Ampati, June 24: South West Garo Hills Deputy Commissioner S. K. Marak officially launched the Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) Scheme for South West Garo Hills district in the presence of officials of line departments and Nokmas, community and clan leaders at the DRDA conference hall Ampati on Friday. It may be recalled that Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma had launched the state-wide PES scheme on June 13
The Deputy Commissioner while highlighting the objectives of PES, said that the scheme, being implemented under Community Led Landscape Management Project (CLLMP), is aimed at providing financial support to the villages, communities, clans and individuals willing to conserve existing natural forests for a period of 30 years in order to counter the losses due to conservation measures, and sought the cooperation of all concerned for successful implementation of the scheme in the district.
During the meeting to launch and introduce PES in the district, a presentation was made by the DPM, CLLMP, South West Garo Hills to explain the guidelines and format of application for the scheme for the benefit of the Nokmas and community leaders present at the meeting. As per the guidelines, villages, communities, clans or individuals having at least 5 hectares of natural forest are eligible for the scheme, while those with land smaller than 5 hectares can group their lands with other natural forest land owners, provided these forest lands are located close by.
Under the scheme, financial support of Rs.8000 per Ha per year will be given for 5 years. Additional reward amount of Rs.5000 per Ha per year will be given if the forest is registered as community reserve with Forest department and Rs.2000 per Ha per year if the forest is very dense or traditionally recognized sacred grove or has a living root bridge or located in eco-sensitive zones around protected areas like national parks, wildlife sanctuaries, or wildlife corridors.
If the forest is not yet registered, the applicant can apply for registration with the Forest department and submit copy of the application receipt while applying for PES scheme. Even individual owners can apply for registration.
During the interaction that followed the presentation, the nokmas and community landowners, while showing positive response to the scheme, also expressed certain apprehensions and they were clarified by the CLLMP team informing them that there would be no change in the status of ownership of the forest land and spelled out to them the list of permissible and restricted activities once they availed the scheme.
