Last updated: March 7th, 2020 4:58 PM

North Eastern Region Community Resource Management Project (NERCORMP)

The North Eastern Region Community Resource Management Project is a development project for the northeast rural region of India consisting of poor tribal communities. The project aims to improve the quality of life for the tribal people by helping them with livelihood opportunities and other aid in social development. It is a joint developmental initiative of the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), North Eastern Council (NEC) and International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).

Focus Areas of NERCORMP

There are two main focus areas of NERCORMP:

1. Mobilize the society as a whole: The Project aims to revive traditional customs in order to bring the tribal regions together and help the people realize their potential based on the tribal knowledge of forest produce, ancient ways of sustainable practices etc.
2. Economic and Infrastructural Intervention: The other focus area of the project is to provide help with infrastructure and economic aid like loans to help generate income for the people and improve their lives.

Operating Area

Regional Headquarters: Shillong, Meghalaya

States	Districts within the States
Assam	Karbi Anglong
	North Cachar Hills
Manipur	Ukhrul
	Senapati
	Churachandpur
	Chandel
Meghalaya	West Garo Hills
	West Khasi Hills
Arunachal Pradesh	Changlang
	Tirap

Groups formed under NERCORMP

Natural Resource Management Group (NaRM-G): This is a village-level body that helps the villagers representing every family to form a group and develop the economy of the village by sustainable use of natural resources available. Self Help Group (SHG): SHG is a small group of people mostly women who face similar issues and problems. The self-help group is started by a facilitator and helps in educating the group members about getting small loans to start a local business on their own or as a cooperative venture, promote savings and also have their own common bank account.

Major Project Activities

Capacity building: Strengthening community-based organisations (CBOs) at the institutional level and also provide help in building the capacity of participating organisations like NGOs. Credit: Provide microloans or credit to the local communities via Self Help Group, Natural Resource Management Group or Microcredit Institutions in the local areas. Community-Based Bio-Diversity Conservation and Communication: Helping the local communities manage their natural resources at the same time conserve the unique biodiversity of the local land. It also includes sharing information between different groups and documenting good practices of the project. Convergence with Ongoing Government Schemes: Help in converging the activities with Government and NGOs and facilitate in meeting financial shortfall or need for more technical support as per demands of the community. Economic and Livelihood activities: Promote Income Generation Activities using sustainable and environment-friendly practices in crop production, forestry, livestock, horticulture etc. Extension and Technology Transfer: Built on participatory extension methods, the extension is client-centric and demand-driven. This involves creating a trained group of volunteers at the village or cluster level who then extend the services at the grass-root community level. Marketing Support: Create marketing committees within NaRMs groups and also help in choosing activities. Build marketing infrastructure such as marketing and collection sheds to sell products. Provide value addition to produces, Analyse demand and supply and establish a matching value chain. Social Sector Activities: Help with activities affecting health such as provide access to drinking water, better sanitation, health care for the sick. Increasing awareness amongst the communities about the available Government social schemes and their significance. Village Roads and Electrification: Assist the communities in road building to improve accessibility to villages. This improves the overall local economy by helping to bring the produce to the markets faster. Help is also provided for electrification of households via connection to already existing grids or by through renewable sources of power were viable in rural conditions.

Project Impact

The NERCORMP project has helped

• 860 villages in Phase I (conducted between 1999-2008)
• 466 villages in Phase II (conducted between 2010-2016)
• 1320 villages in Phase III (started in 2014 – ending in 2021)

Over 5000 Self Help Groups and more than 1000 Natural Resource Management Groups have been set up to assist the tribal people to make a livelihood using available local resources and in a sustainable and profitable manner. Please click on the official site on NERCORMP for more details and information.