to sustain ecosystems in both highland and lowland areas, contributing greatly to the conservation of the world's biodiversity

Mountains harbour some of the world's richest biological diversity as well as some of the world's poorest people

Eighty percent of the world's population relies on traditional medicines, yet one in every eight species of plants, many originating in mountain biomes, faces extinction

Many armed conflicts take place in the world's mountains

The longest-running armed conflict in the world, other than the Israeli-Arab struggle, is on the Himalayan Siachen Glacier, where India and Pakistan have been in conflict for 54 years

One million people died and one-third of the population fled Afghanistan during the Soviet-Afghanistan conflict of the 1980s and the subsequent civil conflict. The country's ancient irrigation system and other agricultural infrastructure were destroyed, and landmines still inhibit planting

With conflict ongoing in Afghanistan, virtually the entire resident population of 20 million people is at risk of hunger, a situation exacerbated by a prolonged drought

Conflict destroys lives and environments and represents the most significant barrier to sustainable development in mountain regions

We need to better understand the causes and consequences of conflict to help build peace and stability in the world's mountains

The author is Coordinator of the Centre for Environment Education Himalaya
19/323, Indira Nagar, Lucknow 226 016 India
Phone: 91-522-2715301; Fax: 2716570; M: 09415104125
www.ceehimalaya.org
ceehimalaya@ceeindia.org

-Top-

SAVE ENVIRONMENT-CONSERVE TRADITION:
DYE WITH ORGANIC COLOURS
Asha Bansal, Anjali Sood, Anjali Sharma and Seema Rani
Department of Textiles and Apparel Designing
College of Home Science, CSK HP Agricultural University. Palampur

Trends to traditional, synthetic to natural.
Lets change our minds and conserve environment
Starting the alchemy of colours, India was forerunner in the art of natural dyeing- an art perfected during the era of great epics. In the beginning there were dyes only derived from natural sources. Some processing was required but essentially the dye itself was obtained from a plant, mineral and animal. After the synthesis of mauveine by William Henry Perkin in 1856 and its subsequent commercialization, heralding the advent of coal tar/synthetic dyes, the use of natural dyes receded. Synthetic dyes became popular due to its vast range of colours, low cost and simpler processes but it has many disadvantages, like Carcinogenic, not biodegradable, Cause allergies and skin problem
It is our good fortune that we are a people steeped in tradition, and in some remote areas of our country, natural dyeing of fabric is still a way of life, else, revival of this ancient art would have been a near impossibility. The Indian Textile industry is passing through a very crucial phase due to two recent developments at the international level, namely: -global trade liberalization -ban on synthetic dyes by Germany and some other countries. Hence the researchers' attention is now focused on revival of the old art of dyeing with organic colours. In spite of a few limitations there are many advantages of natural dyes.
Himachal Pradesh, a heavenly state in the heart of Himalayas is endowed with rich forests, flora and fauna. Many of the plants have the potential to yield eco-friendly dyes. Abundantly growing weeds like Eupatorium, Berberry, lantana and bidens and fruit tree leaves -litchi and apricot and many more other plants and trees have been utilized here for the extraction of dyes. Vast range of yellows, greens and browns are developed only from the waste plant/plant materials to convert waste into wealth. Technology based on natural colours can be developed for textiles, cosmetics, painting printing, preparing gulals, food colours etc.
Globally the trend has again changed to go back to nature and patronize natural products. It is not only the synthetic products but the effluents from the industrial waste also affect the environmental pollution. Hence communication in marketing in "green" products and specifically natural dyes is extremely important. Today, though this ancient art is contemporary in its outlook yet we have to make modern generation aware of the scientific and eco friendly heritage to be of relevance in today's world.

-Top-

Vermicomposting - Potential livelihood for rural poor and source of nutrients for sustainable agriculture

G.L.Bansal
CSK HP Agricultural University. Palampur

India produces about 3000 million tones of organic wastes annually which are either burnt or land filled posing a problem for their safe disposal. To mitigate this problem, all the waste can be converted into highly valuable nutrient rich compost in an environment friendly manner. Utilisation of organic wastes through the agency of earthworms is important for developing vermicomposting techniques. Earthworms could be made use of to meet needs for plant nutrients, recycling of biodegradable organic wastes and in solving problems of deteriorating soil conditions.

The availability of nutrients for sustained production has become a serious constraint in agriculture with increased cost and shortage of genuine fertilizers. Vermicomposting is one of the best methods of composting any kind of organic matter, which could provide a 'win-win' solution to tackle the problem of safe disposal of waste mange environment and also provide most needed plant nutrients for sustainable productivity.

Utilisable products and benefits of vermitechnology are waste biomass management, animal protein production, organic pollution abatement, wasteland conservation, and land reclamation, production of worm-worked manure, soil fertility and enhancement in plant production.

Vermicompost improves growth, quality and yield of different field crops, flower and fruit crops. Practically, all kinds of organic materials including Parthenium, Lantana and Eupatorium weeds are suitable for vermicomposting. Optimum temperature for vermicomposting is about 20-30 0 C and moisture content ranges from 32 to 60% only.
It is a very simple process and easy to practice as well as cost effective pollution abatement technology. In third year of running, a small unit ((12X5 meter) can generate a cumulative net profir of Rs. 99249/-.
It can be accomplished by rural women for earning their livelihood and improving soil health and agricultural productivity. These aspects of resource cycling through vermicomposting in relation to environment management shall be discussed.

-Top-

Evolution of Forest Landscapes in Romania

Peter Lengyel
Biologist, scientific secretary
UNESCO Pro Natura
Bucharest, Romania

Objectives: to have a view of what is the historical trend till now, and what can be in the future regarding the Romanian forests

Methods: extensive field visits in many parts of the country, discussions with relevant persons, literature review, media screening, discussions at environmental NGOs meetings and on the "Mediu" mailing list of the Romanian Environmental NGOs.

Results: a general view on the forest landscapes of Romania, which can help in reshaping the actual forestry policies and help to halt further loss of biodiversity and undermining the ecological sustainability of the region.

Originality: the structure of the presentation, examples and the conclusions are my personal views, but they are sustained by the vast majority of the environmental NGOs from Romania.

A theoretical analysis with practical examples from Romania, regarding interrelations between forestry and biodiversity conservation, in the framework of the actual scientific, political, social and economical situation of the country and the international processes influencing it.

Introduction
What we are talking about: A forest is not a group of trees, but a complex ecosystem of trees, bush and other plants, rodents and big herbivores, bats, singing-birds and owls, fungi and bacteria, viruses and large carnivores like bears, wolves and lynxes in the European conditions.

On the international arena there are several legal frameworks, policies and programmes targeted at preserving biodiversity in general, including the biological diversity of forests. A synergy can be achieved between different initiatives, agreements and conventions, but in order to derive these mutual benefits there should be a clear understanding of the ecological, socio-economic and political processes. On the one hand, conservation means protection and sustainable use of the existing values and avoidance of further degradation, losses and habitat fragmentation and, on the other, it means restoration of functional ecosystems with their habitats and populations.

Forest landscape restoration is analysed from the points of view of conservation and sustainable use within the framework of the ecosystem approach of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), rural development and interests of local communities, participation of stakeholders in decision making on resource management in forested areas, regulating function of forests in water catchment basins, flood control, relationship between river basin management, forestry and the civil society, international issues related to floods and deforestation-afforestation, and role of forests in delivering goods and services for the benefit of the human community. The role of the Natura 2000 Network in Romania is discussed, together with the role of forests in a functional ecological network as core areas as well as corridors (mostly along rivers and streams) and stepping stones.

Positive elements in forest related biodiversity in Romania
Romania has a very high biodiversity, which is very well preserved compared to the situation in Europe in general. Romania has 5 biogeographical regions, the largest number in a European country: Pannonian, Alpine, Continental, Steppe and Black Sea biogeographical regions, two of which will be new ones in the enlarged EU.

In Romania there are huge areas of natural forests, as well as virgin and semi-natural forests on 250,000-300,000 hectares of the total of 400,000 hectares in the Carpathian Mountains. The Carpathians are the largest mountain range in Europe, of which about 55% lies in Romania. According to the official statistics, there are about 6,200 brown bears (Ursus arctos), 4,000 wolves (Canis lupus) and 2,000 lynxes (Lynx lynx) in Romania. The number of bears is at least twice their number in the EU 15. Even if the area of the Romanian Carpathians is only about 1.4% of surface area of Europe west of Russia, this small percentage is home for about 35% of the European wolves, 50% of bears and 30% of lynxes. Reintroduction projects for beaver (Castor fiber) and marmot (Marmota marmota) have been implemented successfully under the State Forest Authority. There are 58 species of trees and 118 species of shrubs in Romania. In the Romanian Carpathians there are large beech tree (Fagus sylvatica) forests, which are close to the natural state. In Tarcau a huge spruce tree (Picea abies) was found in 1959: it was 62.5 meters tall, which is the tallest coniferous tree in Europe. There are many endemic species of flora and fauna, mostly in isolated limestone mountains, bogs and caves.

The official surface area of forests in Romania is 6,366 million hectares, covering 26.7 % of the country. Of this 70% is deciduous forest and 30% is coniferous forest. Some experiments (mostly in theory) concerning integrated management of natural resources where efforts are being made to balance conservation and economic and social interests have been undertaken (for example, World Bank projects: "Forestry Development Project" with a total value of US$ 32 mill.). Some work has also been done on FSC certification (Forest Stewardship Council).

History and causes of the decline of Romanian forests
In the past significant fragmentation and reduction in the areas covered by forests has taken place, on both the global and European scale. Today the possibilities to restore the situation close to the natural state are limited, but there is a strong need to prevent further losses and to try to regain an ecological equilibrium. In areas deforested many hundreds of years ago there are now valuable semi-natural habitats, pastures and hay meadows with high biodiversity, which means that afforestation is not the appropriate way to preserve these values. In many regions the abandonment of agricultural land as a consequence of the low profitability of agriculture will offer new possibilities for afforestation or these areas will be covered by forest as a result of natural succession.

In the past changes in land use led to a loss of forested areas in Romania as well: the forested areas in the territory which is now Romania have decreased from a clear natural dominance of about 80% land coverage at the beginning of the historical times to 25% - 27% coverage today, which is less than the European average of 33%. Oak forests (Quercus sp) have declined drastically because these were located on the lowlands and were thus much more affected by human interventions than the mountains: the share of forested area has decreased from 56% to 18.2%.

The fragmentation and decline of forested areas continues. Of the many factors influencing the Romanian forests today the most important is illegal logging and intensification of forestry. Human action is also reflected in the changing species composition of forests, introduction of alien species, air pollution, fast erosion in areas disturbed by human activities, and fires started by humans (voluntary or involuntary). As a result of the interaction between human and natural influence, strong storms (possibly resulting from climate change, also caused by humans) are destroying large areas of coniferous monocultures (monocultures often extend outside the natural habitats of these species). Natural fires, avalanches and natural erosion (for example, in Groapa Ruginoasa, Apuseni Mountains) may also be considered harmful from the utilitarian point of view, but these natural hazards are in fact part of the natural evolution of the ecosystem.

Some types of habitats, like riparian forests along the river valleys, were almost totally destroyed. In large areas of the Lower Danube but also in many other places in Romania where there were abundant and diverse riparian forests there are now large areas covered by stands of hybrid poplars. One important issue is genetic pollution. The best example is the black poplar (Populus nigra), a species from the riparian forests, which is losing its genetic (including phenotypic) identity due to hybridisation with Euro-American hybrid poplars planted extensively in Romania.

What is the situation now?
During the communist era the area covered with forests increased in general thanks to large afforestation (reforestation) programmes, but at the end of the communist era, there was a great deal of logging for export to deal with the accumulated foreign debt of the country. During the communist era the forests were owned by the State. After the changes in 1989, some areas have been returned to the former owners (or their successors). These new owners were attracted by the fast and substantial income, but they have also been afraid of losing their timber because of thefts in the night and even daytime. Because of this many owners decided to cut the trees on their own small forest estate, which resulted in a loss of forest on large areas. They were also afraid of losing their forests because of the instability of the political situation. Any changes could affect their rights to use their properties in a way decided by themselves. Usually these private owners have no scientific or practical knowledge on forest management and they have lost their traditional knowledge and skills to be able to manage these forests. They have not enough financial power to invest in forest protection, reforestation, etc, especially when the results of these activities can be expected only after 100-120 years. So, the only real option is to use the natural regeneration of the forest. If the clearcut areas are large, problems in the natural regeneration may appear, especially with beech trees (Fagus sylvatica), because this species can regenerate well only in the shade; in normal conditions in the shadow created by a beech forest.

Illegal logging is a serious problem in Romania. The general perception in Romania is that in illegal clearcutting there is some businessman behind it, but representatives from the state forestry sector, representatives of local authorities, police, and politicians are also involved. Reducing corruption is very high on the political agenda, but this is mostly theory, without clear practical results. Illegal logging is a way to survive, to collect firewood for heating homes and cooking, and to obtain some money for the desperate, poor people in timber-dependent rural communities. This has been even more obvious in the last 15 years when the income of rural communities has been very low, mostly because of the unemployment resulting from the closure of factories in the towns where these people used to commute to work.

The annual growth potential of the Romanian forests is now estimated at 16 million cubic meters and the exploitation is 14.3 million cubic meters (2002). The export value of timber and wood products is US$ 860 mill. (2002). This is only the official exploitation, while a lot of timber is being cut illegally. Another problem is that logging takes place in areas where roads allow the access into the forests, which means that in such areas the exploitation is stronger than it would be normally. At the same time, opening new forest roads is risky because, without a real capacity to control them, the only protection of the virgin, semi-natural or old-growth forests, a treasure of the Romanian Carpathians, would be broken.

The forestry sector is mainly interested in timber production and maximizing the financial income from the forests, using management and silviculture measures (species, felling system, clearcuttings, selection logging) with no regard to the other values of forests. Also, the level of general scientific understanding of biodiversity conservation within the forestry sector is low. Old trees are considered harmful to the health of the forest, because they host many parasite fungi and provide reproduction ground for many species of insects. For example, many species of animals, like bats, owls, many singing birds, and many species of rare and protected insects need the existence of very old, partly decomposing trees for their life cycle.

In Romania large areas have been covered by spruce monocultures, many of these outside their natural areas. These forests are highly vulnerable to strong winds, which appear regularly in these climatic conditions. Windfalls are normal phenomena in such shallow rooted forests, which consist of trees with decreased vitality and resistance because of the living conditions outside their natural range. In the recent past, there has been a strong decrease of oak forests, which have been affected by different human and natural phenomena. Natural phenomena like frost, strong winds, large quantities of snow, natural fire, different insects, viruses, bacteria or fungi, if combined by human impacts like pollution, illegal or legal over-harvesting, damage caused by recreation, hunting, mining, road and other infrastructure development, can strongly reduce the capability of the forest to adapt itself to the changing environment and to survive in the long term.

Management of the upper forest ecotone, with shrubs and sub-shrubs (Pinus mugo, Juniperus sp., Alnus viridis, Sorbus aucuparia, Rhododendron myrtifolium, small spruces, etc.) is important in the Carpathians. The upper limits of the forests in the Carpathians were lowered by about 150-250 metres under the pressure of extending pastures for summer grazing of livestock. With the reduction of the number of domestic animals in the current economic situation, the pressure is decreasing, permitting the natural succession and the spontaneous re-colonisation of these areas by forest and shrubs. However, this will result in the loss of very diverse habitats and, if climate change raises the temperatures, a process, which is already in place, the forests will also cover the tops of many of the mountains in the Carpathians, which would lead to the loss of the rich diversity of alpine pastures. The question here is what should be done? Should natural succession be permitted, or is control necessary in the interest of the conservation of alpine meadow biodiversity?

When taking decisions, which influence the future realities, the operators in the forestry sector should learn from the mistakes of the past and from the specialists in ecology, conservation biology and other related scientific fields. It would be better to implemented "close-to-nature management", which is very far from the industrial forestry still dominating in Europe.

In the areas under intensive forestry many species are at the point of extinction or are already totally lost in large areas. They have been eliminated because they are not a target species for this type of forestry: wild cherry tree (Cerasus avium), wild apple tree (Malus sylvestris), wild pear tree (Pyrus communis) and yew tree (Taxus baccata). The last one is also being destroyed by owners of livestock which also roam in the forests, because this tree is poisonous for the animals. Fir tree (Abies alba) is less and less frequent in the Romanian forests.

Existing forests with low value from the point of view of conservation can be enriched by the introduction of valuable species, improving the species diversity as well as stratification of different layers inside the forest and ages within a certain tree species, resulting in a forest which is much closer to a natural one, with more natural processes in the ecosystem.

Afforestation projects in relation to biodiversity conservation
There are many examples of afforestation projects, which have destroyed different habitat types because real knowledge and understanding of their biodiversity value and importance of their conservation has been lacking.

In Oltenia there were sand dunes with interesting biodiversity, but these native communities disappeared when the area was covered by afforestation with the alien species of Robinia pseudacacia.

In Dobrogea, near the Black Sea coast, there were afforestation projects using pine (Pinus sylvestris), which resulted in the loss of very valuable steppe biodiversity and acidification of the soil. These areas were very valuable for rare and endemic species, characteristic to limestone and loess habitats. The impact of the introduction of alien species is impossible to predict. Each species should remain in its natural range. Here we are concerned not only with species from other geographical areas, e.g. from other continents, but also with species from mountain areas in steppe regions. With afforestation in areas where certain tree species do not occur naturally, the natural habitat of other native species will be lost and the influence can be much more extensive due to e.g. the acidification of the soil and waters.

In abandoned agricultural areas that are far from forested areas only artificial afforestation can be considered, because there are no seed trees, which could spread their seeds and re-colonise the area, i.e. regenerate the forests.

In afforestation projects, the focus should be on local sources of genetic material: local varieties, ecotypes and populations which are adapted to the local conditions and have a high value from the point of view of biodiversity conservation as they preserve intra-species genetic diversity important for long time survival of species in a changing environment. Without this genetic diversity within the species it is more probable that changes such as climate change, pests, diseases, acid rain, alien invasive species, etc. will lead to the extinction of the species as species with low genetic variability are more vulnerable.

There is a LIFE Project implemented in Rodnei Mountains Biosphere Reserve and National Park where some areas are planted with Swiss stone pine (Pinus cembra), a species whose population in this area has been strongly reduced. The seeds are not from the Rodnei Mountains, but from the Calimani Mountains, where the ecotype of this species is different, adapted to volcanic stone and to existence within the forest, unlike that from the Rodnei Mountains, which is adapted to metamorphic stones and existence in the Pinus mugo shrubs area.

In afforestation projects, strictly protected areas (IUCN category I) from the same area should be considered as a model for the diversity and type of a forest, which should be "elaborated" by the afforestation.

It is relatively easy to create forest coverage through afforestation, but the new forests are far from the natural ones in terms of the natural biodiversity of similar ecosystems, composition of species and genetic diversity inside the species, stability, etc. Even if the species used for afforestation are some local species or ecotypes of local origin, and even if there is the best willingness to rebuild the forest ecosystem using several species of trees and shrubs, including key species and rare or endemic ones, without continuity with a close-to-natural forests such reconstruction cannot be done through technical investments alone. It is necessary to create these "new forests" around or in continuity with the existing close-to-natural forests, or connected to these via continuous corridors or stepping-stones. From these old forests the species can colonise the "new forest", contributing to the establishment of valuable biodiversity and close to natural ecological processes.

The margins of the reconstructed forests should be non-linear to fit in the general landscape and have a more natural appearance, and they should also constitute a gradual link to the surrounding open ecosystems, from small plants to shrubs and to higher and higher trees. In this way, an ecotone habitat with high complexity is reconstructed, a habitat used not only by a large number of species, but which protects the forest from strong winds that can easily damage it if the margins are sharp.

Wildlife management: what needs to be changed?
Poaching is very common in Romania, practised both by the very poor and by the very rich. Poaching is considered a crime of minor importance by the authorities, especially by judges. Because of the huge pressure due to poaching, some populations are on the verge of extinction. One example is chamois (Rupicapra rupicapra carpatica) in the Rodnei Mountains National Park and Biosphere Reserve: in 1989 there were about 600 individuals and now, in 2004, the most optimistic figure is that "only" 90% of the population has been lost.

The question of Italian hunters should be solved. They come and hunt many birds illegally and transport them to Italy, even if Romania is a party to CITES (Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora or the Washington Convention).

From the perspective of conserving the native biodiversity, one problem is the introduction of alien species for the hunters' benefit, e.g. Phasianus colchicus, Ovis ammon, as well as an experiment with Capra ibex. Genetic pollution may also be a problem for wildlife. For example, when wildcat (Felis sylvestris) populations are in contact with domesticated cats, they produce hybrids and thus pollute the gene-pool of the wild population.

So far wildlife management has been monopolized by an interest group, which consists of foresters and hunters. There has been no cooperation between government organisations controlling wildlife management and civil society interested in biodiversity conservation. The official data is unreliable and the access to the information is very poor. Most of the data on the real abundance of the game populations according to which hunting quotas are established are unreliable: the numbers are overestimated in the interest of a bigger game bag. Money is a great temptation in the organisations involved in hunting, game management and quota establishment. In addition to paying for the organisation of hunting of brown bear, (beside the accommodation, travel, guide etc,) a foreign hunter must pay 5,000-7,000 euros, while the average wages are about 150 euros a month! Even if brown bear and wolf are listed in Appendix II of the Bern Convention as strictly protected species and lynx is listed in Appendix III as a protected species, in Romania, a signatory to this convention, these animals may be hunted even at the moment under the pretext that their populations are too big.

In the process of EU integration the development of transport routes within the framework of the Trans-European Transport Networks, especially the expansion of the road network, is inevitable. If there is no integrated system of bridges (overpasses) and ecological tunnels, these motorways will have a very negative impact on the populations of large mammals in a long term.

UNESCO Pro Natura promotes the organisation of the first game population evaluation in cooperation with the local forestry and environmental Non-Governmental Organizations or NGOs (Chamois Rupicapra rupicapra carpatica counting in Rodnei Mountains National Park and Biosphere Reserve, November 2003). In the official data reported by the forestry sector in spring 2003, there were 114 chamois on the Maramures side of these mountains, but in autumn 2003, when the first counting in cooperation between foresters and environmentalists was realized, there were only 5 chamois. Using questionnaires and interviews (December 2003), we have investigated the attitudes and knowledge of local communities around the Rodnei Mountains concerning wild animals, population trends and wildlife management to get them involved in this issue. This was a national campaign on wildlife management issues, involving the Romanian TV and other media. We have also organized a NGO coalition for wildlife management. Even if we are against hunting, we have initiated a win-win approach, working with the State Forest Authority, Ministry of Agriculture, Forests and Rural Development and the National Hunters' Association on the protection of game populations.

What will have positive impacts on biodiversity conservation in the near future?
The EU's Gothenburg Council of Ministers in 2001 decided that the EU will "protect and restore habitats and natural systems and halt the loss of biodiversity by 2010." The EU again committed to this target of halting biodiversity decline in its Sustainable Development Strategy. The EC Biodiversity Strategy from 1998 and the Biodiversity Action Plans from 2001 are also important. The accession of Romania to the EU will raise the environment and biodiversity issues to a higher position on the political agenda. As part of the accession process, the adaptation of the national legislation to the "acquis communautaire" and setting up the administrative structures to implement it will contribute to nature conservation and environment protection. This will result in the implementation of EU's Birds Directive and Habitat Directive and designation and protection of Natura 2000 sites, forming a network representing 15-25% of the area of Romania (in the EU 15 about 18% of the total area is designated as Natura 2000 sites, constituting a European network of protected areas). The level of environmental awareness will increase. Hopefully the accession to the EU will result in less illegal logging, poaching and corruption.

Natura 2000: There are some governmental efforts for the implementation of the EU's Birds and Habitats Directives, but they are still quite insufficient. These Directives are transposed into the national legislation by Law No. 462/2001 regarding protected areas, conservation of natural habitats and wild species of plants and animals.

In Romania scientific data on biodiversity are scarce, irrelevant, not standardized, badly organized and scattered in different research institutions, and the availability of such data in general is very poor. There are problems in understanding the Birds and Habitats Directives; even most of the researchers do not understand that these directives will not solve all the biodiversity conservation problems, but they are just tools which can be used for conservation of some areas and species. There is not enough time for proper preparation of the national list of proposed sites of community importance (pSCI) by January 2007 (the supposed time of accession of Romania to the EU), based on real scientific evidence as the quality and quantity of even the best data available at present is not enough. The financial support for the preparation is also inadequate.

UNESCO Pro Natura is participating in scientific research and elaboration of the legal framework for biodiversity conservation. We have had projects on information management, public participation, stakeholders' involvement, partnership building with the relevant structures, elaboration of management plans, environmental education, law enforcement by rangers, as well as practical activities: signs, maps and indicative panels in protected areas.

We take part in the Romanian Natura 2000 NGO Coalition (formed by about 30 NGOs) and we are also in its board. Now we are working on the implementation of a PHARE Access project of UNESCO Pro Natura, in cooperation with the Romanian Speleological Federation and the Romanian Ornithological Society - BirdLife Partner in Romania. In this project there are several training courses for NGO representatives, partnership development with relevant authorities, development and publication of a Natura 2000 toolkit, web proliferation on Natura 2000, photo exhibitions, etc.

What will have negative impacts on biodiversity in the near future?
In the process of integrating Romania to the EU, the general framework emphasises the intensification of agriculture, forestry, industry, transportation and tourism, as well as a more consumption-oriented society. Competition on the common market will most likely produce more aggressive exploitation of natural resources and competition for these, which may even result in exploitation beyond the ecologically safe level, increased pollution, and transformation of natural landscapes into more artificial ones. The Structural Fund, Cohesion Fund and other EU instruments will speed up the economic growth and improve social welfare and social cohesion, which may also improve environmental protection. However, if these large funds with large-scale and long-term effects are invested in a harmful way to promote economic growth at the expense of the environment, they will have a negative impact on biodiversity conservation and they can undermine the possibilities for sustainable development, thus working against the environmental policy and legislation of the EU. The low "absorption capacity" of the EU funds by Romania and other acceding countries is the result of the poor skills in writing project proposals, weak financial possibilities to co-fund these projects, as well as the low capacity to manage large projects. If this is the case in general, for the part of environment and biodiversity conservation projects, the situation is even weaker.

Integration of sustainable development and environmental policy into other sectoral policies.
It will be a great challenge to raise the living standard of a human population whose life style is far from the EU level, as well as to preserve the biodiversity which is much richer than the poor and seriously damaged biodiversity of the West-European wealthy societies in the EU 15. The EU's Sixth Community Environmental Action Programme and the EU's Sustainable Development Strategy stress the integration of environmental concerns into other policies. In Romania the Strategic Environmental Assessment Directive 2001/42/EC should be implemented through the accession, which means that the environmental consequences of each policy, plan and programme should be evaluated in the preparation phase and before their adoption.

In the Strategic Environmental Assessment the stakeholders interested in environmental protection should be involved, together with those interested in social and economic issues. Theoretically, the strong inter-relation between environment and socio-economical systems and the need for mainstreaming environmental considerations in social and economical policies acknowledged, but this is not realised in practice. In Romania the integration of environmental policy into the other sectors is very limited, although environmental concerns should be incorporated into all policy sectors. Considering the implementation of the Environmental Impact Assessment Directive and Article 6 of Habitats Directive, projects should be scanned in a transparent and realistic Environmental Impact Assessment by independent experts, but if the experts are selected and paid by the same economic structures which proposed the project and have interest in implementing it, there is an obvious bias in the Environmental Impact Assessment. So, there is a strong need to carry out the Strategic Environmental Assessment and Environmental Impact Assessment systematically and correctly if we really think that the negative environmental impacts of our activities should be minimised.

Relationship between the ecosystem approach of the CBD and the Forest Landscape Restoration
Within the framework of the ecosystem approach of the CBD, there should be appropriate integration between the rural development policies and implementation, forestry sector activities, agriculture, biodiversity conservation policies, water management policies, tourism, etc. This is not a scientific or a resource management problem, but a problem of combining these with social and financial issues. On the theoretical level, a forum should be opened where various stakeholders could work together in a participatory process of elaboration and implementation of forest management strategies, plans or projects. These stakeholders would work in their own interest while contributing to the general positive results of the activity in the interest of sustainable use of existing resources for the benefit of the whole community and the nature by sharing expertise, experience, knowledge and resources. Today there is no such forum.

Forest landscape restoration is closely related to the ecosystem approach of the CBD, but it is more clearly focused on restoring the landscapes in a certain area by reshaping forest structures and functions to a close-to-natural state. This is possible only by an open-minded approach, aimed at involving other sectors in a constructive debate. There is a need for cooperation between the representatives of different sectors to restore close-to-natural balance of the ecosystems in an area, for example, in a water-catchment basin, within the framework of sustainable development, which benefits the human community and the conservation of biodiversity which is, after all, also for the benefit of humans.

What is the situation of the CBD and ecosystem approach in Romania?
The Rio Convention or the Convention on Biological Diversity (1992) is formally signed and ratified by Romania through Law No. 58/1994. We do have a National Strategy and Action Plan for Biological Diversity Conservation and Sustainable Use of its Components in Romania (NBSAP) prepared by (then) the Ministry of Waters and Environment Protection (MWEP) in July 1996.

But the reality is that the CBD and these strategies and action plans are only known by some specialists. The key strategy for the implementation of the CBD, the "Ecosystem Approach", its 12 Malawi principles, the 5 operational guidelines and are relatively unknown (except for very few persons). At the same time, various elements of this are used under other approaches.

Communication, cooperation between stakeholders and public participation in decision-making in forestry issues in Romania
There is a strong need to integrate the regulations and ideas of biodiversity conservation into the forestry strategies and action plans as well as into the forest reconstruction projects. Awareness raising campaigns and educational activities are very important to gain public support for these activities.

The top-down hierarchy is still common and there is very little horizontal communication and cooperation among the different sectors. In forestry, water management, fisheries, etc. decisions are made top-down or under the control of small interest groups with high economic and/or political power, with no regard to stakeholder involvement in strategic planning, harmonizing and respect for different interests, concerns and aspirations of local people, equitable allocation of benefits, consensus with local communities or civil society and their involvement in the decision-making. Involving others parties implies the acceptance of equal rights of everybody to influence the process. Because this may interfere with other interests and increase the risk of controversial situations, disputes and debates especially in complex issues with many diverging interests, the common tendency is to avoid such situations. After half a century of communism, dictatorship and centralized economy, it is obvious that there is no tradition of planning together and managing conflicts in a friendly way.

In Romania there is not enough communication among the stakeholders. One major obstacle is the inflexible bureaucracy. There is very little cooperation and communication between scientific bodies, decision-makers drafting the laws and operators in ecosystem or natural resource management and management of protected areas. The acceptance of "learning by doing" and participatory approaches is very low higher up in the hierarchy (forest management, hunting, ministries, etc).

One deep problem in Romania is the low level or non-existence of communication between the State Forest Authority and the environmental NGOs. In the environmental civil sector forestry is considered a closed and strictly hierarchical sector, with high financial power resulting from the use of the state forests for the interest of the structures and strong political influence as a remainder of the communist past of Romania.

Conferences, congresses, symposia and workshops on biodiversity issues are being held, but participants are usually from a specific sector (only from forestry, only from NGOs, only from states' water management structure, etc).

After the changes in 1989, the trend has been to open up institutions and to be more frank in declarations. One positive element is the introduction of the Biodiversity Information Management System of the Ministry of Environment and Water Management, a GIS based structure, in which biodiversity data are exchanged by research institutions. However, these data are not public.

In the civil sector, the MediuList, a very well functioning mailing list used daily by the environmental NGOs, is an efficient tool for spreading information and for working together on a higher level. The existence of a legal instrument such as the Aarhus Convention, signed by Romania and ratified by Law No. 86/2000, encourages participatory processes, but its implementation is still very weak. There is a Government Order (No. 1115/2002) regarding free access to information about the environment.

NGOs are free to present their views, concerns and ideas without being forced to be "politically correct". From the part of "conservationists", there is a need for more flexibility in considering socio-economical interests and finding synergies in natural and cultural heritage conservation taking account of the long-term aim for better well-being of human as a central element in the conservation approach. NGOs working for environment protection in Romania on a non-profit basis need strong support in order to survive. The process of building a civil society in Romania is not an easy task. Empowering communities to deal with their environment in accordance with sustainable management, strengthening the capacity of local stakeholders and improving participatory processes are very important and useful for a democratic and ethic development and fruitful for the interests of conservation. Individual people also need a lot of capacity building to be able to participate in decision-making processes as people are not used to express their own ideas in the public due to the past hierarchical structures.

It should be mentioned that public participation consumes a great deal of time and resources, which means that it should be organized efficiently and there is a need for training on the methodologies for organising such processes. There are also problems regarding who should decide who is a stakeholder and should be involved and who is not a stakeholder? Who will facilitate the debate among different stakeholders; who will select that "external neutral moderator", and who will pay him and for all the other costs of these processes?

For real participation of NGOs in decision-making, there is a need to have proper access (transparent, timely) to relevant and accurate information regarding the policies, plans, programmes and projects in the early drafting phase of these documents. There is a need to have clear deadlines for submitting comments and ways in which the participation in debates and meetings can be realized, and a clear framework for the adoption of changes based on these comments should be available. Financial support for capacity-building and basic functions of environmental NGOs should be available from the state budget. Their important role as non-partisan, independent think-tanks and representatives of the public interest, as well as in the dissemination of information, raising environmental awareness, research, etc. should be fully recognised.

UNESCO Pro Natura has experience in organizing stakeholders' meetings, international conferences, workshops, training courses, and international study tours. UNESCO Pro Natura is a Partner in StrawberryNet Foundation, the manager of MediuList, the electronic network of Romanian environmental NGOs. The electronic tools promoted by us are ActionApps for user-friendly web publishing, web proliferation and web design, but we are also involved in the publication of hardcopies.

Research on biodiversity in Romania
Romania is a relatively large (total surface area 238,391 square km) and complex area from the geographical and biogeographical point of view and, because of financial reasons, the country has difficulties in carrying out real biodiversity research on such a large and complex area. Traditionally biodiversity research in Romania has mainly focused on species diversity, but in terms of conservation there is a need for more and better research on the interrelations between socio-economic and environmental processes, which are difficult to quantify and analyze from the scientific point of view. These complex issues call for teams of biologists, ecologists, sociologists and economists, which is still unusual in Romania. Research is not cheap and in the challenge of the economic transition from a centralised to a market economy, research in general has suffered a great deal in Romania. Research institutions are losing their important human resources, young people are not attracted to research because of very low and uncertain salaries, and there are no funds for research activities.

In many cases data produced by means of public funding are not accessible for the public. Biodiversity data from state financed research institutes is not accessible even for the Ministry of Environment. There are problems regarding the accuracy of data in publications, many data are old, not structured, and available only on paper and not in electronic form.

Conservation and international cooperation
Protected areas are very important for biodiversity conservation. However, small and isolated ecosystems cannot preserve biodiversity in the long term, because they are very sensitive to natural hazards and natural fluctuations in the ecosystem. Larger mammal species in small areas are losing their genetic variability due to inbreeding, and they are facing extinction in a fluctuating environment. This is why it is important to join together smaller units, protected areas or close-to-nature forests and larger areas acting as gene reservoirs, linking these core areas by linear corridors and stepping stones to achieve a coherent network of natural areas, which is more resistant to fluctuations and where migration, re-colonisation of lost areas by different species and gene flow between different populations or sub-populations can take place. This network of protected areas should be isolated from the hard human impact of the intensively used areas by buffer zones, which are in-between conservation and intensive human interest.

The conservation of large units (mountain ranges, seas, international river basins) is often possible only on large areas through the so-called ecoregional approach, and many times this is possible only by international cooperation. The ecoregional approach is used in the Carpathian Convention, in the Convention on Black Sea Protection and Pollution Prevention (Bucharest Convention) and in the management of big river basins like in Danube conservation programmes. An ecoregion is a relatively large area, inhabited by distinct communities which shares the large majority of species, dynamics and environmental patterns and can function as an effective conservation unit. On the one hand, this type of ecoregional scale management is highly useful to preserve ecosystem structures, processes and functions in their evolutionary framework but, on the other hand, the management of such a big unit is often very difficult (financially, politically, etc.) to realise in practice and in most cases it remains mostly paperwork (strategies, action plans, conventions, conferences, discussions).

The Carpathians are the largest mountain range in Europe, of which more than 50% is located in Romania. The Carpathians are shared by 8 states: Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, Ukraine, Romania and Serbia and Montenegro. These mountain areas are inhabited by approximately 18 million people. With a surface area of 209,000 square km, the Carpathians are home of large populations of wolves, bears and lynxes (the Alps are about 191,000 square km and the populations of large carnivores are 5-10% compared to those in the Carpathians).

The Convention for the Protection and Sustainable Development of Carpathians (Carpathian Convention) was signed in the Ministerial Conference in Kiev in May 2003. A Carpathian Network of Protected Areas should be established within the framework of the Convention. In the whole Carpathians there are now 85 large protected areas (National Parks, Natural Parks, Biosphere Reserves and Protected Landscapes), but even if 55 % of the Carpathians are in Romania, there are only 15 large-scale protected areas in the Romanian Carpathians (10 National Parks - two of them also Biosphere Reserves - and 5 Natural Parks), representing only 17.6 % of the total of 85. So, again, it is time for action in Romania.

In the utilisation of forests, in addition to direct utilisation of income-generating forest resources (timber, game, mushrooms, berries, etc.), there is a more complex issue concerning mechanisms to be able to generate income from the environmental services produced by forests (international market of CO2 retention and storage, land stabilisation, clean water, hydro-regulating function, equilibration of water flow in the catchment areas of rivers to reduce floods and temperate effects of summer droughts, biodiversity conservation, etc). The utilisation of forests for tourism is also a complicated issue, mostly regarding the way how the income should be distributed among the stakeholders.

The Water Law (107/1996) is the main instrument regarding river basin management and waters. The implementation of the EU's Water Framework Directive has been started in two river basins in Romania. Formally, River Basin Committees have been established in Romania, but in reality they are totally dominated by the state company "Romanian Waters". River basins are not yet considered as functional ecosystems or complexes of ecosystems, but they are still under the control of the hydrotechnical engineering interest group. In this situation investments are made only in the construction of reservoirs, consolidation of riversides and embankments and technical protection against floods, instead of restoration of wetlands as a way to combine biodiversity conservation with flood reduction.

Romania has signed and ratified most of the relevant international conventions regarding biodiversity conservation. With thousands of pelicans, the Danube Delta, the Carpathians, bears, lynxes and wolves, Romania has a good image in terms of biodiversity. There are good Romanian specialists and we hope to have good opportunities for international cooperation in the future.

The level of participation of Romanian citizens in international processes concerning biodiversity conservation issues is in general quite low, due to the low understanding of international issues, under-representation of Romanian interests on the international arena and lack of understanding of the Romanian situation in the international sphere. Biodiversity conservation is often possible only through international cooperation. The use of natural resources and transboundary impacts (like air and water pollution) are a source of conflict between nations. Transboundary cooperation in environmental issues is also a way to know each other and to lay the foundation for much more extensive cooperation.

As a national environmental NGO with international activities, UNESCO Pro Natura participates in the IUCN family, including the "Environment for Europe" process. Within the UNESCO framework we have relations to practical cooperation mainly with UNESCO Etxea from Bilbao, Basque Country, Spain, and cooperation with NGOs, scientists and administrators from the neighbouring countries of Romania and from all over the World. We are active in the South-East European Environmental NGO Network (SEEENN) and in Central and East European Working Group for Enhancement of Biodiversity (CEEWEB). We take an active part in processes and organise fact-finding missions, exchange, conferences, congresses, workshops, symposia, research projects, educational activities, etc. and participate in these. We are working continuously to develop our local, national and international influence to promote biodiversity conservation and sustainable development in a real and concrete way.

Important documents in the sector include the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), Aarhus Convention, Bern Convention, Bonn Convention, Ramsar Convention, CITES, Espoo Convention, Helsinki Convention, Birds and Habitats Directives of the EU, Convention on Black Sea Protection and Pollution Prevention, (with a Black Sea Biodiversity and Landscape Conservation Protocol) Carpathian Convention, etc. However, they can only make a contribution to the biodiversity conservation if they are also implemented in practice.

Conclusions for managing dynamics and change in Romania
Human resources: There is a need to establish an independent interdisciplinary panel of specialists from honest, dedicated and reliable persons. Often there is a great difference between the reality accepted in informal discussions and the statements presented in a "politically correct" manner, in line with the interest of the institution concerned in official meetings and documents.

Reliable data: There is a need for standardized biodiversity data collection, clarification of the indicators used, monitoring schemes, data processing, use of GIS tools, clarification of spatial and temporal distribution patterns of species and better understanding of natural processes in ecosystems, establishment of the carrying capacity, modelling, development of different scenarios regarding socio-economic and environmental future, and coordination of these issues.

Vision, strategy, action plan: A "Strategic Vision" and a more solid National Sustainable Development Strategy, including an Action Plan, should be developed, together with a realistic Biodiversity Conservation Strategy, establishing clearly indicated time frames, responsible institutions and persons and stating clearly the source of the necessary financial resources.

Implementation: Centralized approach with general guidelines should be implemented locally by adaptive management.

In UNESCO Pro Natura, we are happy to contribute to the debate on forest landscape restoration and to participate in the networking activities related to this issue. Within this field, our expertise is mostly in the policy analysis of Romanian forestry from the point of view of biodiversity conservation and public participation in forestry, as well as the issue of state, community and private forests in Romania from the point of view of degradation under human pressure and restoration for the well-being of humans and other species.

Conclusions:
1. The forests of Romania are still much more valuable comparing with the West-European "forests".
2. It the actual trend will be continues, the forest remaining in Romania will be younger and younger, with less and less biological, ecological and economical value, and the lost of it will negatively influence the life of people in Romania and around it.

-Top-

The first and last learners
- Rahul Goswami

Kelechütsü Tho-u is an Angami Naga youth in whose quick mind resides a formidable database of herbal and plant lore and practice. Such knowledge makes it impossible for him to remain hungry in the rugged, heavily forested hills that rise up around his village of Khonoma, in Nagaland, North-East India. He is partial to chicken, beef, pork and - feasts permitting - some mithun [1] meat too, but is otherwise botanically equipped to spot the edible vine, creeper, succulent, bush, fruit, berry, leaf and tuber to add to his cooking pot.

All of which he does regularly. To walk the Naga hills with Kelechütsü is to understand a mind and a community that is extraordinarily attuned to the environment in which they thrive, and which has as its fundament the concept that we know and call sustainability. That, when linked to the catch-all word 'development', such a concept is the subject of innumerable working papers, seminars and conclaves, and otherwise provides brigades of 'development professionals' a livelihood is seen as hugely amusing by Kelechütsü and his friends, but their amusement is also tempered by a distant alarm, for they are all too aware of the might and reach of the development industry.

Among these comrades is Megozokho Meyase. If his friend can spot a promising clump of livino - a leaf which tastes best, they say, with the meat of the free-ranging mithun - at 50 feet then Megozokho's super-sharp eyes can pick out against a densely wooded backdrop a honeybee speeding home, accurately deduce the hive's location, and look forward to later relieving it of its rich lode of honey [2].

These are resident skills in the Naga hills. Other members of a research team we worked with on a recently-released environment impact assessment study [3] are able to accurately map - with no mechanical or magnetic aids whatsoever - their village habitat or assess, from a glance at a pile of firewood, whether its moisture content allows it to be used today, next week or next month.

Witnessed in context, these skills appear extraordinary to the untrained (uncultured even) mind and eye and comprehension. One experiences a sense of wonder at the education that has nurtured such talents. Yet the youthful practitioners of such arts wear their prodigious learning lightly, with humility, and unselfishly share what they know with their communities. Theirs has been (they add to it every day, for the 'lifelong learning' that is now the fashion in the West is in fact an well-worn consciousness here) a privileged education - free to learn as and what they will; to associate that learning with their village and clan, family and friends; without fear of grading and examinations, admissions and certificates; with the freedom to experiment with a curriculum that evolves and reshapes itself every day.

Contrast this world with another. Early last year (2004) a young tribal girl in the district of Gadchiroli, Maharashtra, had this to say about the 'education' she was expected to go through: "I go to school as often as I can. I get bored when I go, and they shout at me. They don't teach me about anything around me." Tribal societies both - one in the Naga hills, the other the guardians of the dense central Indian forest tract of Dandakaranya - and in their own ways, exposing the hypocrisies of our education systems. The young Nagas will privately critique the systems posing as education just as Gadchiroli's tribals do, but the 'right' to 'compulsory education' steamrollers on, uncaring of cultures, contexts and futures. 'Compulsory education' is the legitimisation of an absurd terminology - do we talk about compulsory eating or compulsory sleeping? If it is a truly natural need, where is the need for compulsion?

Compare this approach with that of the indigenous. In Naga villages - as in many tribal societies worldwide - the youth are housed and taught in institutions usually referred to as dormitories. When they reach puberty, boys and girls are admitted to their respective dormitories. But even at the age of five, these young boys and girls have already been through an extraordinary education compared with their peers in 'our' societies. From their birth, they are bonded to the community and to their habitat - continuously cared for by mother, father, sisters, cousins, uncles, grandparents, clan, and extended tribal family.

This was all done in order to introduce them properly into the new and natural world, not the world of artificiality, and to protect their sensitive and delicate souls. While the outside world feeds itself on a multiplicity of methods to help motor-skill development and abstract reasoning, Naga children quickly learn to develop their intuitive faculties, rational intellect, symbolic thinking, and five senses. Their educational setting - close to parents, close to clan - is not only a 'secure' environment, but also a very colourful one - complicated, sensitive, and diverse. They are with their mothers at the pounding of rice and the hewing of firewood, with their fathers at weaving of baskets and the tramps into the forest, with the family while transplanting paddy and in the upslope jhum [4] fields, with their uncles and elders around the fire of a morung (dormitory) at the telling of stories.

They are given the time and space for inward journeys that allow them to reflect on what they have learned, and to carry that new knowledge deeply into the unconscious. They learn to count by watching their parents sort the materials they use for craft and for work (shells and beads for traditional ornaments, the measuring of bamboo and cane for the construction of baskets and other household and agriculture-related items and tools), through the surprisingly complex games that need but a pattern scratched into a stone and a few pebbles.

Activities in the morung were not usually organised; most were spontaneous and members (young learners) responded naturally. Much of the Naga culture, its customs and traditions, has been transmitted from one generation to another through the media of folk music and dance, folk tales and oral historical traditions, through carvings of figures on stone and wood, and patterns for weaves. This teaching-learning process has usually taken place in the female and male morungs, and a great deal of it while around a hearth and as song - many folk songs contain tribal histories, also histories of the village, clan, and model (and not so model) individuals. There are songs composed in certain seasons and sung only at an appropriate time. In the absence of a practice of writing and documentation, folk tales and oral historical traditions remained the sole links between the past and the present. Young people acquired the skills of learning their histories, their systems of knowledge, by listening to the songs and the folk tales, and thus developed prodigious and utterly reliable memories.

From early years spent in such an environment the transition to the 'education system' as we know it is traumatic. Today, under the pressures of globalisation and regimes like the World Trade Organisation, the education system is being ever more skewed in the direction of investing the resources of societies to produce production digits for the global production machine. The more young people are sucked into it, the more the prospect of challenging the present model of development or the globalisation of the economy recedes, and what is more, the quicker the destruction of traditional systems of instruction that are, in every sense of the word, sustainable.

We cannot reverse or even halt this process without also beginning to dismantle the education system, in which the global, homogenous consumer is created and nurtured. The intent of the current country-wide system appears to be to demoralise human beings. It undermines the young person's grasp of reality, cuts off their links with the natural world, seeks to inculcate within the victims a contempt for the history of their own peoples, traditions or ways of being.

There is international consensus that we are facing multiple crises in the areas of environment and development - loss of biodiversity, escalating poverty in the face of globalisation and the rapid movement of capital, the marginalisation of peoples are but some symptoms. In all these crises, education is a common denominator.

In the South, adult literacy and basic education are the goals that many policy-makers strive for in their efforts to meet the 'Education For All' goals while at the same time holding the firm belief that education must contribute to 'modernisation', and this in the mould of the North, which has generally proven to be socially, environmentally, economically, politically and culturally unsustainable. Such a trajectory degrades, erodes and ultimately destroys ecological and human diversity, cultural diversity and diversity of knowledge. Without these ingredients, what 'sustainability' can there possibly be?

Naga society, and mountain communities, need the learning systems that seek to bring change and 'development' to their lives to be oriented once again towards life, to be open-ended and creative. A re-evaluation of how our current education systems affect such communities needs to recognise that learning must be separate from job training (and it is the tragedy that befalls millions upon millions of young Indians that these are taken as inseparable); that the primacy of print media as the media of instruction must end, for knowledge generated in the form of audio-visuals, music, theatre, artwork, and other media be listed, supported and circulated to break the stranglehold of the printed textbook (and the great tendency for it to be misused) as the sole repository of learning resources and as the primary means for dialogue; that local languages and dialects be used for instruction with just as much emphasis as our 'official' languages.

For Megozokho and his friends, there is enough that can be pointed out as being palpably, indisputably, wrong with the industries of knowledge and education as we know them, but it is the lack of intellectual honesty that disturbs them most. Giving a number or a letter to measure a human being is dishonest and inhuman, in the context of an indigenous upbringing and education. It is degrading, this process of grading, this obsession with ranking and percentage, first and last, an hierarchy of numbers, whose human origins have been lost and forgotten. As long as such values remain governing values, education will continue to be an obstacle to learning.

It is such dishonesty which characterises our methods of education, the development, production and dissemination of knowledge. It is far removed from not only the mountain people like the Naga, but also from the Madiya Gond of Gadchiroli, and from the humble schools that are to be found in the hundreds of thousands of our villages. The dishonesty is connected to the values which govern the thinking and practice in the fields of education, knowledge and development (mirroring the values in dominant societies and serving mainly the lifestyle of consumerism).

The keywords that govern this universe are control, winning, profit, individualism and competition. Having a syllabus and textbooks, and evaluating and judging people (students, teachers, administrators, and academics) through linear forms of authority and through symbolic values (such as arbitrary letters or grades or preferential labels), almost guarantee cheating and manipulation, and foster an absence of relevance that is so very naked - a clear-headed tribal girl can so simply and distinctly identify it.

In her world, learning should not mean alienating the learner from her own cultural identity. Instead, the learner affirmed such an identity, quietly and humbly, as part of her learning process. The components of this learning include various skills for survival (handicrafts, knowledge of medicinal plants, an understanding of traditional agricultural techniques, the ability to improvise during times of hardship) and an exposure to a variety of collectively-held and dynamic community databases, rich with experience and lore. Her system also had a distinctly native institution of education (called gurukul or its equivalent) which, as is well known today, was suppressed by India's colonial rulers to advance their own interests.

There are not enough educators and policy-makers who recognise that the vast majority of rural communities live far more sustainably than urban areas and have a wealth of experience and knowledge to contribute to our understanding of sustainable community development. Globally, although there is the realisation that organisations and communities in the South have a great deal to contribute about living sustainably and that formal education systems desperately need their input, such realisation has still to make an impact on our 'formal' systems of education.

Yet our knowledge base in every discipline has been skewed, our development theories have been dominated by imports, our academic research has drawn very little from marginalised sectors of society, women and indigenous people, in particular. If these gaping chasms in our understanding are not recognised, addressed, and repaired, our efforts to achieve 'sustainability' or 'sustainable societies' will achieve little.

Every day, Kelechütsü and Megozokho see the effects of the collision between their sustainable, holistic world and the expectations of the 'mainstream' towards which they are sought to be herded. It is an unequal contest and during our field visits [2] we witnessed the stresses the hill village society is subjected to. Traditional patterns of agriculture and cropping, craft and weaving, are already seeing not enough practitioners to reliably ensure their survival two generations hence.

The alternatives that present themselves to the Naga young are not sustainable in their own eyes. Traditional village institutions are still strong enough to counter the push (away from the hill communities) and pull (towards urban homogeneity and the dilution of identity), but these depend on the cohort of elders who shepherded the community through the turbulent transitions of the last half century. For now, these sensitive mountain youth are all that stand between 'sustainability' and the Gadarene rush of an over-consumptive society.

Notes:
[1] The mithun (Bos frontalis) is a semi-domesticated variety of bison kept by several North-Eastern hill tribes, mainly for sacrificial purposes and whose meat is used for festivals.
[2] These paras are modified from an article that originally appeared in The Hindu, 28 March, 2004.
[3] The environment impact assessment and natural resource management study, for a Naga hill village, was released by the state government of Nagaland in late November, 2004.
[4] Jhum or shifting cultivation is the traditional means of agriculture based on indigenous knowledge systems. Produce from the jhum fields form a significant portion of the livelihood for indigenous communities of the North-East.

* The author is a freelance journalist and researcher based in Goa, and was a member of the EIA study team referred to.

-Top-

Empowering Self-Help Groups to Address Gender Inequity

Rashmi Gangwar
CEE Himalaya, 19/323, Indira Nagar, Lucknow 226 016, India
E-mail: rashmi.gangwar@ceeindia.org

ABSTRACT
The entire world is preparing to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set by United Nations in order to reduce poverty, improve the lives of the poor and increase the pace of development in a sustainable manner. India has also set the targets for its tenth five-year plan in accordance with the MDGs. But the indicators like Child Mortality Rates (CMR), Maternal Mortality Rates (MMR), vaccination, incidence of malnutrition in children, and female literacy are major obstacle in India's efforts to meet the MDGs. Higher risk to child health results in more number of child births. Poverty, poor health and education are inter-linked and put direct pressure on the natural resources. A low literacy rate in women has a direct bearing on this situation.

In the forthcoming Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD 2005-2015), Gender Equity is considered as one of the key action themes. Gender inequity, especially in the field of education directly reflects on the development indicators for any country. In India with female literacy slightly higher than fifty percent, the development efforts do not result in desired impact.

Any strategy for environmentally sound development needs the awareness, the help and active participation of the citizens. Hence the most important task for environmental education for sustainable development whether it is agricultural sustainability or the sustainability of development for rural masses must be to motivate people, to get involved in community action and to ensure people's participation. Now the question is how to organize or ensure the participation of common people to save our common future?

During past few years in several parts of the country, rural poor specially the women are being organized into self-help groups (SHGs) in large number. According to a report by National Bank for Agriculture & Rural Development (NABARD), the number of active SHGs in India had touched a figure of 8,67,041 by March 2003. Going by the average group size of 12-15 members, a population of around 15 million, comprising mainly of women, falls in this informal organized sector. Most of the SHG members are from regions of high poverty, low levels of agricultural surpluses, scanty resources and underdeveloped infrastructure. Another major constrain is illiteracy and low level of entrepreneurial skills.

Generally these groups are focusing on micro-credit and creating employment opportunities for rural women. Many of these are strong collectives of women with certain amount of skills already acquired. They have a common objective behind formation of the groups. These are potential community organization that can be targeted upon for building their capacity towards sustainable development and conservation.

Going by the example of Mahila Smakhya, a well-known institution working for empowering women, their groups are formed to address all issues related to health, education, economic empowerment and violence etc. The groups thus formed are very cohesive and disciplined capable of finding solutions to their local problems including fighting the legal battles too. Their capacities are being developed in the field of agriculture, organic farming and other employment generation activities using local resources.

This informal organized sector has a lot of potential to groom as 'change agents'. Many NGOs through out the country are doing several programmes with the self-help groups. There is a clear mention in the Tenth Five Year Plan about organizing women into SHGs and equip them with services of awareness generation and income generation through training, employment, credit and marketing linkages. Emphasis needs to be given to building capacities of these women groups towards sustainable livelihood

It is necessary to develop and introduce low cost appropriate or green technologies coupled with sound delivery system to ensure economic and ecological sustainability and optimum use of local resources. Some of the potential areas for technology transfer are - sustainable agriculture, off season vegetable and seed production, organic farming, non-perishable cultivation (NPC), horticulture, green cover management, protection from wild animals, animal husbandry, traditional use of water power, non-wood energy, disaster management and landslide control, artisans, water management & harvesting, non-timber forest produce, herbs and other biomass producing species and ecotourism.

In mountain areas where infrastructure is poor, people are more dependent on natural wealth for livelihood. Women have additional loads of drudgery due to higher migration of men for work. With little capacity in the field of education and technology, women are left to struggle with poor marginal agriculture lands, diminishing natural resources and insufficient health and infrastructure facilities to nurture their families. Women SHGs in these areas can be addressed through education and communication interventions for sustainable livelihood ways as a pilot phase. CEE Himalaya has taken an initiative by doing conservation programmes for women in Dal Lake in Kashmir and Nanada Devi Bio-Reserve in Uttaranchal both significant ecologically and source of livelihood for the inhabitants.

Empowering Self-Help Groups to Address Gender Inequity

Rashmi Gangwar
CEE Himalaya, 19/323, Indira Nagar, Lucknow 226 016, India
E-mail: rashmi.gangwar@ceeindia.org

India has 300 million poor people with no access to basic educational skills, opportunities or jobs. Seventy percent of India lives in the villages and majority of them is mainly dependent on agriculture. Eighty to eighty five percent of the agriculture work is done by women starting from sowing to harvesting the crops.

'Women Feed the World' was the theme for the World Food Day observed by FAO in 1998. Women play an important role in food production, processing and even in distribution. It is unfortunate that women and children are very much vulnerable both from the point of view of food as well as nutritional security. Indicators other than education & nutrition e.g., Child Mortality Rates (CMR), Maternal Mortality Rates (MMR), vaccination etc reflecting on women's development are also not very encouraging. Higher risk to child health results in more number of childbirth. Poverty, poor health and education are inter-linked and put direct pressure on the natural resources. A low literacy rate in women has a direct bearing on this situation.

With agriculture becoming cost and labour intensive, incidences of male migration towards towns for earning money through other development works are prevalent. Women are more and more exposed to agriculture and allied activities without much of technical skills.

With the changing roles women are now also exposed to the struggle for livelihood. In lack of adequate levels of education and technical skills, they are generally dependent either on the agriculture or forests. To fulfill their traditional role of feeding the families also they are dependent on resources like water, energy and forests sometimes presenting them as the main consumers of natural resources. With the increase in population demand for natural resources is increasing beyond the carrying capacity. The land base per person is shrinking, posing challenges of maintaining the soil health while obtaining more and more from less area and quality of land. Water is another resource becoming scanty and posing threat in getting the optimum yields from the marginalised lands.

Sustainable development reflects that today's economic progress should not be at the expense of tomorrow's development prospects. Agricultural sustainability refers to the maintenance and enhancement of productivity on a long-term basis and should use improved and friendly technologies for economic development of agriculture sector. As a result of continued mining of soil and over exploitation of water resources we have reached a stage where any further neglect and slackness in using soil and water resources in sustainable manner will not only restrict our ability to feed the increasing population, but also result in adverse environmental consequences which would not be easily retrieved.

Key areas identified for sustainable development include:
Society: an understanding of social institutions and their role in change and development, as well as the democratic and participatory systems which give opportunity for the expression of opinion, the selection of governments, the forging of consensus and the resolution of differences.
Environment: awareness of the resources and fragility of the physical environment and the affects on it of human activity and decisions with a complement to factoring environmental concerns into social and economic development.
Economy: a sensitivity to the limits and potential of economic growth and their impact on society and on environment, with a commitment to assess personal and societal levels of consumption out of concern for the environment and for social justice.

What is required today is that these concerns may not remain restricted to a group of elite class to plan, to act or to decide rather, should percolate down to every human being in order to achieve their participation in finding solutions to the problem. Sensitisation of humanity as a whole towards the global concerns is required. Education is the only tool through which this can be achieved. Education is a term, which is concerned with learning. Learning is a process of acquiring knowledge or skills by instruction, study or experience. In its broad sense, this is a life long process but the modern world education is not only a process of learning and becoming wise but also a tool at one's command to survive in this age of development. Education is an effective tool for upliftment of an individual and society in every way whether it be personality development, social and economic development and so on. This is the only way to bring out prosperity.

Education has been an important part of Indian social and cultural life. A great deal of evidence is there in Vedic literature about the satisfactory status of women's education. There existed extensive and wide spread child education systems irrespective of gender in the country during earlier days. But gender disparity is prevalent these days both in urban and rural areas though recently the female literacy rates have increased faster than the male literacy rates for the decade. The gap in male and female literacy rate still stands at 21.69 per cent for population of above five years of age.

To address immediate problem education focusing on informal sector is also equally important. In order to involve community-based organisations and civil society groups in whole range of development related activities, a conscious component of education for sustainable development is a definite need. These groups are important for discovering what issues of sustainable development are relevant locally and so should be sensitised to using their knowledge to build public awareness, introduce local knowledge into school setting and orient own members to more sustainable practices.

The workplace is a suitable domain of learning with regard to sustainable development. Every workplace should consider how daily working practices and relation ships are related to sustainable development and explicit commitment to positive practices should be included in the procedures and manuals of the institution.

Self-help groups formed through out the country, successfully handling complicated matters like micro financing, are potential target groups to be addressed for education for sustainable future. These are the groups close to nature, depending directly on the natural resources for their livelihood. Most of these are women groups comprising majority of illiterate women. NGOs at different levels are involved in building the capacities of these groups with main focus on saving and micro credit.

These collectives endow a great potential for addressing them through effective education and communication tools towards the concept and need for sustainability. Mahila Samakhya, a major women focussed programme of the Department of Education, reaches to more than one-lakh women in ten states. The programme creates forum and environment for women's education at community level. They are organised in groups, educated to certain level adequate to help them understand the issues of health, hygiene, importance of children's education and their 'rights as women'. Successful efforts have also been made to build their capacity in the field of agriculture and other activities that can improve their economic conditions. These women are successfully practicing the techniques of organic farming and comopsting etc and have set examples for their male counterparts. Some of them have been groomed as resource persons in the field to educate fellow men and women.

The Centre for Environment Education (CEE) through its field programmes has also aimed at creating awareness among the communities about the ecological significance of the forest areas around which they live. For example, it launched the first Eco-education programme around the Ranthambhore National Park in Rajasthan. A field office was set up in 1987 at Sawai Madhopur near Ranthambhore for implementation of various educational and developmental programmes in selected villages around the park. The focus of the programme has been on environmental improvement by people themselves through environmentally sound technologies. Communication & education programmes were developed in the area of animal husbandry. Another project - Hingolgadh Ecodevelopment was initiated in six villages around the Hingolgadh nature Education Park in Rajkot district of Gujarat. Today the project continues activities in 15 such villages and has extended its activities to 25 other villages not directly dependent on the sanctuary.

There are many examples from other parts of country like SEWA movement in Gujarat, CHIPKO Uttaranchal followed by a parallel movement down in south where the community and women have been organised, educated and fought for sustainable utilisation of the natural resources. Taking strength from these experiences, strategies to address the informal organised sector of the self-help groups need to be evolved. Environmental education and research are critical not only for the establishment of sustainable human societies but also to develop technologies skills and expertise which translate into tailor made solutions to environmental problems.

Many NGOs are working with the SHGs to build their capacities in order to improve their economic conditions. These may act as partners in identification of needs of villages for technologies, development of training modules as well as the delivery of technology at the village level. Awareness programmes on sustainable resource utilization should also focus on local governance including the Zila Parishads, Village Panchayats and Village Education Committees etc.

In the mountain areas due to less development in comparison to plains, the dependency of women is more on their immediate environment for meeting the basic needs of water, fuel, fodder and livelihood at times. There is a global concern on the threats to mountain environment, which directly may affect the mountain people and have adverse effects down the mountains also. Shortage of water and deforestation has added tremendously to the drudgery of women. Mountains have their peculiar problems with high incidence of male migration towards the cities and towns leaving women behind to take care of the family. This has increased the working hours for women from 12-16 hours a day.

Problems are aggravated many times due to the conservation measures being taken by the government to minimise the threats to ecosystems and species of flora and fauna resulting in conflicts in these areas. The current levels of field conservation are not adequate to contain these adverse trends especially because the communities living in and around protected areas are among the most disadvantaged due to inadequate and inappropriate inputs in rural development and welfare programmes. Since their dependence on natural bio-resources is substantial, their well being and safeguarding the natural ecosystems, new 'landscape' based strategies for ecologically sustainable rural development are called for. These have to be backed by packaged alternatives for local people in the form of efficient but conservation friendly utilisation practices for bio-resources as well as supplemental livelihood.

It necessary to develop and introduce appropriate or green technologies coupled with sound delivery system, which ensures economic and ecological sustainability and optimum use of local resources emphasizing on capacity building and technological empowerment amongst mountain and hill communities, particularly the disadvantaged groups. Major thrust areas for technology transfer include - sustainable agriculture, off season vegetable and seed production, organic farming, non-perishable cultivation (NPC), horticulture, green cover management, protection from wild animals, animal husbandry, traditional use of water power, non-wood energy, disaster management and landslide control, artisans, water management & harvesting, non-timber forest produce, herbs and other biomass production, ecotourism etc.

Our country is uniquely placed for organic cultivation due to various agroclimatic regions for production of several potential crops in demand. Being a low chemical fertiliser consuming country especially in rain fed areas like the north-eastern and hill states, India has good opportunity to take up production of organic food for export and domestic use. IFOAM Survey 2003 has indicated that India has about 41000 ha land under organic cultivation, which is only 0.03 % of the total cultivable land in India.

Experience in the area of agriculture and watershed management has indicated that the failure of many agriculture programmes in developing countries could be directly related to the neglect of women's productive roles, particularly in relation to food crop production. Generally women farmers are more receptive to innovations and incentives. Many studies conducted in developing countries have shown that giving women in farmers the same level of agricultural inputs and education as men farmers could increase yields by more than 20 %.

Women/Rural Technology Parks have proven effective communication tool to provide demonstration and training on need based selected technologies and promoting rural entrepreneurship amongst mountain communities. Women Technology Park set up by HESCO in Uttaranchal, Rural Technology Park by BOSCO Reach Out Society in Ribhoi district of Meghalaya and similar approach by Janaadhar Society in Uttarkashi, Uttaranchal are the examples.

CEE Himalaya is at present dealing with two projects focusing upon women's participation in natural resource management. In the first project supported by UNESCO capacity of the women from buffer zone of Nanda Devi Bio-Reserve (NDBR) in Uttaranchal is being built for conservation of genetic resources, mostly underutilised and lesser known, using alternate media. Another project is on creating awareness amongst women on health, hygiene and sanitation issues in order to conserve the Dal Lake in Kashmir (supported by Mridula Sarabhai Trust, India). Both these projects are very challenging and enriching in experience. Since the communities are closely associated with their surroundings and with time they have evolved their own perceptions about the management of these resources, communicating scientific ways to them for conservation is important. Another challenge is the suitable mode of communication when the conventional methods, both print and electronic, are not suitable. The NDBR project includes a component of studying the suitability of alternate media as a tool for communication.

-Top-