FRIDAY, APRIL 26, 2024
Elvis Fernandes
Our planet Earth is home to myriads species of flora and fauna. Their constant interplay and interlinkages have been vital for human sustenance and survival. To raise awareness of the importance of Forests and Wildlife the United Nations General Assembly earmarked two days in the month of March: International day of Forests (March 21) and World Wildlife Day (March 3).
Forests are the lungs of our planet and are essential to life. They are a source of air, water, food, shelter and medicine. They are the ecological powerhouses on which the livelihood of more than 1 billion people depend. They are home to 80% of the world’s terrestrial biodiversity. The rainfall generated by these forests is essential for farmers and for global food security. Forests help to stabilize the climate and are our most vital natural climate solution in our combat to stave off climate change. They are the best carbon-capture technology absorbing the carbon dioxide emissions that have already been released into the atmosphere. Saving Forests could reduce 7 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide each year.
Forests and Wildlife around the world are under threat due to unsustainable development. In the United States, the Roadless Rule – a popular conservation policy issued in 2001 by the Bill Clinton administration, was repealed by the Donald Trump Administration in October 2020. This conservation measure was aimed to end all logging, roadbuilding, leasing of minerals in the Tongass National Forest, the world’s largest temperate rainforest. The rollback of the conservation policy opened up the previously protected pristine forest for logging and exploitation by timber industry lobbyists and politicians.
Back home, in India, the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) and Forest Advisory Committee (FAC), India’s highest advisory bodies on wildlife, cleared or discussed over 30 projects in biodiverse forests in the middle of the lockdown. The virtual clearance, without site inspections, of these projects affects 15 tiger reserves, sanctuaries, eco-sensitive zones, wildlife corridors, and other forest areas.
In my home state of Goa, the forests of the Western Ghats are also in danger. The three proposed projects including a railway line, a transmission line and widening of the existing double lane highway will affect biodiverse evergreen forests in the middle of the Western Ghats and the previously untouched areas of the Bhagwan Mahaveer Wildlife Sanctuary and Mollem National Park.
There are umpteen regulatory bodies at the International and National level which are constituted to protect the forests. However, the environmental laws are flouted and misinterpreted for the benefit of the rich and the powerful who are hand-in-glove with the political leadership. When the elected representatives muzzle the voices of concerned citizens and fail to assume their responsibility to protect the forest from deforestation and degradation then there is need to demonstrate the viability of people power.
The Chipko Movement, a non-violent forest conservation movement in 1973, became a rallying point for many future environmental movements all over the world. The Chipko-type movement was also displayed in Goa’s Shel Melaulim village. Just like the womenfolk who were the mainstay of the Chipko Movement, so too the brave women of Shel Melaulim created ecological awareness to save the forests located at the foothills of the Western Ghats.
Let us battle unitedly to protect the forests in Goa, India and around the globe.
(The writer is a member of the Society of Pilar. He has a Doctorate in Clinical Counselling Psychology from Philippines. He is the Editor of “Fr. Agnel’s Call”, a monthly mission and youth magazine)
