A consultative workshop of bio-diversity conservation at Tuensang has decided to form an eastern Nagaland bio-diversity conservation corridor, bordering Myanmar and a conservation area network comprising four border districts of the state.

The workshop held recently under the aegis of Eleutheros Christian Society (ECS), a grass-root level NGO working in the fields of drugs, HIV, education, employment and attended by representatives from all four eastern Nagaland districts and other 45 villages, deliberated on conservation efforts by the communities.

The workshop decided to form Eastern Nagaland Conservation Areas Network (ENCAN) with mandates to form an eastern Nagaland biodiversity conservation corridor, to support each other's conservation efforts, to create a neutral space for sharing, learning and knowledge management and to address ecosystem service issues for mutual benefits.

The ENCAN would look into aspects of linkages between livelihoods and conservation, to evolve sustainable conservation management practices, especially recognising role of gender and to provide an equitable platform to negotiate differences and other issues, organizers said.

The participants felt that the Network has to be used to signify that whole conservation areas would maintain their independent approaches along the larger vision of creating eastern Nagaland green corridor.

The workshop decided to form a working group comprising representatives from each tribe in four districts and experts on environmental issues.