Germany Helping Mizoram Fight Climate Change

Aizawl, Jun 18 : A German development bank and the Mizoram government have signed an agreement to raise adaptive capacity of the people against climate changes.

Representatives of the German government-owned development bank, Reconstruction Credit Institute (KfW) signed an agreement with the Mizoram government here today to implement climate change adaptation (CCA) project in the state.

This was a fulfilment of an agreement earlier signed between the KfW and Indian governments DoNER ministry to implement the CCA programme in the five Northeast states of Mizoram, Nagaland, Assam, Tripura and Sikkim.

Before signing the minutes of meeting, a KfW mission team visited various parts of the state for four days and held meetings with officials from various departments and NGOs, official sources said.

The KfW representatives, who signed the document included technical expert Gunther Haase, project manager Nand Kishore Agrawal, and office director Oskar von Maltzan. On behalf of the Mizoram government, chief secretary Vanhela Pachuau signed the papers at his office in the presence of other senior government officials.

The CCA project will be implemented involving various government agencies, including Mizoram Environment Programme through Economic Development (MEPED) and NGOs, through micro-level planning and execution of livelihood programmes keeping in mind the challenges of climate change. Environment and forest department is made a nodal department. The programme, which is likely to take off by early 2012, is intended to enhance the resilience and adaptive capacity of rural people in Nagaland in the face of climate change and variability, officials said.

The KfW bank has allocated Rs 450 crore for the five states to implement the CCA Project, of which Rs 30 crore each will be received in the first phase.

Permanent farming, water storages, environment protection and soil conservation will be focused in the project which will be implemented in close convergence with the state governments flagship project New Land Use Policy.