Himachal to replicate Costa Rica environment protection model

Shimla: Himachal Pradesh would replicate the Costa Rica model for protecting Himalayan ecology by conserving the environmental conditions in the State by initiating the steps that had been taken by Costa Rica. This was revealed by Prof. Prem Kumar Dhumal, Chief Minister, while speaking in the concluding ceremony of the International Conference on Environment at San Jose, Costa Rica, last evening before he leaving for Washington.
Chief Minister said that Costa Rica and Himachal Pradesh had many a similarities in climatic conditions and added that mutual exchange of expertise was bound to usher in achieving the objective of emerging carbon neutral State of the Country in near future. He said that ecological conditions of the State had direct impact upon rest of the northern states of the Country. He said that out of total geographical area of 55,674 sq.kms 37,033 sq. kms. area was under forest cover. He said that out of the total 45 thousand plant species 3,295 i.e. 7.32 percent were in Himachal Pradesh, and the total forest wealth had been estimated at over Rs. 1.5 lakh crore. He said that major chunk of population of the state inhabited in rural area and the forests had been contributing significantly in absorption of the green house gases to maintain ecological balance in the northern region of the country.
Chief Minister said that Himachal Pradesh was leading in education in the Country. He said that the literacy rate of the State was highest in the country. He said that people were aware about environment protection, state had two national parks providing natural habitat to the flora and fauna, State had reserved forests and green felling had been banned completely. He said eco-tourism activities were being accorded priority by the State Government and village tourism being given boost as about one crore tourists visit State every year.
Chief Minister said that anti-environment industrial units had been placed in the negative list of the industries for grant of permission while the State had completely banned the use of recycled plastic and plastic carry bags. He said that Mid-Himalaya Watershed Development Programme had successfully been implemented in the State in assistance with the World Bank and the same had acclaimed appreciation from the World Bank. He said that ‘Jan Jan Sanjivni’ ‘Apana Van – Apana Dhan’, ‘Peepal Bargad Plantation’ and ‘Devdar Renewal’ were some of the programmes implemented in people’s participation in the State which would not only help towards increasing the green cover but also add to income of the stakeholders in rural areas.
Dr. Jorge Rodridgues, Minister for Environment, Costa Rica, thanked the Chief Minister and the high level delegation from Himachal for their visit. He said that although Costa Rica was the first Country in the world having biggest forest cover but initiatives taken by Himachal Pradesh to further boost the environment preservation endeavours of the country were also remarkable. He said that both the states would benefit from each other’s experience through mutual cooperation in different sectors.

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Posted by NVO News on February 16, 2010. Filed under Environment, Latest, Op-Ed. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry