New Kubing village is located in the North Cachar Hills District of Assam. The nearest town is Haflong. The village like others in the district had a traditional practice of protecting a patch of forest as village reserves. This practice was revived under the NERCORMP-IFAD1 programme in 2001.

As per the District Council Act in North Cachar Hills, Assam, when a new village is created or established, it is mandatory to have village reserve forest of at least 20ha. The village reserve of New Kubing was first declared in 1950 when the village was established. The reserve covers an area of 6sq km or 600ha. However, over the years with an increase in the population, pressure on land began to mount and the villagers began to jhum (shifting cultivation) randomly. In many cases this even meant encroaching upon the village reserved forest. The traditional institutions, expected to manage or protect these forests also became somewhat ineffective over years due to various reasons and influences. Like most other villages, New Kubing, which is inhabited by the zeme nagas, also experienced similar problems. As a result the traditional village reserved forest was severely degraded.

The NERCORMP-IFAD programme was initiated in 2001 by organising the local community into a natural resource management group (NaRMG). A series of orientation and training sessions on livelihoods and natural resource management were conducted. The members of the village council (VC) were brought in as members of NaRMG. They were also requested to strengthen the functioning of the VC, particularly in the areas of forest protection and management. A comprehensive forest management training was conducted in collaboration with the forest department (FD) on effective community forest management and revival of community conserved areas.

The community through the NaRMG and VC decided to maintain and protect the old traditional village reserved forest in addition to a nearby critical water catchment area. They also made rules and regulations for maintaining this reserved forest, including:

i. Illegal felling of trees will attract a penalty of Rs.500/- per tree, in addition to planting and maintenance of the equivalent numbers of trees as felled.

ii. Jhuming in the reserved area is prohibited and violation would attract a payment of fine such as a salem (a buffalo head).

iii. Illegal timbering and killing of wild animals is prohibited. Willful violation of these rules will result in the eviction of the person/family from the village.

iv.Making proper firelines while slashing and burning for jhum will be mandatory for every household. Any accidental forest fire has to be collectively attended by all the villagers as a fundamental duty.

NERCORMP-IFAD project interventions, such as training programmes, workshops on comprehensive forest management, biodiversity conservation and jhum, fallow management, introduction of participatory land use planning through the use of 3D models of their area, and others have enabled the communities to visualize the total village area, natural resources within and around the village, land use system, and so on. This has made the community realize the importance and values of bringing more forest areas (including fallow land) under community conservation and also the need to increase the jhum cycle.

As per the community’s views the following reflect the importance of biodiversity conservation:

The greatest constraint is that the people are generally economically weak, but their need for cash income is growing due to increasing expenditure for education, health care and general household expenses. Many households are looking at the current conservation effort as the possible source of economic returns. However, this may not be achieved as much as expected due to various other constraints such as absence of working scheme for harvesting of timber, among others.

The community has revived village reserved forest with the assistance of NERCORMP-IFAD project. They are now also deriving benefits from such conservation efforts. However, efforts need to be strengthened in certain areas which include:

• Linkages with the FD and other concerned government departments.

• Policy sustainability i.e. the efforts of the community to promote conservation through appropriate incentives and recognition by the government.

• Institutional sustainability, i.e. the continuity of the NaRMG and strengthening of the VC particularly in governance and financial matters.

• Financial sustainability

  Technological sustainability.