Relevance: GS-3: Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment

Key phrases: Griscom, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, COP26 summit,UNFCCC, REDD+, State of Forests Report, National Mission for Green India, Project Tiger, fire management, Integrated Development of Wildlife Habitats (IDWH), National Forest Policy, 1988

Why in News ?

• In a study by Griscom, land-based sinks (natural climate solutions which also include forests) can provide up to 37% of emission reduction and help in keeping the global temperature below 2° C.
• As per one report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, it has favoured a natural regeneration model of restoration such as forests, which can secure nearly 32% carbon storage.

Highlights

• India’s pledge to set a net zero target by 2070, at the COP26 summit, Glasgow, also highlighted the importance of forests as an undisputed mechanism to help mitigate the challenges of climate change
• Earlier, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) framework (2013) of REDD+ for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation, along with the ‘sustainable management of forests for the conservation and enhancement of forest carbon stocks’, highlighted the importance of forests as carbon sinks.

Forest Degradation: Dense forest changing into Open forest

• India has increased its forest cover by 15,000 square kilometres in the last six years, the degradation of existing forests continues.
• As per the State of Forests Report (1989), the country had 2,57,409 sq.km (7.83% of its geographical area) under the open forest category, having a density of 10% to less than 40%.
• However, in 30 years (2019) this has been increased to 3,04,499 sq.km (9.26%). This means every year on average, nearly 1.57 lakh hectare of forests was degraded.

Reasons articulated

1. Anthropogenic pressures:
   • Encroachment, grazing, fire, which forests are subjected to frequently.
   • Having diverted nearly 1.5 million hectares of forests since 1980 for developmental activities
   • Lost nearly 1.48 million hectares of forests to encroachers coupled with an intricate link between poverty and unemployment
2. The incompletion of the afforestation project and lack of subsequent funding affected their functionality and also the protection of forests due to a lack of support from participating local communities including associated non-governmental organisations
3. Except for the National Mission for Green India, all other centrally sponsored programmes such as Project Tiger, fire management, Integrated Development of Wildlife Habitats (IDWH) including the Compensatory Afforestation Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) mostly follow a top to bottom approach.
4. The lack of priority and policy support to ensure the participation of local communities via the institutions of joint forest management committees slowly made their participation customary. This caused a gradual decline in their effectiveness
5. The role of local institutions of gram panchayat or joint forest management committees is now restricted to be a consultative institution instead of being partners in planning and implementation.
6. This indifference and alienation from the participatory planning and implementation of various schemes further affects the harmony between Forest Departments and communities, endangering the protection of forests.

An Assessment of People’s Participation in Forest Conservation

• As envisaged in National Forest Policy, 1988, India made its first attempt, in 1990, to engage local communities in a partnership mode while protecting and managing forests and restoring wastelands with the concept of care and share.
• Later, the concept of forest development agencies was introduced to consolidate the efforts in an autonomous model, which paved the way for fund flow from various other sources to joint forest management committees.
• The efforts to make this participatory approach operative resulted in the formation of nearly 1.18 lakh joint forest management committees managing over 25 million hectares of forest area.
• Forest Management committees are implementing various projects financed by external agencies such as the World Bank, the Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund (OECF) Japan, the Department for International Development (DFID) United Kingdom and the European Union (EU).
• The similar system of joint management in the case of national parks, sanctuaries and tiger reserves which existed in the name of eco-development committees initially proved very effective.

Case study: Telangana Model

• Telangana government amending the panchayat and municipal acts for environmental concerns.
• Creating a provision for a Green Fund, or Telangana Haritha Nidhi, for tree planting and related activities).
• Making the participation of the local communities mandatory at all levels of forest based planning.

Way Forward

1. Incentivise the local communities appropriately and ensure fund flow for restoration interventions, duly providing for the adequate participation of local people in planning and implementation through local institutions.
2. Political priority and appropriate policy interventions at all levels of governance.
3. These should be supported by enabling financial and institutional support mechanisms to conserve and develop forest resources.
4. This inclusive approach with political prioritisation will not only help reduce emissions but also help to conserve and increase ‘our forest cover’ to ‘a third of our total area’.
5. It will also protect our once rich and precious biological diversity.

Conclusion

• As committed at Glasgow, India will have to ‘focus much more on climate change and devise strategies and programmes to achieve the net zero target’. Besides reducing the quantum of emissions in a phased manner — itself full of challenges — the approaches for carbon storage and offsetting through natural sinks such as forests need to be given equal priority.

Mains Question:

Q. The significance of people's participation in sustainable development of the entire forest ecosystem is again asserted by IPCC in its 6th report. Despite this, the people's participation in forest conservation remains dismal in planning and lopsided in execution in India. Comment.( 15 marks)

Source: The Hindu