The Hindu : Capacity-building exercise under way for TAP beneficiaries

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Mar 17, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Tiruchi

Capacity-building exercise under way for TAP beneficiaries

By Our Staff Reporter

TIRUCHI, MARCH 16 . The gains accruing from the Tamil Nadu Afforestation Project (TAP) is maximised through a capacity-building exercise for the beneficiaries and officials, with the assistance of a Japan-based non-governmental organisation.

One such activity is being conducted here by the NGO, Society for Mutual Aid Networking Environment Education and Development (SOMNEED).

The TAP is implemented with the assistance of the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) on an outlay of Rs. 499.20 crores since 1997. The objective is to upgrade the ecology and to meet the needs of locals with respect to wood and other forest products. Though the first phase ended in 2002, it has been extended. The project proposal for the second phase is under consideration of the agencies involved.

The JBIC commissioned the SOMNEED, headquartered in Takayama in Japan, for an appraisal of the programme. The SOMNEED chief executive, Nobuaki Wada, and the project manager, Yasuko Hara, along with the resource person, R. Jayachandran, are conducting the capacity-building exercise, in which senior forest officials from Tiruchi, Karur, Pudukkottai and Dindigul, women self-help group members, representatives of NGOs and village forest council members from the TAP beneficiary villages are participating. The aim is to help them in decision-making and make them aware of their roles in the joint management exercise that lies at the heart of the TAP. The stress is on the response elicited from them rather than on the answers, according to Mr. Wada. "Take initiatives by yourself after considering the possibilities," Mr. Wada told them. Similar exercises were conducted in Vellore and Salem, while another will be held in Madurai soon, he said.

The feedback sessions were conducted in Coimbatore and Madurai earlier. The sessions were meant to empower the beneficiaries to continue the joint forest management even after the TAP funding was withdrawn, he said.

The Conservator of Forests, Lakshminarayanan, pointed out that the Forests department and the agencies involved were eager to further the gains from the TAP. More than 1,250 village forest councils were functioning in the State, and they helped to create a shared sense of belonging of the forests. The greatest gain was that people who lived off the forest wealth started believing that the department was aiding them properly. The TAP had facilitated overall development of villages, Mr. Lakhsminarayanan said.

The four-day exercise, meant to empower the beneficiary to face the TAP of tomorrow, will end on Wednesday.

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