Tura, Oct 3: Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma launched the GREEN Meghalaya plus scheme, which aims to increase Meghalaya’s Forest cover and conservation, for the Garo Hills region at Tura on Wednesday.

GREEN Meghalaya plus is part of state government’s initiative – Payment for Eco System Services (PES), under which incentive of upto Rs 20,000 per hectare per year will be disbursed to communities and individuals for conservation of forest cover. Green Meghalaya plus envisages to include additional expansion of 50,000 hectares (500 sqkm) of forest cover under conservation.

In the past, over 3000 individuals/communities benefitted from the scheme and conserved more than 54,000 hectares of natural forest.

Speaking at the launch, the CM expressed his gratitude to the beneficiaries from across Garo Hills, who attended the programme to celebrate the collective effort of conservation. “In the last seven years, the government has laid foundation and have initiated programmes that have benefited our people, which has led to accelerated growth and development. There is a huge turnaround in the size of our economy today. As a government, we are taking advantage of different funds from state, centre and other external agencies for the growth of our state,” he said.

Citing that development of different sectors is important, which will push economic growth, he said, “We have to be responsible towards environment and work in harmony to balance nature and development”.

He said that the government spends for afforestation projects, however, Meghalaya has pioneered Green Meghalaya (PES) model to conserve the natural forest. “We are conserving the forest, rather than wait to carry out afforestation projects in future,” he underscored.

In the last two years, the state government has spent over Rs 44 crore for conservation of forest cover, and going forward over Rs. 200 crore has been earmarked for conservation effort.

He also urged the community to actively participate in a responsible manner to protect and conserve the forest cover.

The salient feature of this scheme, which is also dubbed as PES 2.0, is the increased area coverage for participation. Earlier the scheme required minimum of 2 hectares of forest, the new guidelines reduced this to just 1 hectare, allowing smaller landowners and communities to take part.

Speaking on the occasion, Education Minister Rakkam Sangma hoped that this scheme will further motivate and encourage people to protect and conserve forest cover.

Terming that Garo Hills has rich green coverage, he said it is a boon and government’s initiative to provide financial assistance for conservation will surely be to the advantage of the people.

During the programme, individual and communities from different parts of Garo Hills expressed their gratitude to the government for the launch of Green Meghalaya scheme, which has supported the community for conservation of natural forest.

They also said that the assistance from the scheme has helped the community to use the fund for plantation to protect the catchment area.

One of the beneficiaries, in one of the testimonials, said that there was initial confusion in villages that the scheme was created for the community to sell their land to the government. However, with much awareness from the Government, the people were enlightened and motivated as this scheme provides assistance solely for conservation and to use the fund for further expansion and other community requirements.

During the programme, cheque to beneficiaries under CM Elevate, Focus and Payment for Ecosystem Services were also distributed.

Also Read: Meghalaya to launch targeted interventions for underperforming districts to improve board results

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