Community based eco-tourism...

Eco-tourism generates income & promotes conservation in Apatani Plateau

The beautiful landscape of Apatani Plateau is one of the most ideal sites for eco-tourism in Arunachal Pradesh. The fine cool climate, well conserved community forests, cluster of old villages, rich social and cultural heritage of the Apatani community and proximity to Talle valley wildlife sanctuary provides the right ingredients for community based eco-tourism and conservation .

To tap the eco-tourism potential of beautiful Apatani plateau, Future Generations Arunachal (FGA) started community based eco-tourism with the support of Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE) in 2010.

The aim of the project is to promote responsible tourism so that it contributes to the preservation of tribal culture and conservation of the valuable pristine environment. One of the main components of the project was to diversify livelihood options by promoting home-stay in the Apatani villages. The idea was to bring the benefit of tourism directly to the community level and to give the tourists a unique experience of the Apatani eco- cultural landscape and true flavor of the way of life of the Apatanis.

FGA began the project by imparting various trainings on eco-tourism and benefits of home-stay facility. The training curriculum ranged from nature guide, trek development, packaging of local cuisine to marketing and networking with different stakeholders.

Later, six members were taken for en exposure tour to Sikkim to see the practices and mechanism of home-stay there. Soon after, two home-stay units were started in Siro village by Shri Hibu Tatu and Shri Punyo Chada. Now more home-stay units have been started in Tajang, Hija and Hong villages also. Home-stay units are now receiving tourist and hosted many guest from overseas also.

Further to oversee the whole initiative of eco-tourism FGA supported in formation of an apex community based institution called Ngunu Ziro. Now, the home-stay and allied activities are overseen and coordinated by Ngunu Ziro. It networks with tour operators, government agencies, expert organizations et al for promotion of the home-stay units.

To maintain equity in the flow of benefits of the home-stay initiative, Ngunu Ziro maintains a roster for allocation of visitors to the home-stay units. This ensures that there is cooperation rather than competition among the home-stay units.

The multiplier effect of the home-stay initiative also flows to the other community members. The local women of the villages has been organized into Self Help Groups

(SHGs). These groups are encouraged and supported to take up various activities like weaving, fish farming and kitchen garden.

Food items such as vegetable, rice, fruit, meat, fish handicrafts are provided by the SHGs to the home-stay units. Not only that, cultural programme such as folk dance and songs are presented by the local artist and villages women. The local youth are employed as nature guide or tour guide for trekking and sightseeing thereby providing meaningful employment to them.

The eco-tourism project of FGA has remarkably increased the sense of ownership of the local community members in protecting and conserving pristine local environment of the Apatani Plateau. They are increasingly realizing that development and conservation is not mutually exclusive.

Many tourists who visited Ziro and stayed in the home-stay facility have nice things to say about it. Mr. Navraj Pradhan, a visitor from International Center for Integrated Mountain Development , who stayed at Ziro said, , “It has certainly been a wonderful experience staying at a home stay facility, and the efforts in initiating, training and supporting these families by FGA and ATREE are visionary steps in promoting eco-tourism”. Gerry Marten of Wildlife Research of Bangalore said, “This was an amazing experience for me. Thanks for all your help and hospitality. all the best in all your endeavours. I will be back.’ Yet another visitor from Netherlands, Ms. Frida Duetiker said, “Very friendly-good and clean rooms and hospitality”.

Mr. Nalong Mize, Executive Director, FGA, feels that this model of home-stay initiative can be replicated even in other parts of Arunachal Pradesh with the support and partnership of Central and State Government. A Public Private Partnership (PPP) model can be developed where government can provide the infrastructure and financial support for training capacity building of the community, organizations/ institution like FGA can come in with training, exposure and facilitation and the community members come in with entrepreneurship. This will not only bring the benefits of tourism directly to the community level but will also lead to a more sustainable economic development for Arunachal Pradesh.

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Communities takes action!

Rice variety from Apatani plateau harvested in Mechuka valley

In one of its initiatives, Future Generations Arunachal (FGA) introduced rice variety from Apatani Plateau in Mechuka Valley. The Apatani rice variety was introduced on an experimental basis to see whether the alpine area rice variety would be suitable because of the similar climatic condition of Mechuka and Apatani plateau. From earlier trials of the farmers, it was found that the rice variety of the tropical areas like Assam did not flourish well in the alpine climate of Mechuka.

To carry out this experiment, FGA mobilized the women’s group led by Mrs. Lindu Goiba of Dorjeeling village of Mechuka valley to cultivate the rice variety brought from Ziro. Earlier, the women’s group members from the village were sent to Ziro for an exposure visit to get a firsthand experience of rice cultivation technique of the Apatani community. After coming back from the exposure trip, the women’s group started cultivation of rice in a 15 x 20 meter size plot of land. The first batch of paddy crop was harvested last month. The total yield was 27 bags of paddy from the plot. With this successful experience the women’s group of FGA now plans to further increased rice cultivation in their land. This exercise is a successful demonstration of one community learning from the best practices of another community.

With sustain and extensive cultivation of rice by the villagers, the food security could significantly improve in Mechuka valley. The partnership and support of the State Government can further broad based this small effort to cover the whole of Mechuka valley. In this way, most of the fallow land of Mechuka valley can be brought under cultivation.

The example of FGA women’s group is also now being emulated by other community members. Villagers like Kamlera Morsing also started rice cultivation in his land after seeing the rice cultivation of Mrs. Lindu Goiba and her group.

Besides growing rice, now some farmers also started rearing fish in Mechuka. Though it is against the relegious tenets of the Memba community to kill living things, after exposure to rice cum fishy-culture of the Apatani community, the farmers of Mechuka tried rearing fish in the rice field. Later this fish were shifted to ponds. This experiment successfully demonstrates the viability of rice cum fishery even in Mechuka valley. With further development of fishery, many of the wetland of Mechuka valley can be converted into fish ponds thereby enhancing the local economy. Now most of the fish are imported all the way from the plains.

In the same manner, women group members are also growing vegetables in the kitchen gardens. This initiative has improved nutritional intake as well as the income of the villagers. Now, these women’s group is also actively working with the agriculture department in many of its schemes and programmes.

Learning from the success of rice cultivation experiment, now the farmers like Dorji Khandu Goiba of Dorjeeling village also wants to grow Apatani bamboo in the region. Successful import of Apatani bamboo will greatly enhance the availability of local material for daily usages. Most of the empty slopes of the valley are very suitable for Bamboo plantation. Support and partnership of the State Government with the local community can make this materialize. One day, in the near future perhaps one may see groves of Apatani bamboo in Mechuka valley.

empowering local communities for....

The two days training cum- exposure trip for the communities from Yazali & Yachuli circle ended at Dorjeeling Village, Mechuka in West Siang District on 29th November 2011. The exposure trip was organized by Future Generations Arunachal (FGA) for the women groups participating in the project entitled “Identifying Best Practices to Empower Arunachal Families”. The same program was started at Yazali, in Lower Subansiri and Koyu area in East Sing district in 2008.

The community members from Yazali and Yachuli circles who paid brief visit to Mechuka were impressed by the volunteer works of the women groups (FGA) of the Mechuka viz. Dorjeeling & Dechingthang women groups which improving nutrition and increasing family income through activities e.g, kitchen gardens and micro-credit programs. The women groups from the villages around Mechuka had inspired the wet rice cultivation and the promoting of kitchen gardening of the apatani people in Ziro during their visit in 2010 last.

The same process of change is practicing by the women groups of Mechuka since the climatic condition of both the places is almost similar. The programme was aimed at encouraging local people to explore various ways of mobilizing community energy to enable them to participate in the developmental processes and hence empower them to shape their future.

The Participants shared their achievements and challenges they faced while working with FGA since 2008. The team participating in the training cum- exposure trip was led by Mone Gurung, R & D, Associate and the project supervisors Kago Yam from Mechuka and Punyo Rina,Yazali area.

Ngunu Ziro photographs new moth species

New moth species sighted in Arunachal Pradesh

PTI | 11:11 AM,Nov 15,2011

A new species of moth has been sighted in Arunachal Pradesh, bringing joy to nature lovers who noted that many moth and butterfly varieties were on the verge of extinction in India.

The moth was photographed by nature enthusiasts of Ngunu Ziro, led by Dr Tage Kano, during their field trip to Talley Valley Reserve last September.

The photograph was sent to the education officer of the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), Dr V Subhalaxmi, for identification. Dr Subhalaxmi identified it as Genus level, Ariff Siddiqui, a lepidopterist, who was a member of the team, said.

On consultation with the international moth experts in the British Natural History Museum and experts from Hong Kong, it was confirmed that this was indeed a new species for science, Siddiqui said.

A few years back, Bhutan Glory, a rare butterfly variety, was sighted at Ziro in Lower Subansiri district by entomologists and the new moth species, a day-flying one, possibly mimics Bhutan Glory and thus shares the same habitat.

Dr Shen-Horn Wen from Taiwan University, who has been specializing on this genus of moth, has agreed to collaborate in describing the species, Siddiqui disclosed.

There are currently an estimated 1,12,000 to 1,65, 000 listed species of butterflies and moths within 131 families on this planet.

A moth is an insect closely related to the butterfly family, both belonging to the Lepidoptera order. Moths form the majority of this order and about 10 times the number of species of butterfly. Thousands of species are yet to be described. 

Most species of moths are nocturnal, but there are many day-flying moths too. India, particularly the Northeast, is a home to approximately 15,000 to 17,000 species of moths. But of late, the number of these Lepidopteron, or insects with four wings, have dwindled drastically.

Around a hundred species of the butterflies are on the verge of extinction in India.

Butterflies are almost always treated as non-target species in wildlife conservation and management programmes.

The Protected Area Network set up by the government is directed towards ?iconic? fauna like the tiger, the Asiatic lion, the elephant and the rhinoceros, Surya Prakash, a famous lepidopterist and conservationist, commented in one his recent articles.

These small, beautiful and agriculturally important creatures are often ignored. Butterflies are an indicator of environmental health. Few are aware of the crucial role the butterfly plays in pollination of a large portion of economically important crops and flowering plants, which is second only to the honeybee, he said.

The millennia-old silk industry is also dependent on the butterfly. Should the butterfly diversity decline, it will directly affect the country's agriculture, he said.

He noted that 80 per cent of the population in Arunachal is directly or indirectly dependant on forest and forest by-products for livelihood and called for arresting rapid deforestation and afforestation of the barren land.

As the lepidoptera fauna is not thoroughly explored in Arunachal and there is a potential of recording new species for science, an extensive project will be planned for the region by the BNHS in near future? Dr Subhalaxmi said.

The BNHS team in its short 10-day survey at the Siro Village and Talley Valley reserves of Lower Subansiri recorded close to 385 moth species and 68 butterfly species.

Of the 385 moth species recorded, 278 species have been identified and the remaining 107 species are yet to be identified.

Many of the moth species are possible new for India and as the unidentified moths are being further studied, we may encounter new species for science as well, she said.The BNHS team witnessed some rare butterflies like Tytler?s multi-spot flat, Bhutan Glory, Brown Gorgon, Powdered Green Hairstreak, Singe stone, Striped Punch, White edge bush brown, White Commodore, Bhutan Sergeant, Great Yellow Sailor, Grand Duchess, Manipur Jungle Queen and a Khaki Silver line, a very rare butterfly.

Source: IBNLIve, Newsreporter and governancenow. 

Herbal training conducted...

One day training programme on Herbal medicines was conducted by Future Generations Arunachal (FGA) at Rami camp under Koyu circle on 20^th September 2011. The training is the part of FGA’s project entitled “Identifying best practices to empower Arunachal families”, launched in 2008. The project aims to bring equitable and sustainable development through empowering communities to shape their future. In this regard, a series of training and awareness programme have been carried out in the FGA projected sites since 2008.

The main objective of the training was to generate awareness in the community about basic healthcare system and its management through locally available herbs medicines. Thirty-eight men, women including panchayat leaders from the surrounding area participated in the training program to enhance the quality of their lives using locally available resources based on local needs.

Earlier, Takhe Meena and Kago Yam, Project Supervisors, FGA briefed on the objectives of the training program which aims to build the capacity of the rural inhabitants to take the responsibility precaution to their own health and well being. They also highlighted on FGA’s programs and teaching method based on SEED-SCALE methodology emphasizing on four key principles. It is worth mentioned here that FGA is managing three PHCs one each at Sille in East Siang, Deed-Neelam in Lower Subansiri and Thrizino in West Kameng district.

The participants expressed their heartfelt grateful to FGA and to Smti. Y.J. Lego from farmer training center (FTC), Pasighat for imparting training program as a resource person.

To identifying the best practice for empowering the Arunachal families, the Future Generations Arunachal (FGA) Mechuka site conducted day long motivation training on 15^th September last. The aim of the training was to build the capacity of the local people focusing on women. The training covered topics on basic health care, income generation, conservation and above all impact of women empowerment. Altogether, 35 women from surrounding villages participated in the training. It is worth mentioning here that the Future Generations Arunachal is working towards equitable and sustainable development since 1997.

Community Dialogue at Deed

A sensitization meeting about the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) project in health of the Government of Arunachal Pradesh was conducted at Deed today which was attended by all the Panchayat leaders, village elders and prominent citizens of the area. The meeting, chaired by Byabang Rocket, Chairman, Master Coordination Committee, Future Generations Arunachal (FGA) was facilitated by Dr. K. Basar, DFWO, Ziro and Dr. Tage Kanno, Project Consultant, FGA. The meeting discussed about the various aspects of the PPP project under which one Primary Health Center (PHC) in each of the 16 districts in Arunachal Pradesh is being managed by NGOs. The PHC, Deed-Neelam is being managed by FGA since August 1 last.

 Dr. K. Basar, DFWO congratulated the people of Deed-Neelam for having chosen their PHC for PPP in the district. He shared his experiences with PPP and informed that PHCs being managed by NGOs are comparatively better than those managed by the government. Arunachal Pradesh was awarded the best performing state under NRHM due to innovation with PPP in India, he informed.

 Ms. Toko Rich, ex-Chairperson of Lower Subansiri Zilla Parishad advised the management of FGA to provide quality service to the people and the PHC staff to discharge their duties sincerely. She also exhorted the communities to cooperate with the management for the greater interest of the people. Other leaders expressed their concern about the future of the PHC in the light of their bad experience in the past. They were also apprehensive that infrastructure development may be stopped due to management of the PHC by an NGO.

 Dr. Tage Kanno cleared various doubts and misunderstandings raised by the communities. He also informed that FGA participates in the PPP with three main objectives – to improve curative and promotive health care services, to increase community participation in the management of the PHC and to build the capacities of the people, especially the women in health care activities. He appealed to the participants to cooperate with the management in achieving the objectives. Unless the communities have a sense of ownership, any developmental activities cannot be sustainable, he said.

 In his concluding remark, Byabang Rocket said that FGA has been successfully managing the PHC at Sille since January 2006 and hopes to replicate that success at Deed-Neelam and Thrizino which FGA is managing since August this year. It is not only infrastructure but behavior of the people which should be used to measure development.

 It may be mentioned that the Government of Arunachal Pradesh had recently approved the management of PHC at Deed-Neelam in Lower Subansiri and Thrizino in West Kameng in addition to that at Sille in East Siang by FGA. The manangement of the PHC at Deed-Neelam was taken over by FGA on August 1, 2011 while that in Thrizino was taken over on August 4, 2011. The PPP project was launched by the Government of Arunachal Pradesh as a part of the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) in 2005.

 FGA's plan to scale up the Mothers' Training program to these new areas have already been initiated.

Health Camp

One day health camp was organized at Donyi-Polo Tea Estate (DPTE) by DPTE Dispensary where Medical team from Primary Health Center, Sille lead by Medical Officer i/c along with Future Generations Arunachal (FGA) Coordinator (PPP) was called to examined the patients. The camp was started at 9 am. Adjoining people mostly Tea Estate Labors participated in the camp where 81 beneficiaries blood sample collected for microscopic examination and send to PHC, Sille and 51 beneficiaries were registered under various kinds of ailments viz. Skin diseases, respiratory tract infections, hypertension, gastritis etc. The medical team not only gave curative care but also advices on preventive and pro motive care through which many diseases can be control at home by following hygiene and sanitation tips. It is worth mentioning that the Primary Health Center, Sille is being manage by Future Generations Arunachal (FGA) under Public Private Partnership (PPP) model of National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) since 2006. The camp came to end at 3 Pm.

RKS MEET

A Rogi Kalyan Samiti (RKS) meeting was held at PHC Sille on June 10, 2011 in presence of Medical Officer i/c and RKS members. After a long threadbare discussion, the following points were approved by the RKS member for the session 2011-12.

• The selection procedure for ASHA facilitator will be done by the PHC staff.
• Onwards, the post of chairman will be held by ASM and the ASHA will be secretary for smooth functioning of RKS committee.
• Any RKS member who miss the RKS meeting consecutive for trice a times. S/he will be automatically dissolve from the RKS list.
• Regarding RKS fund utilization viz. corpus, annual maintenance and untied fund and execution of planning work will be look after by the MO i/c who is the Co-Chairman (RKS). However, the chairman & the secretary will monitor the work.

In any other agenda, the RKS member congratulated the PHC staffs for their sincerity and dedication in the improvement of work and urging them to keep up the spirit for the welfare of the communities in coming days.
Earlier, Ms Anyak Mize, PPP Coordinator, explained about the purpose of the meeting and said that without participation of RKS members and the local communities , the management of hospital will not be satisfactory. Hence felt that timely RKS meeting and the participation of its member in the meeting is must.

Rural Practicum by TISS

Eight (8) Students and one faculty from Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), North-Eastern Regional Center, Guwahati has done their Rural Practicum for the Diploma in Community Organisation and Development Practice (CODP) under Future Generations Arunachal (FGA) from 23rd March 2011 to 30th March 2011 in the areas where FGA is working with the rural communities for equitable and sustainable development since 1997. The objective of the Rural Practicum in the field is one of the many field contact experience imparted throughout the course for the Students to gain an on hand experience of working in the Social and Developmental sectors as a part of their course. They work in the areas the Organization is working and be a part of the activities being carried out by the Organization especially in the rural areas. The FGA has placed the students in a rural areas for experiential learning of different communities and its dynamics. Community development programs are designed to facilitate a locally sustainable process of community change and to build local capacity in order to extend the process of change throughout the state through empowering them. The CODP program in TISS upholds a paradigm of field based experiential learning. In the past also the students from different institution has done their rural practicum work under Future Generations Arunachal.

Exposure visit to Kaziranga

Four day exposure visit to Kaziranga National Park (KNP) was conducted by Future Generations Arunachal (FGA), CEPF and ATREE Darjeeling from 8th, February to 11th, February 2011 for 12 volunteers from community members and hunters from various villages of Apatani plateau, who was activily involved in the wildlife monitoring process at Talle wildlife sanctaury last 2009 to 2010. The team members visited Kaziranga national Park (KNP), apart from that they visited one adopted village of forest department who are activily involved in the process of protection and conservation of wildlife at KNP and they interact with the group members of Natun Danga Eco development committee (SHG) village Natun Danga, how they help goverment in protection of wildlife? and also discuss about income generation activities they taken up with the help of governement and hoteliers and tour operators and also discuss with the forest department on protection and conservation of wildlife and members also visited Ethnic village and now every team members says we can also do it.

Best Practices Training

The training of trainers for selected women leaders in the Best Practices project sites in Mechuka, Yachuli and Koyu areas that started on February 2, was concluded yesterday. Twelve women from the three sites enthusiastically participated in the program. One of the participants was Mary, who has started school after she managed to struggle free of his husband to whom she was married when she was still a child.


On the first day, Dr. Tage Kanno, Executive Director talked about the purposes and importance of the program, the works of Future Generations, concept of development and the roles of communities in shaping their own future. In the following two days, the resource persons comprising of the FGA staff and staff of PHC, Sille demonstrated effective conduction of participatory training. The highlight was field visit to Mangnang village where the trainers interacted with the community members there and saw how each one is playing significant roles in the affairs of the village. The role of the VWW, who have also become the ASHA now, was especially inspiring. In the following days, the participants practiced the skill of participatory training that they had learnt. Each of the six teams tried to perform better than the other. The result was a strong team of trainers in some of the most inaccessible villages in Arunachal Pradesh.

While the training program ended well, an unfortunate incident dampened the mood in the last moment. One of the participant's child suddenly fell ill in the afternoon and expired early today morning. The father had brought the child to Itanagar from Yachuli and was upset that the mother could not be with the child at the time of need. All the resource persons and participants from all sites stayed with the mother till a vehicle could be hired. All the women who had come from Yachuli area accompanied the mother till her home. It was a tragedy nobody could foresee. Losing a child is an irreparable loss, but the solidarity that other members in the program showed was exemplary

Strengthening Community Data

One of the lessons that FGA has learnt is that the data on communities collected by the communities themselves are the most accurate and most useful. Village Welfare Workers (VWWs) working in partnership with FGA in various sites in Arunachal Pradesh have been keeping basic demographic and health records for more than a decade now. They are using the data they collect to prepare work plans. The records these village women keep also have become the most trusted sources of data, even used by government departments.

This mode of record keeping by the communities is being extended to the new sites where Best Practices Project is being implemented. After attending the Women Only Workshops (WoWs), the women leaders in many villages are already struggling to maintain several registers, with increasing perfection. A record keeping training was conducted for the leaders of the newly formed women's groups in Mechuka, under the leadership of Kago Yam, Project Supervisor. Takhe Meena (Project Supervisor, Koyu) and Anyak Mize (Project Coordinator, Sille) also participated in the training as resource persons.

Nineteen women from six villages participated in the day-long training. As the women were already exposed to the practice, the resource persons were impressed by the efficiency with which they picked up the idea.

Anniversary Picnic

The communities of Sille-Oyan area in East Siang district of Arunachal Pradesh organized the Anniversary Picnic in Sille Korong on January 4 last. Officers from various departments, Panchayat leaders of the area and selected FGA volunteers from Yazali, Ziro, Koyu and Mechuka were invited.

The Anniversary Picnic is arranged by the staff of the Primary Health Center, Sille and the community members to mark the occasion of starting the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) project with the Government of Arunachal Pradesh where FGA is managing the health facility. The health facility was handed over to FGA on January 4, 2006.

Groups of women led by the VWWs from Mangnang, Baro-Mile, Sille, Oyan, Sika Bamin and Sika Tode came with their contributions in the forms of local beer, rice, vegetable and so on. The Gaon Buras (village heads) of all the villages and members of the Rogi Kalyan Society (Hospital Management Society) proudly welcomed the guests.

It was a day of enjoyment and relaxation for the staff of the PHC and other project workers of FGA after all the works throughout the year.