BHUBANESWAR: Environmentalists on Sunday called for collective efforts to conserve forest and its ecosystem from rampant mining, land expansion and other activities. Participating in a seminar on ‘Reform Agenda for Forestry’ organised by the Orissa Environmental Society, experts and green activists said, “The forests of our country may lose their renewable capability if stressed further.”
“The atmospheric carbon sequestration, streamflow, groundwater recharge, soil conservation and above all the biodiversity, that the forest conserve, are being negatively impacted due to loss of forest,” said former State PCCF Suresh Chandra Mohanty.
He suggested joint forest management resolution with a focus on addressing local issues within a fixed deadline, documentation of flora, fauna and their usage, private sector participation and resettlement of scattered human settlements as measures to enhancing productivity and carrying capacity of forests to enable them to conserve biodiversity.
Noted orchidologist Sarat Chandra Mishra said forests are suffering from fragmentation and progressive degradation, and if stressed further, they may altogether lose the renewable capability. “The need of the hour is to devise and implement such a holistic agenda to protect forest ecosystem,” he said. OES secretary Jaya Krushna Panigrahi also emphasised on the need for stepping up forest conservation efforts.