Ecosystem assessment to promote conservation

mangalore: a study to facilitate environmentally sustainable development with a bottom-up approach, and promote conservation and equitable sharing of benefits from biological resources, is under way here. the `people's ecosystem assessment' (peap) is being conducted by the centre for ecological sciences (ces) at the indian institute of science (iisc), bangalore, nagarika seva trust, belthangady, and high schools and junior colleges as also gram panchayats in selected localities.six panchayats -- naravi and koyyur in belthangady taluk, mala in karkala taluk, panaje in puttur taluk, haleyangadi in mangalore taluk and bada in udupi district -- are covered under the study. prof. madhav gadgil, project director, said the project is being funded by the ministry of environment and forests. dr k. prabhakar achar, project coordinator, ces at karkala, told the times of india that the survey was progressing satisfactorily, and currently household survey was being undertaken. the time-frame for the assessment is three years. he said the assessment focuses on nature's goods and services like clean air and water, fertile soils and medicinal plants as they relate to material, aesthetic, cultural and spiritual needs of the people. according to prof. gadgil, manifold developments over time eroded the availability of these gifts of nature. ``it is therefore appropriate that the process of development becomes more sensitive to the need of sustaining nature's goods, even as it promotes man-made goods and services, he adds. in this direction, he said the grassroots inputs will have to play an important role in sustaining nature's bounty. this is because they are still highly important to the quality of life of people from rural localities -- people who depend on water from streams to irrigate their fields, on cane to thatch sheds or weave baskets, on firewood to cook and on medicinal herbs to treat illness. he pointed out that the rural people are `stewards of valuable resources', such as traditional crop varieties, and repositories of knowledge -- on use of wild plants as food, cosmetics or medicines. a significant provision in the bio-diversity bill (now under the consideration of parliament) includes operation of local level biodiversity management committees, which would use local level chronicling of biodiversity as a management tool. the peap exercise will also attempt to involve all segments of the society and the scientific staff will put together relevant data on the ecosystems. the volunteers of the ngos, teachers and students will be requested to help in understanding the socio-economic setting and people's perceptions and aspirations. the whole process will be guided by the panchayat raj institutions and aims at providing these institutions with information and tools to plan for people-oriented and environmentally-sound development.