Guwahati, June 13 -- By Joydeep Gupta/Mongabay

"We look after our forests, we save them, because they are our home," Gaura Devi of the Chipko movement fame had once said. "We get fuel, fodder and some food from the forest, we get herbs when someone falls ill, but we don't have any [legal] paper to save us if the forest department refuses to let us in or complains to the police that we are stealing." This is the problem the Global Environment Facility (GEF) aims to solve with its Conservation of Biodiversity, its Sustainable Use, Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits in India (CONSERVE) project in three states - Uttarakhand, Nagaland and Tripura.

The National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) will carry out the project that was approved at t...