Biodiversity in Forest and Rangeland Ecosystems in Indian North-eastern Himalayan Region

The North-eastern Himalayan region of India represents highly heterogenous landscape both bio-physically and in terms of human dimensions. Inhabited largely by the traditional societies living close to nature and natural resources, these ecosystem people are linked with natural forest and rangeland ecosystems and human-engineered agroecosystem through biodiversity-driven traditional ecological knowledge. Their traditional ecological knowledge base operates at various levels of ecosystem complexity ranging from sub-species to landscape level. The agronomic cultivation in the region is closely interlinked with forest and rangeland. The region is floristically rich and home of many economic plants and inter-related species. A large number of plant and animal species are unique to the region and serve local and national economies. Out of 8,000 species of Himalayan flowering plants, nearly 5,000 co-exist in the Eastern Himalayas along with 85 terrestrial mammals, over 500 bird species and large number of butterflies, insects and reptiles. Arunachal Pradesh in eastern Himalaya is recognised as one of the global mega-biodiversity 'hotspots'. Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh are still the best protected states as far as the protected area network in the region is concerned. Sacred groves and landscapes, informal community gene-banks and home gardens are the best examples of the people-centered in-situ biodiversity conservation. This paper provides a synthesis of research on biodiversity of forest and rangeland ecosystems of Indian North-eastern region and suggests certain practical conservation initiatives for sustainable biodiversity management. The biodiversity-related issues are set at state and regional level. While describing the development and conservation initiatives, necessity of linking biodiversity conservation with economic development focused on livelihood security of the ecosystem people is highlighted. The regionous biodiversity need be researched through an interdisciplinary approach accounting on ecological, social, economic and institutional dimensions. In the wide field of biodiversity conservation, ecosystem peoples' interest must get top priority from sustainability point of view.