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ural development and in turn to lead more
enlightened public policy.
2.Promoting Cultivation
The Rio Declaration on Environment and
Development calls for all States and all people to
cooperate in the essential task of eradicating
poverty as an indispensable requirement for
sustainable development, in order to decrease the
disparities in standards of living and better meet
the needs of the majority of the people of the
world. Cultivation of culturally, spiritually and
economically important species, if it is promoted in
a sustainable way will be an important step for
income generation and can function as a strong
pillar that promotes conservation at a larger scale.
All the five tree species are not only of RET, but
of major economic importance as the source of
products such as timber, fruits, nuts, resins and
gums for many of the local and forest dwelling
communities. The seedlings raised were distributed
with an objective of promoting agro-forestry in
both public and private lands looking into
conservation of native tree species. Also mooted
plans to establish community seed banks of those
seed bearing RET trees of the region and manage
such banks in line with the joint forest management
mechanism
3.Promoting Consumption
Education is required to promote sustainable
consumption and to influence the local spirituality,
religions and belief systems. Records show, out of
the 319 endemic trees found in Kerala, 133 have
got local names that denote either its specific
usefulness or characteristics helping the species
employed in a diverse manner by the local
communities. MSSRF is involved widely in
educating the decision makers on the need of
sustainable management of resources and where
the need of recognizing the role of local
Nursery of RET plants at CAbC MSSRF
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