The inception Program of “Stewardship and Rural Development for poor and marginalized frontier communities living alongside protected areas and high conservation value species” has been conducted successfully at Hotel Baba Ko Dhaba, Janakpur.
The program was chaired by Sh. Ganesh Ray, Advisor, Mithila Wildlife Trust, Chief Guest was Hon’ble Ram Chandra Kandel, Secretary, Ministry of Industry, Tourism, Forest and Environment, Special Guest was Jagarnah Jaiswal, Forest Director, Forest Directorate Province No.-2, Janakpur, And guests included Nand Lal Ray Yadav, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Industry, Tourism, Forest and Environment, Sunil Karna, DFO, Dhanusha, Shom Prashad Sharma, Chairman, FECOFUN, Province No.-2, Shiv Narayan Sah, Retired Assistant Warden, Janakpurdham-8, Madhav Bhandari, Chairman, Doodhpani Community Forest User Group, Durga Lama, Chairman, Sunakhari Community Forest User Group, Shyam Lama Gole, Chairman, Bhatighari Community Forest User Group and team members of Mithila Wildlife Trust including Treasurer, Rasilal Pandit.
Host, Mr. Dev Narayan Mandal, Chairman, Mithila Wildlife Trust, and Subhash Sharma, Social Mobilizer for the project has presented the organizational and program overview.
The project is supported by UKAID through Zoological Society of London, Nepal, and will be implemented in close coordination and guidance of Divisional Forest Office, Dhanusha in Doodhpani Community Forest User Group, and Sunakhari Community Forest User Group, Mithila Municipality-11, Dhanusha, Province No.-2. The main objective of the project is to train Dalit, Janajati, and Financially marginalized members of both CFUGs and provide them with seed money through the establishment of community banks. Several intensive trainings, interactions with community members, and joint patrolling are the essence of the project which will ensure that the fund is properly utilized and dependency on community forests is reduced, thus, providing secure natural habitat to the wildlife in both community-managed forests.
The inauguration program was very successful. Everyone was very happy for organizing this and ended with beautiful remarks and suggestions from all the guests.
