Forest Restoration with Locally Important Species (FORLIS):
Tribal or indigenous people have a deep cultural tradition of conserving natural forest near the village settlement area for various reasons. In Rongmei, it is called “Rambou”. However, there is a decline in cultural practices due to aggravating external factors. After several rounds of consultation and discussion with the Tribal elders and leaders, RNBA came up with an idea of forest restoration along the concept of Rambou by regenerating locally important species like agar, Canarium strictum Roxb, sugandh mantri, tree bean, cane & bamboo, wild fruits and vegetables where income, nutrition (food basket), ecosystem services, biodiversity conservation is enhanced while natural forest cover is conserved. For instance, Canarium strictum Roxb, known by common names including black dhup, Raal, Raaldhup and black dammar, a tree species where its resin are collected. Traditionally people collect resins from few trees in natural forest where one can generate Rs. 30,000 – 40,000/year/plant. Since these are not foreign species which could bring changes to the ecosystem, the idea came up “If we can regenerate 1000 plants of locally important species with high economic worth, we collect only the resins from the trees, forest will remains intact, and income will enhance, let’s do it…”. That’s how we decided to take up the idea of FORLIS. This model also aims at promoting ecopreneurs among the youth.