“I am happy to know that the Project Management Unit of the JBIC Project is publishing Newsletter on the functioning of the Project on regular basis and I congratulate the Chief Executive Officer and Project Director Dr VK Bahuguna and his entire team for bringing out this informative new letter. It is significant from the point of view of educating the public about the project activities.

The JBIC Project is aimed at improving the quality of the forest cover along with the qualitative improvement of the livelihood opportunities of the forest dependant communities of the state particularly the tribal and rural poor. I am sure that the community forestry would get a boost through its implementation and in the process shall reduce the dependence of the people on shifting cultivation and other uneconomic land use practices. The state shall truly turn into a hotspot of the NTFP resources and Bio-diversity. I would request the PMU to incorporate the information on various stages of implementation of the components of the Project in the Newsletter so that the Newsletter may act as the vehicle of spreading information for the consumption of general public.

Sd/Jitendra Chaudhury
Minister for Forests.