India is known as one of the largest contributors to global carbon emissions in the world. However, the country may finally be taking more aggressive measures to lower its carbon emissions by drafting new policies regarding deforestation.
The Indian Government's Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) has released the first draft of a policy that may nudge the nation into complying with the United Nation's REDD+ program. The program is a collaborative initiative comprised of numerous partner countries from around the world. REDD stands for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation. The initiative was launched back in 2008 with the aim of reducing deforestation by providing monetary incentives to help communities that depend on forests for their livelihoods.
"Climate change due to accelerated Green House Gases (GHGs) emission has become one of the toughest challenges of the present," says [pdf] the MoEF's draft. "Deforestation and forest degradation is a major source of CO2 (an important Green House Gas) emission."
Instead of cutting down trees, local communities will be compensated financially for protecting nearby forests. Since forests are considered to be important carbon storage locations, preventing deforestation can help curb the effects of global warming and climate change due to increased carbon emissions.
"There is significant scope for improving quality of forest cover by addressing drivers of degradation as a significant part of the country's forest cover falls in the open to medium categories owning to various drivers of degradation. As estimated, REDD+ programme could provide for capture of around 1 billion tonnes of additional CO2 over the next 3 decades and significant financial incentives as carbon services under REDD+ including flow of positive incentives to local communities," the draft says.
India's participation in REDD+ is seen as an important milestone due to the fact that over 20 percent of the country is covered by thick forests. In total, the country has approximately 92.20 million hectares of forest cover. The country ranks 10th in the list of countries with the largest forested areas despite also being ranked high in the list of countries with the highest reported carbon emissions.
With the drafting of the new policy, India is hoping to implement the necessary REDD+ structures on both the National and regional levels. While the initiative is meant to decrease deforestation, implementation has been problematic. In Nepal, local forest communities have lamented that they were actually losing revenue due to the program. The REDD+ initiative is an environmental program and can do little to improve the lives of forest communities afflicted by poverty.
Five months before the Indian government published the first draft of its policy for joining the UN's REDD+ program, numerous developed and developing countries signed on to the REDD+ initiated when the 19th UN Conference of Parties on climate change was held in Warsaw. During the UN meeting, representative decided on 7 methods of compensating developing nations that have signed up for the REDD+ initiative. The latest move by the Indian government shows the country's willingness to take part in the program.
