A plan that is much more than just planting trees
- According to IUCN, deforestation and forest degradation contribute around 12% towards global greenhouse gas emissions.
Forest landscape restoration
- Objective:
- To regain ecological functionality
- Human welfare across deforested or degraded forest landscapes.
- Ensures community participation in upgrading landscapes.
- Ensures diversity of species while planting trees.
Why Afforestation?
- Regulates functioning of ecosystems
- Regulates carbon cycle and mitigating effects of climate change.
- Annually, forests absorb roughly 2.6 billion tonnes of CO2 including 33% of CO2 released from burning fossil fuels.
- Prevents erosion and stems flooding.
- Reduces food insecurity
- Women Empowerment by providing alternative income sources and providing more nutritional diets
- Lessens rural-to-urban migration by providing extra income to rural regions
- Increases resources and household income.
Indian and global programmes
- 2021-2030: UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration
- Emphasising efforts to restore degraded terrestrial ecosystems including forests.
- 2011: Bonn Challenge was launched
- Goal: restore 150 million hectares of degraded and deforested landscapes by 2020 and 350 million hectares by 2030.
- India: joined in 2015
- Goal: Restore 26 million hectares of degraded and deforested land by 2030.
- An additional carbon sink of 2.5 billion-3 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent through forest and tree cover is to be created by 2030.
- Indian programmes
- Compensatory Afforestation,
- National Afforestation Programme
- National Mission for a Green India (Green India Mission),
- Nagar Van scheme
- Forest Fire Prevention and Management Scheme
Challenges
- Issues with identification of areas for restoration,
- Lack of adequate R&D in tree planting
- Stakeholders’ conflicts of interest
- Inadequate financing
Suggetsed measures
- Forest landscape restoration: To make landscapes and forest ecosystems durable and adjustable to future challenges and societal needs.
- Various stakeholders: Involve community, champions, government and landowners.
- Restoration of natural forest ecosystems: Strengthened through participatory governance by engaging stakeholders.
- Vulnerable forest-dependent communities: Should be involved in any effort to know local socio-economic context and landscape history of a region.