Uttarakhand Governor K K Paul today said there is a need for government, people and NGOs to work together for tackling the problem of deforestation.
"There is need for various stakeholders to work together to solve the problem of deforestation. Various forestry forums have made it clear that governments, the private sector, local authorities, NGOs, and indigenous people -- all need to work for protecting the forests in a world facing enormous environmental challenges," Paul said addressing the 19th Commonwealth Forestry Conference at the Forest Research Institute (FRI) here.
"While governments need to play their role in legislating, regulating, and upholding relevent laws and directives, the private sector needs to clean up its supply chains.
Citizens need to opt for ethical consumption whereas NGOs need to advocate and help in creating mass awareness about the ill effects of deforestation and the need to save depleting forests," the governor said.
He said the conference's theme, 'Forests for Prosperity and Posterity', was quite appropriate asthe future of the planet lay in the hands of forestry professionals.
Paul said recent research had shown that cash and non-cash income of the rural poor depended to a great extent on what the forestry and environmental professionals now call the 'ecosystem services' provided by forests.
"Protecting forests, therefore, not only makes sense for reducing disaster risk and greenhouse emissions; it also makes pro-poor sense," he said.
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