Aaranyak's workshop on conservation and sustainable utilisation of Maguri-Motapung wetland, Assam

  Workshop on conservation and sustainable utilisation of Maguri-Motapung wetland concludes in Tinsukia Monoj Gogoi TINSUKIA, APR 8, 2013: Aaranyak, a frontline environmental organisation of India, based at Guwahati organised a two day workshop on the ecosystem of Maguri-Motapung wetland of Tinsukia in collaboration of Bobosa, a local NGO in Tinsukia successfully concluded today. The workshop was organised in two different levels. On the first day on Sunday, it was organised onconservation and sustainable utilisation of the Maguri-Motapung wetland at Rangagarha Kaliapani L.P. School where more than 60 people from six surrounding villages of the wetland participated and shared their views on the importance and  conservation of the wetland. Partha J Das, an environmentist who heads the Aaranyak's Water, Climate and Hazard (WATCH) programme told in his keynote address that the Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region was highly dynamic, with many socioeconomic and environmental drivers of change at play, including climate change. The impacts of these changes challenge the resilience of natural and human capacities and the environment. The increased incidence of extreme weather events and magnitude of associated natural disasters, believed to be related to climate change, are exacting high economic and social costs. The Himalayan region and the downstream areas that depend on its water supply and ecosystem services, including the Indo-Gangetic plain – ‘the grain basket of South Asia’ – are particularly vulnerable to these changes. He also told that their organisation has been trying to acutely monitor the climate change situation in the Eastern Bhramaputra Basin the Kathmandu based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) under its Himalayan Climate Change Adaptation Programme (HICAP). Analysing various aspects of the wetland he told that the Maguri Motapung wetland had been choosen a research site of the organisation. Local people expressed that the gradually degrading wetland had very importance contributions to the local livelihood and through a group work local people find out the resources of Ghent wetland and found industrial development as a tremendous threat to the wetland. The participating community also promised that they would help Aaranyak throughout its research period. On the other hand, today another workshop was organised at the conference hall of Ajanta guest house to trained at least 15 selected youths of Aaranyak and Bobosa who would continue the study of the wetland. Participating as resource person Ranjita Bania of Fisheries Research Centre (FRC), Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat highlighted the tools for wetland inventory assessment and management tools. Kulen Das of Nagaon Girls' College told the economic value of such wetlands for local communities. Moreover, Chandan Sarmah, professor of History at Dibrugarh University briefly described the role of globalization and industrialization and its probable impacts on wetlands.